Professors Ralph Clifford, Tom Field, and Jon Cavicchi have published an interesting study on the technical backgrounds of patent attorneys and agents. After the trio submitted a FOIA request, the PTO handed-over 50,000 pages of patent bar registration applications. Using that information, the trio created a database of registered patent attorneys and their associated degrees/schools.
The paper makes the legitimate argument that the PTO should allow folks with a computer science degree to register — especially with the rise in the number of inventions related to computer science. “[A]n institutional bias exists within the PTO that prevents software-savvy individuals from registering with the Office.”
The following table is excerpted from the article and shows the top-ten institutions where patent attorneys/agents received non-law degrees.
| Rank | Non-Law Degree University | Count |
| 1 | Univ. Illinois | 929 |
| 2 | Massachusetts Inst. Tech. | 908 |
| 3 | Univ. Michigan | 743 |
| 4 | Cornell Univ. | 631 |
| 5 | Univ. California Berkeley | 623 |
| 6 | Purdue Univ. | 602 |
| 7 | Univ. Texas | 582 |
| 8 | Univ. Wisconsin | 545 |
| 9 | Univ. Maryland | 520 |
| 10 | Univ. Washington | 503 |
Notes:
- The article’s data is of attorneys registered as of May 2006.
- Download the article here.
