In the patent profession, you could earn up to £45,000 before you’ve even finished your exams. Qualification increases your worth further, and can be used as a passport to international opportunities. Fellows and Associates use the data from their annual salary survey to highlight what you could be earning from Trainee to Partner level.

Being a patent attorney can be a very rewarding career and the salary increases can be frequent and significant as you progress through the examinations. In UK private practices, salaries are by and large linked to qualification status up until the point you have qualified. Although in some instances, there can be differences in starting salaries for different technical specialisms depending on supply and demand.

Corporate vs. private practice

This article focuses on working in private practice for a firm of patent attorneys in the UK. Less and less corporations hire attorneys at trainee level, and a career in-house most frequently begins post qualification or at the very least when you have had a few years’ experience prior to qualification. Typically, attorneys can earn more in-house than they can in private practice for the years following qualification up until Partner level. However, once attorneys reach Partner status within a private practice their earning potential, in general, far outstrips what can be achieved in industry. Find out more about the difference between working in corporate and private practice here.

Average earnings

Patent attorneys do not move positions very frequently and salaries tend to increase in bursts. The market rate for a newly qualified attorney is around £60-65,000 but as you can see from the table below, salaries for attorneys who stay within the same firm can lag behind what they may be able to achieve on the open market. It should also be noted that ‘newly qualified’ is to some extent ambiguous, as some firms give a significant increase to their attorneys when they qualify in both Europe and the UK, others when they qualify in just one of the two jurisdictions.

PATENT SALARIES BY SENIORITY
Responsibility level	In current firm*	When moving firms*
Trainee	£28,400	–
Part qualified	£34,400	£36,000-45,000
Newly qualified	£53,300	£60,000-65,000
2-3 years post qualified	£66,700	£70,000-80,000
4-5 years post qualified	£75,300	£80,000-100,000
Salaried partner level**	£97,170	£110,000-140,000

** It is inevitable that one will achieve a higher salary when one moves firms, rather than receiving salary increases within a firm as the hiring company will seek to make the proposition of moving as attractive as possible.

** These amounts are reflective of people who are Partners on a fixed remuneration (be it salary or self-employed fixed share), Equity Partners i.e. those who own a share of the firm could earn salaries/profit shares running into hundreds of thousands of pounds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This graph gives an indication of what attorneys earn throughout their careers.

Salary by region

Contrary to popular belief, salaries outside of London are broadly the same as those within London. Certainly, being a patent attorney in another part of the UK would put you at no career disadvantage whatsoever compared with those based in London and in some cases you may find the experience gained is more well-rounded during training as there may be more direct contact with clients from an early stage. Applying for positions in London is highly competitive and it does not always occur to applicants to consider regional offices. As a result, those looking to enter the profession can have a better chance of succeeding when applying to regional firms, or firms with regional offices.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This graph demonstrates that salaries across the UK are broadly similar across the regions. 

Benefits

On average candidates receive 25 days’ holiday per year, with some receiving more (sometimes in excess of 30 days’) and a few receiving less than the 25 days’ norm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three quarters of employees will have their professional memberships paid for with around half receiving private healthcare of some variety, as well as life insurance or a death in service benefit. A substantial number, nearly 70%, receive a pension of some sort but with the new legislation this will increase to 100% this year.

Being a patent attorney can be very financially rewarding and the chances of reaching the higher salaries are very good in comparison to other professional services sector positions. There is excellent job security and more often than not, there are more open positions than there are people to fill them (although getting into the profession in the first place as

The above data has come from Fellows and Associates’ annual salary survey completed by those working in the profession.  You can see the full survey at www.fellowssurvey.com