Patent Agent

Members of the Legal organization at select locations will generally follow a hybrid work model, which includes two days of in-office attendance each week, with limited exceptions.

About the Team

At Cisco, the Intellectual Property team sits at the crossroads of technology, business, and law, with insight into an extraordinary breadth of innovation spanning networking, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, cloud infrastructure, collaboration, and observability. We work together inside a legal organization that treats IP as a strategic business asset and are building the institutional frameworks that let Cisco's engineers translate invention into durable protection.

Responsibilities

• Work with inventors to strengthen Cisco’s patent portfolio by purposefully harvesting and evaluating inventions to file and develop patent assets. This includes identifying patentable inventions; providing high-quality technical and patent practitioner analysis; and working with outside counsel to draft, file, and prosecute strategic and deployable assets.
• Partner across the business by building relationships with engineering teams, product groups, and various business units to deeply understand their business and ensure IP is integrated into their processes rather than an afterthought.
• Translate technical subject matter clearly to non-technical audiences and patent practitioner subject matter clearly to technical ones. Write summaries that enable business leaders to make informed decisions without needing a patent background.
• Help optimize the patent program by contributing ideas and executing improvements in invention intake, prosecution standards, and analytics, informed by hands-on experience.

Requirements

• Active USPTO registration as a patent agent or ability to obtain one.
• Demonstrated experience using enterprise IP Management Systems (IPMS) and advanced patent analytics platforms to drive portfolio strategy, assess competitive landscapes, and manage sophisticated patent lifecycles.

Preferred Qualifications

• In-house patent preparation and prosecution experience, or firm experience working closely with an in-house client.
• Ability to derive actionable insights from data and present them persuasively to clients, business partners, or leadership.
• Track record of credible, concise executive communication on patent risk, translating complex legal issues into business-relevant guidance without over-hedging or misrepresenting the state of the law.
• Technical experience in at least one of the following areas: silicon and optics, AI infrastructure and networking, security, collaboration, observability and cloud management, compute, or wireless communications.

Skills

• Comfortable navigating ambiguity to generate impactful strategies.
• Adept at learning unfamiliar technology and engaging in meaningful conversations with senior engineers.
• Curious about the business, not just the technology, to understand Cisco’s competitive positioning and its implications for IP strategy.
• Collaborative by default: shares credit, asks for help, and works effectively across functions.

Why Cisco?

At Cisco, we’re revolutionizing how data and infrastructure connect and protect organizations in the AI era—and beyond. We’ve been innovating fearlessly for 40 years to create solutions that power how humans and technology work together across the physical and digital worlds. These solutions provide customers with unparalleled security, visibility, and insights across their entire digital footprint. Fueled by the depth and breadth of our technology, we experiment and create meaningful solutions. Add to that our worldwide network of doers and experts, and you’ll see that the opportunities to grow and build are limitless. We work as a team, collaborating with empathy to make really big things happen on a global scale.

Pay

The starting salary range for this position is $179,000.00 to $254,300.00 for new hires in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including incentive compensation, equity, or benefits. Individual pay is determined by the candidate's hiring location, market conditions, job-related skillset, experience, qualifications, education, certifications, and/or training. The full salary range for specific locations is listed below:

• New York City Metro Area: $194,600.00 - $328,600.00
• Non-Metro New York State & Washington State: $179,000.00 - $294,000.00

For quota-based sales roles, the ranges provided include base pay and sales target incentive compensation combined.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution.
• Paid parental leave, short- and long-term disability coverage, and basic life insurance.
• Grants of Cisco restricted stock units, which vest following continued employment for defined periods.
• Paid time off, including:
  • 10 paid holidays per full calendar year, plus 1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees.
  • 1 paid day off for employee’s birthday.
  • Paid year-end holiday shutdown.
  • 4 paid days off for personal wellness.
  • Non-exempt employees receive 16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year, accrued at 4.92 hours per pay period.
  • Exempt employees participate in Cisco’s flexible vacation time off program with no defined limit (subject to business needs).
  • 80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter, with up to 80 hours of unused sick time carried forward annually.
  • Additional paid time off for critical or emergency family issues.
  • Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer.
• Annual bonuses for non-sales roles, subject to Cisco’s policies.
• For sales roles, performance-based incentive pay split between quota and non-quota components, with specific payout structures based on revenue attainment.