Patent Office to Accept More Degrees for Bar Exam Applicants

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will expand the types of college degrees with which applicants may automatically sit for the patent bar exam, in a move to increase the number of women taking it, the agency said in an upcoming Federal Register notice.

The changes expand the list of automatically qualifying degrees to include 14 other degrees that have been routinely accepted, according to the notice scheduled to be published Wednesday.

Master’s and doctoral degree holders will qualify for automatic registration, the agency said. Applicants who have taken a combination of chemistry, physics, and biology classes, with at least ...