The Patent Office requires a bachelor’s degree in science or engineering, or roughly equivalent for one to be qualified to sit for the Patent Bar Exam.
The Patent Office is the ONLY remaining agency of the Federal Government that requires additional qualification beyond a state bar membership to represent clients before the agency.
The Patent Office is the ONLY remaining agency of the Federal Government that allows non-lawyers who have passed the Patent Bar Exam and satisfied the Patent Office’s ethical and technical requirements to represent clients before the agency.
The Patent Bar Exam is open book, meaning that one can look up information in the MPEP (the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure) and any additional miscellaneous documents specifically listed by the Patent Office as testable.
The Patent Office procedures are written down in 3 places:
1) The basic law of 35 U.S.C. (United States Code)
2) Patent Office Rules embodied in 37 C.F.R. (Code of Federal Regulations)
3) MPEP, which is the most important.
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