Amid the fanfare of Monday’s opening of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Denver, local law firms are scrambling to beef up their staffs in the wonkish field of intellectual property.
Not just any legal eagle need apply. IP attorneys typically have high-caliber technology backgrounds as well as law degrees.
Those qualifications place IP specialists in high demand as law firms anticipate new business opportunities from the opening of the patent office, known in industry parlance as USPTO.
“There’s just a dearth of qualified practitioners,” said Craig Hemenway, an IP attorney and shareholder with Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.
Hemenway’s undergraduate degree is in electrical engineering. His shareholder colleagues Cara Crowley-Weber and Paul Prendergast have Ph.D.s in biotech fields.
Because of their specialty backgrounds, IP lawyers often make more money than their peers in other legal fields.
Intellectual property attorneys in the U.S., across all sub-specialties and experience levels, had average salaries of $292,361 in 2012, according to the American Intellectual Property Law Association.
By contrast, the average salary for all U.S. attorneys is $131,990, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
University of Colorado at Boulder Law School dean Phil Weiser said the opening of the USPTO is a step in Colorado’s rising prominence in technology and intellectual property over the past 15 to 20 years.
“It will continue to provide more opportunities and momentum,” Weiser said. “People will be hearing more about careers in IP.”
The law school does not track the number of graduates entering into patent and trademark law. One measure, however, shows growing interest. Enrollment in the Introduction to IP class has risen to 78 students this year from 60 students in 2012.
Law firms are expected to garner a significant share of the projected $439 million of total economic impact generated by the USPTO during its first five years of operations.
Building staff
The desire to staff up with IP experts has accelerated the phenomenon of one firm raiding another to bring in big producers.
Brownstein has been particularly aggressive in building its patent-law staff, growing from seven IP experts to 23 in the past year. Most of the new additions have come from competing firms — 12 via Dorsey & Whitney and five from Merchant & Gould.
Merchant & Gould, in turn, is looking to fill the depleted positions and perhaps add a few more.
“There’s a healthy competition right now for talented people,” said Tim Scull, managing partner in Denver for Minneapolis-based Merchant & Gould.
Two weeks ago, the firm moved to new office space at 1801 California, across the street from the USPTO in the Byron G. Rogers Federal Building.
The move was not entirely dictated by wanting to be next door to the patent office, but Scull said his firm intends to take full advantage of the proximity.
“The fact that the patent office is going in right here definitely helped seal the deal,” he said. “I expect that clients will gravitate toward firms that have locations at or near the patent office.”
Despite technology and cloud-based data that enable business to be easily conducted from almost anywhere, IP experts say having the USPTO in Denver can produce tangible benefits in the ease of practicing law.
Among the advantages:
• Attorneys will have more ability to converse face-to-face with patent examiners.
• When in-person communication can’t happen, the USPTO in Denver has sophisticated video conferencing capabilities to link attorneys with examiners at the agency’s headquarters in Alexandria, Va.
• Law firms expect to reduce their travel budgets considerably with fewer trips to Alexandria, and more willingness on the part of out-of-state clients to meet with attorneys in Denver.
Denver-based Holland & Hart has the region’s largest IP staff with 92 attorneys and patent agents, up from 50 in 2011.
“The firm has evolved a lot, just as Colorado has,” said Michael Drapkin, a Holland & Hart partner. “We have really transitioned from a litigation and environmental law firm to one with a very significant IP practice.”
In-house attorneys for technology companies will share in the benefits, said Molly Kocialski, a Colorado-based senior patent attorney for Oracle America Inc.
“We have policies about handling oral hearings in person,” she said. “Now I’ll be able to just drive down the highway instead of getting on a flight to Washington.”
Steve Raabe: 303-954-1948, sraabe@denverpost.com or twitter.com/steveraabedp
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Local elected officials and top directors of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will mark the official opening of the permanent Denver satellite office 10 a.m. Monday at the Byron G. Rogers Federal Building, 1961 Stout St.
