Prior art searcher
| Highest | $5,800 / mo · Switzerland |
|---|---|
| Experience | 2–4 yrs |
| Degree | Required |
| First paycheck | ~4 years bachelor's |
Pay in the destination countries
Monthly, in US dollars. Each country is an Imora admission package — open one for that route's fees, language requirement and deadline.
| Country | Monthly |
|---|---|
| SwitzerlandIELTS 6.5 · CHF 0.9–8k | $5,800max |
| United StatesTOEFL 80–100 · $10–70k | $5,700 |
| NorwayIELTS 6.0–6.5 · NOK 130–260k | $5,650 |
| DenmarkIELTS 6.5 · DKK 45–135k | $5,500 |
| GermanyIELTS 6.5 · €0–3k | $5,450 |
| FinlandIELTS 6.0–6.5 · €6–18k | $5,450 |
What does the day look like?
You work on patentability, invalidity, freedom-to-operate (FTO) and landscape searches. You search commercial systems such as Questel Orbit Intelligence, Minesoft PatBase, Clarivate Derwent Innovation, CAS STN, LexisNexis PatentSight and Patsnap, plus Espacenet, Google Patents, Patentscope and USPTO Patent Public Search. You use Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC), International Patent Classification (IPC), US Patent Classification (USPC) and F-terms, and clean and map results in Microsoft Excel, Tableau and Python/R. About 45% of time goes to Boolean queries and IPC/CPC cross-queries, 30% to reading independent and dependent claims into element-by-element charts, 15% to reports and landscape visuals, 10% to scoping with patent attorneys or in-house engineering leads.
This is office work at 38 to 40 hours per week, with no regular night shifts or on-call. Crunch comes around tight invalidity deadlines such as US inter partes review. The glamorous part is small: you read 200 to 500 dry patent specifications per week, fix Boolean syntax and check mechanical or chemical drawings line by line. You do not invent products or argue in court.
Where does this lead?
Next step up
What do you make of this job?