The University of Haifa had a grand launch of their new International Patent School today. The program, which will provide a Masters’ Degree in Law, is being run in conjunction with, WIPO who runs similar programs around the World.
Guest speakers included the Dean of the Faculty of Law, Professor Eli Salzberger, Dr. Meir Noam, the Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks, Dr Aharon Shwartz, the VP of Innovation at Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and Mr. Matthew Bryan the Director of Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) at WIPO.
Professor Elkin-Koren compered the event.
Dr. Shwartz’ talk was interesting, since Teva is the leading Generic patent manufacturer, but with ethical drug Copaxone, have to contend with infringement and annulment actions from the other side. Shwartz pointed out that the in-house IP Dept. at Teva is twice the size of Reinhold Cohen (RCIP) the largest firm of patent attorneys in Israel. He boasted that the best patent attorneys in the country work for them, which was presumably designed to attract candidates. Nevertheless, the claim is patently untrue. Although Teva does have a lot of very good life scientists and chemists, there are quite a number experienced, competent practitioners specializing in these fields that do not work for Teva, not to mention the 50% of practitioners who are physicists and engineers and are not of interest to Teva, despite many of them being competent, or even brilliant in their field.
Matthew Biran of WIPO provided a unique perspective of the failing of the patent system, pointing out that the backlog of unexamined patents at the USPTO is approaching a million and referred to duplication of work in patent offices around the world.
The speakers were polished, but had nothing radically new or interesting to say. The chocolate brownies were, however, excellent.
Apart from more than a sprinkling of WIPO staff, the audience was made up mostly of patent attorneys.
So what do I think about the Masters’ program?
The masters’ program will not enable a patent attorney to qualify as an attorney-at-law. It is not a required qualification for a scientist or engineer to serve as a patent attorney though, and I am not sure will help trainees pass the exam. It could well make patent attorneys more competent at what they do, but qualified licensed attorneys believe that they are competent, and I am not sure that university academics have the practical experience to provide substantive training.
BACKGROUND – In Israel, both Attorneys-at-Law and Patent Attorneys can represent clients before the patent office. Patent attorneys can also represent clients in court, but must be accompanied by an attorney-at-law. The Patent Attorney has to have a science or engineering degree, to to do a two year attorneyship working for an experienced practitioner and to pass both oral and written exams. Attorneys-at-Law in Israel are required to have a first degree in law and typically do not have any IP knowledge, since in most undergraduate law schools, with the notable exception of the ONO Academic College, Intellectual Property Law is optional. There is a lot of friction between Attorneys-at-Law and patent attorneys. The Law Society does not allow attorneys-at-law to be partners with patent attorneys. Each profession sees the other as professionally inferior. A small number of the exclusive group of attorneys-at-law practising in the IP litigation field have science backgrounds, for example Adi Levit is a biologist, and the present commissioner of patents, Dr. Meir Noam has a Ph.D. in chemistry and a law degree and holds both licenses. Several patent attorneys such as Dr. Kliger, myself and Dr. Gal Ehrlich have studied law after gaining experience working as patent attorneys. Dr. Eyal Bressler is currently enrolled as a student at ONO, as is one of the recently qualified patent attorneys currently working at RCIP.
Despite successfully completing a law degree, I never bothered to do a Law attorneyship, as it does not add very much to my resume, there being 45,000 attorneys-at-law in Israel and maybe 300 licensed patent attorneys.
Ilanit Appelfeld, a partner at AZF holds a masters degree in Intellectual Property from King’s College, London University and Gadi Oron who used to work with me at Seligsohn Gabrieli did a Masters in Queen Mary College, London and is currently living in the UK.
The real question that will make of break the course is will an Israeli wanting to study for a Masters in International Intellectual Property do so in Israel? How long will it take the Haifa faculty to be able to compete with QMC? Will international students choose to study in Israel? It should be possible to structure fees such that Israel becomes an attractive place for overseas students to study, but it doesn’t happen often.
I suspect the program will be seen as academic and not practical and will be seen as irrelevant. When taking on trainee patent attorneys I look for writing skills and a strong scientific background. I see a legal training as less important, and doubt that I would give participation in such a course serious weight in deciding which candidate to take on for a position, and I am one of those that did a law degree who believes in on-going education.
Certainly the brochure outlining the curriculum which related to patent drafting professionals as “Patent Agents”, instead of the correct term “Patent Attorney” was offensive and patronizing. I suspect that if the school alienates patent attorneys, it will not succeed in filling the program.
Haifa is less isolated than Beer Sheva, but most IP firms are in the center of the country. It’s location makes it less accessible to trainee patent attorneys trying to combine their two year apprenticeship with the course or for qualified personnel. One of the reasons why I and others chose to study in ONO is the central location and the possibility of part time study - my program was Thursday evening and Friday morning through the year.
Another option available to obtain an LLM in Intellectual Property for those that want such an animal, is via distance learning, with many quality programs available including one ran by Edinburgh University.
If offered part time, the program Haifa may be of interest to patent examiners whose salary, as civil servants, is directed affected by paper qualifications.
What I think would be really valuable is a masterclass aimed at qualified Patent Attorneys with 3-5 years experience, analyzing the claims of patents that were litigated in different fields. I am not sure that enough of my colleagues would be willing to attend however. Many qualified and experienced attorneys think they know it all. The better attorneys draft different types of applications for different technology fields and use different filing strategies. The considerations and the reasons why some applications are short and focused with few claims and others are long and convoluted are complicated. Probably too much for a trainee to absorb, but the qualified practitioner is unlikely to find the time to join such a program. It’s difficult enough to train someone the rudiments of claim drafting in a one year program. I’ve found that it takes most trainees about a year doing little else to get the hang of basics, and I am talking about highly intelligent, well qualified scientists and engineers with some practical experience.
The event provided a good opportunity to meet up with other practitioners, which I suspect was why most attended. For this we are grateful.
Time will tell if the program will be successful, and it will probably take two or three years for the program to really take off. We wish the initiative luck.
I assume, being an international programme associated with WIPO, that this Masters is taught in English. If so, then its greatest success would surely be with those abroad interested to spend time time in Israel, for instance by studying there. I believe that there is great interest among many people abroad, especially in the diaspora, in studying in Israel, which in turn would benefit greatly from the presence and possible immigration of such persons. Unlike countries like Singapore (INSEAD) and India (Indian Business School) and so forth, Israel has failed to create and market prestigious, internationally-ranked, English-language graduate degree programs. Perhaps this WIPO program will change things.
I agree entirely. I studied at Imperial College London which was awarded a Queen’s Award for Export because of the quality of large numbers of students it attracted from all over. Israel is a great location to spend a year or so, particularly for Jewish students. The Yeshiva world has succeeded in attracting students from abroad but the Universty world has failed miserably.
Not to be presumptuous, but perhaps you would consider lending them a hand in marketing the program abroad!
I would be more than happy to help them market the program abroad. I’d also rather like to lecture there on claim drafting and other practical aspects of patent drafting and prosecution.
I think they have a management team and steering committee though.
Patent agents is the correct term for Israel’s “Patent Attorneys”.
As opposed to the two separate titles that are given in the US – patent agent and patent attorney, in Israel, there is only one. And when trying to compare that two, it is quite clear the patent agents is the correct term for what happens in Israel, as the candiate only takes a bar exam at the patent office, and does not also obtain an attorney degree from the Bar. If anything, a lawyer having also a patent agent degree is the closest thing to a patent attorney.
That being said, the regulation in Israel deem the OREH PATENTIM term to be translated into Patent Attorney. I still don’t think you should find someone referring to patent attorneys as patent agents as patronizing or offensive.
Thank you Anonymous. It is nice to know that you have the courage of your convictions and are prepared to reveal your identity.
Despite being able to identify you from the IP address, I will respect your privacy.
Please note that Patent Attorneys in Israel are able to handle trademark work whereas US Patent Agents are not. There is also a two year internship required in Israel to become an orech patentim, whereas there is no such requirement in the States.
Incidentally, the term patent attorney is used in the UK for scientists and engineers who have passed IP exams and provide similar services to those that practitioners in Israel offer, although there, anyone can represent applicant before patent office.
Note, in Israel, Patent Attorneys have legal standing in Israel courts, although must be accompanied by an attorney-at-law.
Of course, finding something patronizing or offensive has little to do with objective reality. Think, negro, black, etc.
As someone with a law degree (albeit, to date, I have not troubled to qualify as an attorney-at-law) I can appreciate both sides of the argument. Certainly, attorneys-at-law consider themselves superior species and consider it unethical to enter into a partnership with mere orchei patentim, and certainly patent attorneys consider themselves to be a rare breed of highly paid specialists in a market flooded with lawyers.
Regardless of the rights and wrongs, it is certainly the case that orchei patentim refer to themselves as Israel patent attorneys without exception, using the phrase which is the term used in the regulations as well. Whether an academic institution considers orchei patentim corect to be offended by the term agent is an academic question. If the institution wants those orchei patentim to cooperate in promoting their project, it is well to keep them subjectively happy.