Handbook of Occupational Groups and Families		Classification Programs Division
Release Date:  August 2001		Section Sixteen of Sixty-six

    GS-1200 - COPYRIGHT, PATENT, AND TRADEMARK GROUP   

This group includes all classes of positions the duties of which are to advise on, administer, supervise, or perform professional scientific, technical, and legal work involved in the cataloging and registration of copyrights, in the classification and issuance of patents, in the registration of trademarks, in the prosecution of applications for patents before the Patent Office, and in the giving of advice to Government officials on patent matters.

Throughout the following information, an asterisk (*) stands for series with a published standard and a double asterisk (**) stands for series with a published flysheet.

Series in this group are:

GS-1202 - Patent Technician Series

This series includes positions that have responsibility for supervising or performing technical work in support of professional evaluation and examination of patent applications, including searching for, selecting, evaluating and presenting pertinent background data and documents. The duties of positions in this series require the application of: (1) an understanding of the basic principles and practices in a narrow field of physical science or engineering, and (2) quasi-legal knowledge of precedents, practices and procedures under patent laws governing the processing of patent applications. They do not require full professional competence equivalent to that represented by completion of a full 4-year accredited college curriculum leading to a bachelor's degree in engineering or one of the physical sciences.

GS-1210 - Copyright Series

This series includes positions that require the exercise of discretion and independent judgment in the application of a broad knowledge of copyright law, precedents, regulations, and practices. The duties include examining, registering, cataloging, disseminating information, and certifying original and renewal copyrights.

GS-1211 - Copyright Technician Series

This series includes positions that involve technical work in connection with examination, cataloging, registration, and dissemination of information, processing and certification of original and renewal copyrights. The work requires the ability to apply established rules, regulations and procedures.

GS-1220 - Patent Administration Series

This series includes all classes of positions the duties of which are to advise on, administer, supervise, or perform professional scientific, technical, and legal work involved in the administration of the patent and trade-mark laws through the issuance of patents for inventions in the various arts and through the registration of trade-marks.

GS-1221 - Patent Adviser Series*

This series includes positions involving professional, scientific or engineering work and, in addition, legal work pertaining to the analysis of inventions and the evaluation of the patentability thereof. This entails preparing and prosecuting applications for patents; preparing and presenting briefs and arguments and prosecuting appeals and interferences before the Patent Office; making infringement investigations, and rendering opinions on the validity of patents, in order to protect the Government's interest in such inventions.

GS-1222 - Patent Attorney Series*

This series includes positions involved with performing professional legal, scientific, and technical work concerning patents, including rendering opinions on validity and infringement of patents, negotiation of patent licenses, settlement of patent claims, negotiation of patent clauses in contracts, providing professional legal advice to contracting officers and other procurement personnel on patent matters, and the preparation and/or presentation of briefs and arguments before the Patent Office or before the Federal Courts. Also included in this series are positions that, in addition to the foregoing, may be involved with performing similar professional legal functions regarding trademarks. The work of this series requires training equivalent to that represented by graduation (with a degree in one of the scientific or engineering disciplines) from an accredited college or university, in addition to a degree from a recognized law school and admission to the bar.

GS-1223 - Patent Classifying Series*

This series includes all professional, scientific, and technical positions that are primarily concerned with developing and/or administering systems for the classification, for patent purposes, of the technological knowledge embodied in United States patents and related material.

GS-1224 - Patent Examining Series*

This series includes all classes of positions the duties of which are to advise on, administer, supervise, or perform professional, scientific, technological, and legal work involved in the examination and disposition of applications for patents, exclusive of design patents, to determine the grant or denial of patents based on such applications, and in the adjudication of petitions and appeals from decisions of such applications. Such work in its various aspects involves the utilization of the basic and advanced concepts of the natural sciences, the techniques of all branches of engineering and of the industrial arts, and the application of those aspects of procedural and substantive law generally, and of the statutory and case law applied to patents specifically, that are applicable to the patent examination process.

GS-1226 - Design Patent Examining Series*

This series includes all classes of positions the duties of which are to supervise or perform professional, technical and legal work involved in the granting or denial of applications for design patents. Such work involves the employment of basic concepts of the natural sciences, techniques of the industrial arts, fundamentals of aesthetic and functional design, and the application of statutes and precedent decisions in design patent matters.

GS-1299 - Copyright and Patent Student Trainee Series

See the series definition for the General Student Trainee Series, GS-0099.