U.S. News and World Report has an article up today entitled, “The 10 Most Overpaid Jobs“. While there are other things to be upset about on the list, especially in the high-tech sector, one entry certainly causes no quibbles:
Patent attorney ($170,000). We tend to think of patents as the breakthrough insights of revolutionary inventors, but they’re increasingly a form of warfare among corporations seeking to prevent each other from gaining a technology edge. The lawyers who fight those battles are among the highest-paid professionals PayScale surveys.
Its inclusion on the list aside, the author’s reason why is what is so excellent. The author rightly picks up on something Patent Progress has focused on: the misuse of patents by corporations in an anti-competitive manner, and the role attorneys are playing in unnecessary patent warfare. Kudos to Rick Newman for highlighting this.