A new United States Patent and Trademark Office will open its doors on Monday in Denver, Colorado, according to The Denver Post.
There seems to be a lack of qualified practitioners within this legal field, but lawyers who do practice tend to make more than those in other legal fields. In 2012, the average salary of IP attorneys was $292,361, according to the American Intellectual Property Law Association.
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The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the average salary for all attorneys in the country for 2012 was $131,990. That is a pretty large gap between salaries.
Phil Weiser is the dean of the University of Colorado at Boulder Law School. Weiser said that the office opening in Denver is a step in the right direction for Colorado to grow as a rising power in intellectual property.
“It will continue to provide more opportunities and momentum,” Weiser said. “People will be hearing more about careers in IP.”
During the first five years the office is open, it is projected to generate $439 million in total economic impact.
Experts within the IP field said that the office in Denver will provide attorneys with tangible advantages in the ease of practicing the law.
Some of those benefits include the ability to talk in-person with examiners of patents, the new office has video conferencing systems to link attorneys with patent examiners in Alexandria, Virginia and law firms expect that they will be able to cut back on their travel budgets by scheduling fewer trips to Alexandria.
