Key Differences Between Patent Prosecution and Litigation Focus: Patent prosecution focuses on obtaining patent rights from the patent office, while patent litigation is adversarial involving the enforcement, validity, or defense of rights in court or before an administrative board.
The search and examination phases constitute the main part of the prosecution of a patent application leading to grant or refusal. A search is conducted by the patent office for any prior art that is relevant to the application in question and the results of that search are notified to the applicant in a search report.
To practice patent law, you would register with the USPTO. This involves submitting an application and passing the multiple-choice exam, also called the patent bar exam. Some coursework or experience in science or engineering is a prerequisite for this exam, but a bachelor's degree may be adequate.