Intellectual Property
Patent specifications, trademark oppositions, and a docket that runs on filing deadlines.
A day, honestly described.
IP practice splits cleanly into two halves on the first day and never quite reunites. On the prosecution side, you draft patent specifications, examine office actions from the Indian Patent Office, file trademark applications, respond to oppositions before the Trade Marks Registry. On the contentious side, you work on infringement suits, anti-counterfeiting John Doe orders, and increasingly, design-mark passing-off claims at the Bombay and Delhi High Courts.
A working day on the prosecution side is structured by deadlines: a Section 21 examination response due Tuesday, a 28-day opposition window closing Friday, a PCT national-phase entry on the 31-month mark. The work is calendar-driven and unforgiving — miss a deadline, lose a right. On the contentious side the rhythm is closer to general litigation, but with a tighter universe of judges and a more technical evidentiary load.
You will read patent specifications written by people who do not write English well, and learn to extract the actual invention from claims drafted to obscure it. You will become the kind of lawyer who knows the difference between a Markush claim and a means-plus-function claim and why it matters for infringement. The work is precise. It rewards patience.
Where the work happens. Who hires. What you'll be paid.
Where the work happens
Recruitment pathway
IP firms hire from two pools: NLU graduates with a science background (B.Tech + LLB or similar) for patent prosecution, and general legal candidates for trademark and contentious work. The patent-side market is small — perhaps 80–100 hires across the top six firms in a given year. Trademark and contentious roles open more positions.
For patent work, an undergraduate engineering degree is effectively a prerequisite at the entry level. For trademark and litigation, it is not. A strong moot history (LL.M. moot, IP-specific moots) and a published case-comment on a recent IP judgment carries weight. Patent agent registration after qualification — the Patents Act 1970 examination — is a meaningful credential within five years of joining.
First-year vs senior associate
On prosecution side: draft examination responses under partner review, prepare opposition cancellation petitions, file PCT national-phase entries. On contentious side: read pleadings, prepare bound briefs for hearings, attend the registry. You will not argue. You will rarely draft the substantive pleading. You build technical fluency.
You draft and file independently on prosecution. You appear at the registry for hearings on opposition matters. On contentious side, you draft pleadings end-to-end, appear before the IPAB / High Court for procedural and interim applications, lead-counsel for second-tier matters. The senior reviews; the work is yours.
Compensation bands (approximate)
What law students consistently lack — and how to fix it.
Each gap below is something we have heard from Intellectual Property hiring partners. The simulation column is what closes it before your first internship.
Most law students cannot read a patent specification. The structure (background, summary, claims, embodiments) is alien even to candidates with science degrees.
The Iura IP simulation includes a real-shape patent and asks you to identify what is being claimed and what the prior art teaches.
Trademark distinctiveness analysis is taught in textbooks as a doctrinal hierarchy (generic, descriptive, suggestive, arbitrary, fanciful) — but practical application turns on consumer-perception evidence which students never encounter in coursework.
A simulation brief with three competing marks asks you to write a distinctiveness opinion in 200 words.
Drafting an examination-response under the Patents Act is a learned skill that university courses do not teach.
A response-drafting brief with a partner-redlined model answer.
Work your first intellectual property brief — free, in your browser, in 45 minutes.
A real-shape brief, scored against a model answer. The fastest way to find out whether Intellectual Property feels like work you want to do for the next decade.
Start the simulation →Get the full Intellectual Property career guide.
Six pages: firm rankings, internship timeline, the skills checklist, salary bands. Sent as a PDF.
One email today, then four more over two weeks. Unsubscribe in one click.
IP practice rewards subject-matter depth. If you have a science background, the patent track is open and underpopulated; if you do not, contentious IP and trademarks are the more accessible doors. Either way: do an IP simulation, decide which side of the prosecution-litigation split you want, and apply directly to firms in that band.