How To Become A Patent Examiner: What It Is and Career Path

What is a patent examiner and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a patent examiner. For example, did you know that they make an average of $31.2 an hour? That's $64,891 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 10% and produce 80,200 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScorePatent ExaminerUS Average

Salary

5.1

Avg. Salary $64,891

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

10.0

Growth rate 10%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.31%

Asian 6.38%

Black or African American 5.56%

Hispanic or Latino 7.78%

Unknown 4.38%

White 75.59%

Gender

female 19.36%

male 80.64%

Age - 45

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 45

Stress level

10.0

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

10.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.9

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a patent examiner

Explore patent examiner education requirements

Most common patent examiner degrees

Bachelor's

72.2 %

Master's

15.3 %

Doctorate

9.5 %

Start to develop specific patent examiner skills

Skills	Percentages
Patent Applications	18.79%
Mechanical Engineering	15.79%
Intellectual Property	15.27%
USPTO	15.24%
Interference	12.22%

Complete relevant patent examiner training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-2 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New patent examiners learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a patent examiner based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real patent examiner resumes.

Research patent examiner duties and responsibilities

Leverage USPTO proprietary information and technical research to evaluate claim inventions.
Learned and implement use of new software tools and applications at the USPTO on a regular basis.
Provide management assistance to veterans in financial matters and solving issues.
Analyze final determination of the competency of veterans and other VA beneficiaries and provide notification of the determination.

Prepare your patent examiner resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your patent examiner resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a patent examiner resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable patent examiner resume templates

Build a professional patent examiner resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your patent examiner resume.