Patent & Trade Marks Salary Survey

As 2011 drew to a close, we were approached by a number of our clients and candidates asking if we have access to a recent salary survey. As the largest UK specialist IP recruiter, we work with a huge variety of businesses including Patent and Trade Mark Private Practices, Law Firms and In-house IP Departments. Day-to-day, we see vast discrepancies in salaries as well as the way employee pay is structured. We are also seeing a shift in candidates looking at basic salary alone when considering a move; bonuses and earning potential are moving increasingly into the spot-light and we expect to see this continue.

Remuneration will always be an important factor to both attract and retain the best quality people. With this in mind we want to give you a comprehensive overview of the current market as the only dedicated IP recruiter offering a survey of this kind. A large number of our clients were kind enough to complete our survey and owing to the number of results we received, we were able to indicate the differences in salaries between IP professionals working in London compared to those working in the regions.  All results show the average as calculated from the responses we received – and obviously the results are only as accurate as the data participants provided. If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact a member of the Patent and Trade Mark Division who will be happy to help. 

* Please note that these salary packages for Partners, in both Trade Marks and Patents, are merely starting points.  Partnership salaries vary enormously within the six figure range and it is difficult to provide specific numbers.  More factors are taken into account than at the other levels, such as firm structure, salaried partner / equity partner differences, levels of and percentage of time fee earning, firm profitability, client portfolio and fee structures, management and business development and supervision of other fee earners.

Variations between Patent and Trade Marks salaries

Generally speaking, Patent Attorneys are required to have a technical degree (either obtained from the UK or overseas) since they have a lot more involvement in the technical drafting of the Patent applications.  Increased cost and time implications involved with Patents when compared to Trade Marks also go some way into explaining why Patent Attorneys as a general rule can demand salaries in excess of their Trade Mark counterparts.

Additional Salary Survey Results

 Q1:  Have you / do you plan to give salary increase this financial year?

Q2:  What dictates an increase in salary?



Q3:  Do you pay a company bonus?


Q4:  If 'yes', how often is this paid?


Q5:  Who is eligible for bonus?


Q6:  Is your company bonus:


Q7:  If your company bonus is dependent on personal performance, is this?


Q8:  If this is determined by achieving a pre-defined objective  / target, what is this threshold?