Patent Agent
US$150,000 – US$220,000 / yr base salary
Posted 20 Sep 2026
Advertised as “Patent Agent, Hardware”
BranchFactor Summary
The original posting with the fluff stripped out
- Expected experience
- 5+ yrs
- Management level
- Individual contributor
- Contract
- Full-time
| Base salary | US$150,000 – US$220,000 / yr |
|---|
Field of studyComputer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Physics (or related)
Study levelBachelor's
Field of studyEngineering
Study levelMaster's or higher
About Hark
Hark is an artificial intelligence company building advanced, personalized intelligence. One that is proactive, multimodal, and capable of interacting with the world through speech, text, vision, and persistent memory.
We're pairing that intelligence with next-generation hardware to create a universal interface between humans and machines. While today's AI largely operates through chat boxes and decade-old devices, Hark is focused on what comes next: agentic systems that interact naturally with people and the real world.
To get there, we're developing multimodal models and next-generation AI hardware together - designed from the ground up as a single, unified interface for a new era of intelligent systems.
About the Role
Hark is seeking a Patent Agent to build the hardware side of our patent portfolio from the ground up. This person will own invention harvesting, drafting, and prosecution across our hardware technologies, and will shape how the company decides what to protect as its products move from architecture to prototype to production.
This role sits inside Legal but lives with engineering. You will be in design reviews and prototype reviews, sitting with electrical, mechanical, systems, firmware, and product design engineers, finding the inventions before anyone has thought to write them down. Then you will go draft the applications yourself.
A strong portfolio is not measured by the number of patents filed. It requires knowing which technologies will matter most, anticipating how products and competitors will evolve, and obtaining claims that protect the underlying innovation rather than one implementation of it. This is a hands-on opportunity for someone who wants to author that strategy rather than inherit it.
Responsibilities
- Build and execute the patent strategy for Hark's hardware products and platform technologies, including portfolio architecture across core, platform, and product-specific innovations
- Work directly with electrical, mechanical, systems, firmware, wireless, sensor, and product design engineers to identify patentable inventions
- Draft and prosecute U.S. and international applications covering hardware and hardware-software systems, translating complex engineering into technically accurate and strategically broad claims
- Prepare office action responses, conduct examiner interviews, and develop prosecution strategies aimed at commercially meaningful claim scope
- Manage continuation, divisional, and design patent strategy as products and architectures evolve
- Review and improve applications prepared by outside counsel, and work with international counsel on PCT and foreign prosecution strategy
- Conduct patentability and prior art analyses, monitor competitive patent activity, and support freedom-to-operate work ahead of product milestones