Patent Attorney
Drawn directly from OPM FedScope (June 2026), this page tracks headcount, average salary, tenure, and pay comparison for the Patent Attorney occupation series (code 1222).
The verdict
Patent Attorney is a smaller, specialized federal occupation: 373 employees (0.0% of the federal civilian workforce) in the Copyright, Patent, and Trademark Group family. At an average salary of $202,357 it pays well above the federal average, and headcount declined from the prior period.
- Headcount change
- -1.3%
- Pay change
- -0.1%
- Avg tenure
- 17.8 yrs
- Rank in family
- #2 of 7
What the Numbers Say About Patent Attorney
For job seekers weighing career length: this series shows a long average tenure, typical of career federal roles where employees stay through much of a full career before retirement. Headcount moved down versus the prior period, though at this small a headcount, year-to-year swings can reflect a handful of hires or departures rather than a broad hiring trend. As for pay, the latest move was a small shift, within the range of normal year-to-year rounding rather than a broad pay-table change.
The Copyright, Patent, and Trademark Group family (code 12) groups Patent Attorney together with 6 other related occupations across the federal government. Candidates browsing USAJOBS for Patent Attorney postings should also review these sibling occupations in the Copyright, Patent, and Trademark Group family. Patent Attorney makes up 3.6% of the Copyright, Patent, and Trademark Group family's 10,490 combined employees.
Salary context · rich-pay series
How Patent Attorney pay compares to the federal average
Occupation Average
$202,357
Federal Average
$117,339
vs. Federal Avg
+72.5%
Where Patent Attorney ranks on rich federal pay
Patent Attorney earns more on average than 99% of federal occupation series (534 of 541). The highlighted bar marks where Patent Attorney sits in the federal pay distribution.
Average-salary distribution across all 541 federal occupation series; the highlighted bar marks Patent Attorney.
Related Occupations in Copyright, Patent, and Trademark Group
6 other occupations in the same family
| Occupation | Employees | Avg Salary | Avg LOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Patent Examining | 9,385 | $157,963 | 14.3 yrs |
| Design Patent Examining | 365 | $137,602 | 9.3 yrs |
| Patent Administration | 322 | $199,503 | 24.1 yrs |
| Patent Classifying | 33 | $189,888 | 21.5 yrs |
| Patent Adviser | 7 | $160,445 | 10.6 yrs |
| Patent Technician | 5 | $95,669 | 29 yrs |
Nationwide occupation series with similar scale or pay
Two peer sets for Patent Attorney outside the Copyright, Patent, and Trademark Group family, on headcount and average salary axes that vary across all OPM occupation series.
Similar headcount
Nearest employee counts in other occupation families (373 here).
Similar rich average salary
Nearest average salaries in other occupation families ($202,357 here).
Key takeaways
- Place Patent Attorney pay in context with the pay-rank chart above, then compare it with another occupation.
- Turn an average salary into a grade: the GS pay grade tables show how grades and steps map to pay.
- Browse the Copyright, Patent, and Trademark Group family occupations in the table above, or search current Patent Attorney postings on USAJOBS.
OPM FedScope and Federal Workforce Data figures are federal civilian headcounts, average salaries, and length-of-service statistics - not job-quality scores, hiring advice, or a live vacancy listing. A larger or higher-paid agency is not a better employer.