Graduate - Associate Patent Examiners

About the role

Patent examining offers an exciting and unusual opportunity to combine scientific and technical expertise with legal skills. Successful candidates will receive comprehensive training and mentoring support to develop the legal skills required for the role. Patent Examiners combine these skills together with their technical knowledge and analytical ability to establish if an invention is new and inventive and whether, or not, the application satisfies various other legal requirements.

Successful applicants will be appointed as ‘Associate Patent Examiners’. After 2-5 years understanding the basics of the examining job and developing a broad set of professional skills you can then apply for promotion to ‘Patent Examiner’. At this grade you work independently while continuing to develop your skills and experience. After a few more years of development there is non-competitive promotion to ‘Senior Patent Examiner’. Senior Patent Examiners are subject matter experts, leaders within the Patent Examining Division and provide mentoring support to the next generation of examiners.

Training & Development

In the first 6-7 weeks of the role, Associate Patent Examiners receive full time initial search and examination training as a cohort before working on live casework. The training consists of lectures, tutorials and activities where Associate Patent Examiners learn about all the stages involved in processing a patent application.

Once the formal training period has ended, Associate Patent Examiners move to join a group of Patent Examiner colleagues where they will continue to develop their skills and build their confidence to carry out the role:

• Search and examine patent applications against the relevant criteria, using best practice and knowledge of the Act rules, procedures and case law to bring casework to a successful conclusion (grant or refusal).
• Communicate legally and technically complex concepts in writing and orally to internal and external audiences.
• Build experience in specialist technical areas, but also a wider flexibility in dealing with a variety of subject matter.
• Use search classification, reporting and viewing tools.
• Manage, balance and prioritise workloads to work to agreed quality and productivity goals.
• Respectful of the business need to change and willing to explore continuous improvement and new ways of working.
• Take responsibility for own development by acting on feedback, keeping professional and technical skills up to date and developing wider behaviours, where appropriate.

What we're looking for

We are looking for people who have specific knowledge in one of the following scientific fields:

• Chemistry,
• Biotechnology,
• Any type of engineering,
• Computer Science,
• Physics,
• Mathematics.

We have particular skills gaps in the following specific scientific fields and anticipate offering more roles to candidates with knowledge in these fields:

• Telecommunications Engineering,
• Electrical and Electronic Engineering,
• Chemistry,
• Medical Physics.

This can be demonstrated by holding, or being on track to hold, at least a 2:2 degree in any of the listed subjects, OR, having equivalent industrial experience in a relevant technical field (5 years or more working in a STEM role where you have had the opportunity to learn, apply and embed technical knowledge in your specialist field).

Please note: equivalent experience does not need to be demonstrated to be over a consecutive period of time. We welcome applications from people returning to STEM after a career break or those looking for a change of career.

GCSE grade C or above (or equivalent) in Mathematics is also required.

We are looking for self-starters who tackle their work with enthusiasm and dedication. It is vital successful candidates will be team players and capable of seeing other people’s views. They will also be able to work independently and accept responsibility for their own actions and performance in meeting their personal work goals and business targets whilst always keeping the customer in mind.

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Delivering at Pace
• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing
• Changing and Improving
• Developing Self and Others
• Managing a Quality Service
• Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Please detail what you have learnt and how you have applied and embedded the outlined technical knowledge.
• Understand and evaluate scientific and technical information and make decisions and reach conclusions quickly and accurately.
• We only ask for evidence of these technical skills on your application form:

Please detail what you have learnt and how you have applied and embedded the outlined technical knowledge.

Benefits

Benefits of working with us:

• A flexible working scheme which has no core hours and excellent opportunities for home, part-time and term-time working;
• A very generous pension scheme, with low employee contributions;
• Eligibility for special and office-wide bonus payments;
• Excellent development opportunities;
• Opportunities for secondments, both internal and external;
• Opportunities to join many civil-service clubs such as the Sports and Social Association, Motoring Club (CSMA), which provide numerous discounts to members

This role will be carried out remotely due to current government restrictions, please note however that travel to the IPO office in Newport may be required.

You will be provided with the support and equipment you will need to be able to work from home.

Once government restrictions are lifted this role will be based at our Newport office.

When working at Concept House, Newport the following benefits are also available:

• A limited number of free car parking spaces are available on site;
• Use of facilities that we share with ONS. These include an on-site gymnasium, shop, restaurant, coffee shop, cash point and hairdressers.

Please note benefits may be subject to change.

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