Ella, Weston asked Susan Su, US Patent and Trademark Office AddedTuesday, September 9, 2014 at 8:09 PM What kind of communication skills do you use? Hey Susan! I was wondering what kind of writing do you do on a daily basis? Are you in charge of writing mostly official documents or is it mainly e-mail and memos? Also, who are you usually writing to? Is it mainly other engineers or individuals with a similar background? Also, are there any journals or blogs that you read for your field? Thank you, Ella Related to Bioengineering/Biomedical, Engineering Skills Reset Sort By Default Susan Su , US Patent and Trademark Office Answered Tuesday, September 9, 2014 at 8:09 PM Hi Ella! As a patent examiner I write "office action" on a daily basis, and that is an official document that gets mailed to the inventor (or their attorney if there is one). An office action generally has a few forms and a word document where I explain why the patent application can or cannot become a patent using plain language with citations of the law. As a brief example, when I explain that the current patent claims cannot become a patent because Reference A shows the same thing, I would say "Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a) as anticipated by Reference A because Reference A discloses ..." In this case "35 U.S.C 102(a)" is the law that gives me basis on which I make the decision. For most people who do not have law experience, the office actions do read like foreign language because of the frequent reference to law. There are also some terms like "obvious" and "inherent" that carry very specific legal meaning in the patent world so we need to be very careful how we use those words in our writing. About 10% of the writing I do is composing emails to my supervisor and other colleagues regarding work, typically asking or answering a question, but those are individual emails so I write them as if I'm talking to the recipient(s). This job does not require any memo or presentations. Most of my colleagues do have similar educational background as me, since the patent office hires mainly people with STEM background as patent examiners. Some of them also have law degrees or even worked in law firms, but those of us who knew nothing about law would get our legal training on the job during the first half a year or so. We are not required to read any journals or blogs, and it's unfortunate that I am not much of a self-motivator so I don't look for online discussions on patent law or news on intellectual property in general. I am more interested in general science so I scan the science news once a week or so. Of course, if there's something making the headlines in intellectual property, I take a closer look too.