Andrew P. Connors

As a law student, you’ve probably heard the following question” “What area of law do you want to practice?”  Oftentimes, you might not have a very good answer.  This article begins a series where I answer the question, “What kind of law would make for an interesting practice?”  In this series, I will try to highlight a wide variety of legal areas, describe generally what the particular area deals with, note some of the common legal problems that arise within the area, and identify some personality traits and personal interests that make a good fit for the particular area.

Without further ado, I begin the first of the series: intellectual property.  After all, I wrote a law review article on the subject.  Intellectual property, or IP, is a large and generally misunderstood area of the law.  Most people tend to confuse various sub-areas of IP.  Also, law students and even lawyers generally tend to believe the area is more complicated or technical than it actually is.

Intellectual property includes patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secret law.

Patents generally protect “inventions,” that is, items or compounds with some utilitarian application.  They can also protect technical processes.  Properly speaking, this description actually applies to the most common form of patent–the utility patent.  Other less common patents protect plants and ornamental designs of physical objects.  An inventor may obtain a patent on an invention if certain conditions are met, which grants the inventor the exclusive right to use, make, and sell the invention (among other things) for a limited time.

Trademark law protects marks or other distinctive features which indicate the origin of goods.  If properly enforced and maintained, they last indefinitely.  They essentially protect “branding,” e.g., logos, brand names, and packaging.  In some instances, it can even protect distinctive colors or music.  By registering a trademark with a federal or state agency, the holder may get certain rights to stop the use of a counterfeit or confusingly similar mark.  Moreover, certain common law rights may apply absent registration.

Copyright law protects “works of authorship,” or colloquially, art.  Music, books, songs, movies, and video games are examples of the kinds of things that copyright can protect.  The work must have some kind of “creative spark.”  Authors of works protected by copyright, like inventors of patented items, may prevent others from doing various things with the work–most notably, copying it.  A copyright subsists much longer than the rights associated with a patent.

Finally, we come to trade secret.  Trade secret protects information that a company has made sufficiently “secret,” e.g., by contract with employees.  Trade secrets might be eligible for protection by the previously discussed IP devices, or they might not.  They are most often associated with business secrets having substantial value–client lists, manufacturing methods, and secret formulas.  Wouldn’t you love to know the formula to Coca-Cola?  You bet–and so would everyone else.  That’s why its a trade secret.

So what kind of person would be interested in practicing in this area of the law? Perhaps a creative person–someone interested in art, music, logos, or the like. Business-oriented or entrepreneurial people might also find an interest in this area of the law.  Many businesses–sometimes unknowingly to their creators–are built around significant IP assets.  Thus, whether the business rises or falls may depend to a significant degree upon whether the business can protect–or even has–the right to an underlying IP asset.

Many law students and attorneys view IP as a complex, difficult area of the law.  This may be true for patent law, where technical knowledge is often required (in fact, to represent clients in patent matters before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, a prospective patent attorney or patent agent must have a technical degree to sit for that agency’s admissions test.)  However, beyond patents, IP law is not overly technical, and it often can be very interesting and fun.  IP law includes planning and litigation components.  Common litigation may include infringement of copyrighted works (like illegally downloading songs), disputes over licensing of works or trademarks (dispute over who owns a work or mark, or disputes over agreements to share the work or mark), and suits involving past employees that have released sensitive business information.

As you can see, IP law is an interesting area of the law that a law student might wish to practice as an attorney.

I have read a lot lately about a so-called law school “bubble,” where the number of law jobs available is significantly less than the number of graduates from law school.  Given this state, it inevitably follows that there is a significant waste of resources on our hands–more likely than not, in the form of significant amounts of federal student loans that cannot be discharged in bankruptcy.  I have no reason to doubt this assessment.  By way of anecdote, I know many law graduates that have significant debts.  Some of those people also have reasonably good-paying jobs, though–at least, they pay enough to justify the debt.  That seems to be the big questions pushed in the legal press nowadays, “Will your future earnings justify your debt?”

This is, no doubt, an important question.  After all, one of the purposes of a career is to provide a roof over your head, food in your stomach, and to pay your other living expenses.  And, of course, people usually would like at least a little money for luxuries, an occasional vacation, and retirement.  These are all reasonable desires, and they are also things that might be out of reach if you are saddled with significant debt.

It seems to me, however, that there is an equally important question a person considering going to law school should answer, “Do I want to be a lawyer?”  Perhaps this sounds elementary, but I am continually amazed at how many law students I have met that have no interest in practicing law and have no interest in doing things that a law degree might be very helpful with, e.g., starting a business.  From all I can tell, these students are just placating their parents or making sure that the federal money keeps flowing to their pockets, biding their time until they can figure out what exactly it is they want to do with their lives.  In the meantime, they’re racking up a tremendous amount of debt they’ll inevitably have to pay for.

My advice is simple: if you genuinely want to be a lawyer, go to law school .  Realize what you are getting into and prepare accordingly.  If you get reasonably good grades, succeed at extracurricular activities, and find you enjoy your classes and your internships, then press on.  If, on the other hand, you find yourself with low grades and a disinterest in the law, then maybe law school isn’t for you.

Above all, do what you love and what you are reasonably good at.  If those things are there, you’ll succeed.  I will have more to say about this in future posts.