Senior patent counsel
| Highest | $10,500 / mo · Switzerland |
|---|---|
| Experience | 5+ yrs |
| Degree | Required |
| First paycheck | ~15 years: 4 years STEM + 3 years JD + 8 years experience |
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 | $10,500max |
| United StatesTOEFL 80–100 · $10–70k | $10,300 |
| NorwayIELTS 6.0–6.5 · NOK 130–260k | $10,200 |
| DenmarkIELTS 6.5 · DKK 45–135k | $10,000 |
| GermanyIELTS 6.5 · €0–3k | $9,850 |
| FinlandIELTS 6.0–6.5 · €6–18k | $9,850 |
What does the day look like?
You spend 25% of the day reviewing invention disclosures from R&D engineers, deciding which filings to pursue, and managing outside prosecution firms in Anaqua, CPA Global or AppColl. 20% goes to freedom-to-operate clearance of new products against competitor landscapes, 20% to licensing and joint-development agreements, 15% to coordinating outside litigators on EPO oppositions or US Inter Partes Reviews, and 15% to briefing CTOs and product heads on competitive position and filing budgets. Only 5% is courtroom drama — this is in-house office strategy.
For search you use PatSnap, Questel Orbit, Derwent Innovation, Clarivate, Espacenet and Google Patents; for documents Thomson Reuters Practical Law, LexisNexis and Relativity. You work 45 to 55 hours per week, with sprints of 60+ hours per week during M&A closings or trial discovery deadlines. There is no night shift, but early-morning or evening video calls across US, European and Asian time zones are routine.
Where does this lead?
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