Nishi ShabanaLead Trainer
Currently, I am a Partner, with a multiservice law firm heading their IPR practice. I am a Patent agent and a lawyer now. However, being a patent professional or a lawyer was never a career choice for me. I am a Science Graduate. I did my B.Sc. in Industrial Chemistry (from Aligarh Muslim University) and M.Sc. in Toxicology (from Jamia Hamdard University). After completing my Msc, the option I had next , was pursuing a PHD, which to be honest never really appealed to me. So, after the completion of my studies and introspecting as to what I should do next, I started my coaching classes teaching Chemistry to +2 students and it started off pretty well. Two years passed and I found myself at the same crossroad started feeling that void again as to what I wanted to do next and so my search for a new career, related to science, brought me to Delhi.
I joined a one year advance diploma course in Clinical research, which was a weekend only course. I used to be free for the entire week and many times thought of joining a BPO or any other similar job which would somehow keep me occupied during the week. In the meanwhile, I met a friend of mine who suggested me to join a law firm as they needed someone as their back end support who had good knowledge of Excel. I gave the interview and I cracked the job it, having no idea what I am going to start with. So, it was my first day at office and I was there with a file in my hand, and it was then that I got familiar with the term Patent. For three months straight, I was on my excel sheet filling the timelines, the forms and all other information related to patent filing and prosecution and the timelines were soon in the back of my head because over time I had gotten accustomed to them . I can’t really express my gratitude in words towards my boss who was kind enough to introduce me to the prosecution part of patent and basically gave me a walkthrough as to how things work. Coming from chemistry background, I had Chemical and Semi-conductor based patents that I initially got to work with.
I started enjoying it, but at the back of my mind, it was just a part time job for me. I intended to be a full time clinical research manager so the ghost of Patent agent examination never haunted me. But then came December, and the patent agent exam date was announced. I was not sure whether to try it, again my boss, just said there is no harm in trying. I won’t say it was a piece of cake as it was pretty tough, but I managed to clear the exam. By the time the result was announced and I was certified as a Patent Agent, my Clinical research course was also over and I got a chance to work with GSK. However, I was so much into my new career as a patent agent that I couldn’t let it go. It’s been ten years now and I am still on it. I wrote this small piece just to convey to any science grad looking for an alternate career, that opting to be a patent agent is a promising line of work because you don’t need to be a lawyer to practice patent law.
What does a patent agent do? What are the challenges? What all can you explore in this field? Meet me in the training room, I will tell you
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