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 作专利律师还是大学教授？- Round 2 |
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I faced similar situation several years ago, when I had to decide -- agent2000sf - (3266 Byte) 2004-4-18 周日, 21:17 (616 reads) |
deardong04
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游客
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作者：游客 在 海归商务 发贴, 来自【海归网】 http://www.haiguinet.com
Many thanks for your 'insider' info and the great advice. I may have underestimated the difficulty of becoming a good IP professional and I am just glad I asked. I was fortunate to have a few good publications and a couple of years of industry experience. I was even luckier to get involved in projects that tend to bridge basic science and practical applications. As you mentioned, projects as such seem to be in high demand in China. This was part of the reason why my talk was received with overwhelming support during my visit to several universities.
From what I learned in China, the environment for doing research has changed quite a bit in recent years - for the better, of course. One thing many professors would love to brag about is how well their new lab will be decorated - not just being set up, but actually decorated! This was not just sugar talking. I did see magnificent marble floors, automatic doors, and fancy furniture, etc. in a score of labs in leading institutions, with some of the facilities surpassing those seen in the US.
However, copying facility is one thing, while duplicating the same quality of research is another. In China, research funds allocated to basic research is still quite limited, and private investment more than too often focuses narrowly on projects promised to quickly produce profit. This has inevitably created a bias favoring those projects said to possess market value, notwithstanding their scientific merit. Those fashionable food supplements sold as miracle drugs are good examples. Reality as such has seduced a few scientists, especially those of ambition, to spend more effort in ‘promoting’ their research than actually doing it. It may be a necessary strategy for the short-term, maximizing available resources to get the competitive advantage, but for the long run science has to prevail as the foundation. I think this is true for both research as well as discovery-driven business such as a drug company.
I would love the life style of being a college professor. I also agree with you that leading researchers with interesting projects can do very successfully in business. But I don’t feel the urge to forgone this opportunity of learning patent law in practice. It is my naïve belief that IP professionals can do a lot more than just patent filing. Litigating patent infringements aside, formulating a business strategy, evaluating related IP portfolios before a merger, and licensing a technology, all require some IP expertise. Besides, since academic researchers often have limited knowledge on patent protection and its limitation, rendering them the underdog in disputes with big MNCs, my training on IP-related issues may in fact create additional value to the university that I may later on decide to join, and thereby the little time and effort spent on patent law may not be wasted in vain.
In any case, I am willing to give it a try, spending up to a year just to get a sense of what it is like as a patent attorney in a MNC. I understand it may be a deviation from my eventual career goal, but I mainly treat it as a learning opportunity and feel young enough to take this little detour.
Somehow I have this strange idea: the attraction is not only the destination, but also the journey leading to it. I can bet with you that I will end up teaching at a university, as I love that feeling. But by taking the longer path, I got to see more things. And that is also my nature.
Thanks again for your comment and I am hungry for more of your advice. For all my life, I have been doing research and I know little beyond the lab. Taking up this position is a challenge, and it may require more than willingness to succeed. I am glad there are mentours like you ready to help out. Thank you!
作者：游客 在 海归商务 发贴, 来自【海归网】 http://www.haiguinet.com
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