I never had any idea what a music producer’s job was, but the title sounded pretty cool. Here is how one website describes the job:
Essentially, the music producer oversees all aspects of the creation of a song or album. These can include choice of song, choice of musicians, instruments and vocalist(s) and how those instruments are played and those notes sung as well as where the song or album is recorded. Like a director is to a film, the music producer is to a song.
When people ask what a patent professional actually does, sometimes it sounds a lot like being a mere scrivener… or maybe someone who writes book reports about other people’s books. While there may be some truth in these points of view, the real job of a patent professional is more than the mere drafting and prosecution of a patent application. One great reward of being a patent professional is the opportunity to be a lot more like a music producer working with an artist by bringing strategic insight into the patent drafting and prosecution process, and the illustration of the invention in a way that fully captures and communicates the scope, options, and details, of the invention.
In this way, patent professionals have the opportunity to play an outsized role in the success of their client.
An inventor can sometimes have too clear a picture of exactly how they plan to implement and exploit their invention, similar to an artist who may have composed their music on a particular instrument. The patent professional can help the inventor consider other ways the invention can be applied or implemented, just like the music producer might consider a different set of instruments for a particular recording. Like an artist that ultimately controls the vision of their music, so too does the inventor or applicant ultimately control the content and disclosure of the patent application. But the patent professional can help shape and guide the application using their expertise and experience in order to reach the goals for that application.
The role can take many forms, and the ways in which and degree to which the patent professional has an impact are varied. But no matter the situation, the patent professional should cherish the unique role they have and tailor their guidance to the particular facts and circumstances as no two inventions, or inventors, are ever the same.
