Patent Agent, Hardware

Hark; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 220,000; Full time

Job summary

Hark is seeking a Patent Agent to build the hardware side of its patent portfolio from the ground up. You will own invention harvesting, drafting, and prosecution across hardware technologies, shaping what to protect as products move from architecture to prototype to production.

You'll work inside Legal but alongside engineering, collaborating with electrical, mechanical, systems, firmware, wireless, sensor, and product design teams to identify patentable inventions and draft comprehensive U.S.

Qualifications

• Registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
• 5+ years drafting and prosecuting patent applications involving complex hardware technologies.
• Experience at consumer electronics, hardware, semiconductor, wearable, mobile device, or AI hardware company.
• Ability to turn engineer disclosures into complete patent applications, with claims and figures.
• Strong command of electrical, mechanical, and systems-level engineering concepts; ability to push for detail.
• Comfortable building prosecution processes in ambiguity; not just inheriting them.
• Hands-on by default; drafting, not only managing outside counsel.
• Excellent written communication and exceptional attention to technical detail.

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.
• Draft and prosecute U.S. and international applications covering hardware and hardware-software systems, translating complex engineering into broad, technically accurate claims.
• Prepare office action responses, conduct examiner interviews, and develop prosecution strategies for 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 coordinate 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 milestones.
• Own inventorship determinations, assignment hygiene, and IDS practice across the portfolio.

Skills

Written communication

Attention to detail

Electrical engineering concepts

Mechanical engineering concepts

Systems engineering concepts

Drafting patent disclosures

Education

Electrical engineering

Mechanical engineering

Computer engineering

Physics

Job description

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
• Own inventorship determinations, assignment hygiene, and IDS practice across the portfolio

Requirements

• Registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, with an active registration number
• Bachelor's degree or higher in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, computer engineering, physics, or a closely related technical discipline
• 5+ years drafting and prosecuting patent applications involving complex hardware technologies, at a firm, in-house, or both
• Experience at a consumer electronics, hardware, semiconductor, wearable, mobile device, or AI hardware company — you know what happens to a patent strategy when an architecture changes late in a build
• You can take an engineer's half‑formed disclosure and turn it into a complete application, claims and figures included, without supervision
• Strong command of electrical, mechanical, and systems‑level engineering concepts, and the confidence to push an inventor on the details
• Comfortable building in ambiguity — you've stood up prosecution processes from scratch, not just inherited them
• Hands‑on by default; you're drafting, not just managing outside counsel
• Excellent written communication and exceptional attention to technical detail

Bonus Qualifications

• Design patent practice for consumer products, and coordination between utility and design filings
• Competitive patent landscaping and freedom‑to‑operate analysis
• Engineering experience prior to entering patent practice, or an advanced technical degree

Compensation

The US base salary range for this full-time position is between $150,000 - $220,000 annually.

The pay offered for this position may vary based on several individual factors, including job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. The total compensation package may also include additional components/benefits depending on the specific role. This information will be shared if an employment offer is extended.