From our patent job board · updated October 19, 2026
Patent Job Market Report: October 2026
On October 19, 2026 our patent job board lists 457 open postings from 230 employers: 309 patent attorney, 99 patent agent and 49 technical specialist roles.
395 new postings were first seen from October 1 through October 19.
24% of open postings are in-house and 18% are remote. Most openings: Washington, DC (98), New York, NY (77), Boston, MA (66).
Of the 138 open patent attorney postings that state their pay, the median range is $225k to $311k a year; of the 56 open patent agent postings that state their pay, the median range is $120k to $200k a year.
Who is hiring patent attorneys, patent agents and technical specialists this month, counted from the postings on our patent job board, which reads law firms' and companies' own career pages. No surveys and no estimates; how the numbers are made is below.
Open postings
457
from 230 hiring employers
New in October
395
first seen October 1 through October 19
Remote
18%
81 open postings
New postings this month
395 new postings first seen from October 1 through October 19.
Month-to-month comparisons start in December 2026, once a full comparable month exists: until then the board was still adding employers, so earlier months undercount.
Open postings by role
| Role | Open postings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Patent Attorney | 309 | 68% |
| Patent Agent | 99 | 22% |
| Technical Specialist / Scientific Advisor | 49 | 11% |
By practice
A posting can name more than one practice, so shares can add up to more than 100%.
| Practice | Open postings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Prosecution | 352 | 77% |
| Litigation | 130 | 28% |
| PTAB | 16 | 4% |
| ITC | 8 | 2% |
| No practice stated | 11 | 2% |
Law firm or in-house
| Employer | Open postings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Law firm | 346 | 76% |
| In-house (company) | 111 | 24% |
Top cities
A posting counts in every office it lists (178 places in all); Remote counts postings open to remote work.
| Place | Open postings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Washington, DC | 98 | 21% |
| New York, NY | 77 | 17% |
| Boston, MA | 66 | 14% |
| San Francisco, CA | 49 | 11% |
| San Diego, CA | 48 | 11% |
| Austin, TX | 36 | 8% |
| Chicago, IL | 35 | 8% |
| Silicon Valley, CA | 31 | 7% |
| Los Angeles, CA | 30 | 7% |
| Seattle, WA | 30 | 7% |
| Remote | 81 | 18% |
Posted pay of open postings
219 of 457 open postings state a yearly range. A role with fewer than 5 shows no figures. For a year of posted ranges by experience, technology and city, see patent attorney and patent agent salaries.
| Role | Postings stating pay | Typical range | Median midpoint | Middle half |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patent Attorney | 138 | $225k–$311k | $273k | $208k–$313k |
| Patent Agent | 56 | $120k–$200k | $164k | $144k–$179k |
| Technical Specialist / Scientific Advisor | 25 | $110k–$160k | $143k | $120k–$148k |
How these numbers are made
- Source: our own patent job board, which reads the career pages of the law firms and companies it tracks on a rolling schedule, plus a few job boards. A posting is a patent attorney, patent agent or technical specialist role (including in-house patent counsel); paralegal, staff and student roles are left out.
- Open postings are the ones the board lists on October 19, 2026: open, and counted once when an employer posts the same job in several offices. A posting closes when it leaves the employer's page.
- New postings are counted by the day the board first saw them (US Eastern), whether still open or closed since: October 2026 through October 19. When the board starts reading a new employer, its open postings count as new that month, so months are compared only from December 2026, when both months have steady coverage.
- Role, practice and law firm or in-house are the board's own classification of each posting, the same as its filters.
- Pay uses only yearly ranges a posting states itself; estimates and hourly rates are left out. Typical range is the median low end to the median high end; the middle half runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile of the midpoints. States that require pay ranges in postings are over-represented.
- Free to cite: please name Patent Law University and link to this page. Figures change as postings open and close; the page is refreshed every six hours.
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