Profile

There are two parts to my job. One is to procure patents. I meet with inventors, hear the technology, and help them work their way through the process with the U.S. government to get patent rights.

The second part of my job is to help inventors defend their patent rights once they get them.

You have to have a science background. Basically, you need a degree in chemistry, biology, engineering—some type of hard science.

People skills. You need to be able to talk to inventors, meet with them, and understand their ideas.

Writing skills. You have to be able to translate an inventor’s ideas onto paper. A piece of paper is what is ultimately going to define the patent rights.

Additionally, to defend patents, you need to be a bulldog. You need to be able to get up, argue with people, and stand your ground.

My typical schedule is that I get into work around 9:00. I leave work at about 6:00 or 7:00. During the period of time in-between, I might be go out of the office to meet with people or talk to people by teleconference in the office.

It depends on the mode. In patent procurement mode, I travel to meet with my clients periodically. I try to lump the travel together. In litigation mode, I’m in the air a lot to meet with a variety of people including third party fact witnesses and expert witnesses.

With a lot of help. I have a full-time nanny, my mother lives next door, and my mother-in-law lives down the street.

When my kids were really small, I went part-time. I went from a worldview where I could do everything to a more realistic viewpoint that maybe I couldn’t do everything. I decided to go part time so I could spend more time with my really, young kids. More recently, I’ve gone back to work full-time because of a trial in a case that predates my kids.

The one thing that I really, truly, love is that I get to stay on the forefront of what’s going on in science.

I get frustrated with people who can’t communicate. It’s a challenge for me to remember that people have different skills and that it’s my job to try to make sure that I use the skills people have.

Just work hard and don’t worry about everyone around you.

That you can do everything.

It’s really important to pursue the education that you want to get. But I also think it’s important after you get your education, to step back and ascertain how you want to use it.

Just because you got a Ph.D. in chemistry doesn’t mean you have to be a research chemist. That was probably the hardest lesson I learned. I felt incredibly guilty after I left graduate school because I went to work for a law firm instead of a pharmaceutical company. But I was so much happier afterwards because being lawyer fit my personality so much more. I’m a real people person. I need to be able to talk to others.

You really need to analyze yourself and make sure that you are not just going down a road just because you got on a road. You have to stop and occasionally think, “Is this what is right for me?”

It turned out pretty well, so I would have to say no.

Serendipity. It wasn’t a brilliantly thought out plan. I had a really good friend who happened to be an entertainment lawyer and she wanted me to consider doing something else. Really, to pacify her, I responded to an ad that she had found in chemical and engineering news for a Ph.D. chemist to participate in a trial. The attorney who placed the article knew me from graduate school. It just worked out and I took the job.

No. I didn’t even know what patent law was.