A global shortage of qualified patent attorneys has forced Marks & Clerk, one of the world's leading firms of patent and trademark attorneys, to cast its net wide in the search for talent.

Marks & Clerk, which was founded by Scots engineer Dugald Clerk in 1888 and which has Scottish offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, said it is also actively targeting recruits from other leading firms of patent attorneys.

Tim Hargreaves, a qualified patent attorney, is transferring from Marks & Clerk's Paris office to its Edinburgh office on October 15.

Hargreaves, 36, qualified as a European patent attorney three years ago. He began his training with Cambridge and London-based Mathys & Squire in 2000 after doing a PhD in superconductivity and low-temperature physics at the University of Sussex and post-doctoral research at the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, France's atomic energy research institute, in Grenoble.

Hargreaves said: "The profession is becoming increasingly mobile and is much less London-centric than it was. By its nature, it is a job that can be done from virtually anywhere, and Edinburgh is an attractive place to live and settle down long term."

Marks & Clerk has also hired Iain Irving, who has an electronics PhD from the universities of Edinburgh and St Andrews, as a trainee patent attorney. Irving, currently working as a proofreader with Seoul-based intellectual property lawyers YP Lee Mock & Partners, is a fluent Mandarin speaker.

Campbell Newell, managing partner of Marks & Clerk's Edinburgh office, says that recruiting trainees into the sector is a continuing problem.

"It's partly because of the length of the training, which takes between four and six years. There's also a fairly high failure rate. The trouble is that good-quality, high-calibre graduates can go straight into industry and get pretty well-paid jobs straight away."

He added that trainees can expect to be paid between £20,000 and £30,000, so they are effectively "investing in their own futures" for up to six years. However, if they do manage to qualify, Newell believes it is a more attractive and stimulating career move. Newly-qualified patent attorneys can expect to earn £60,000 to £100,000.

He said the firm, which currently has about four of five trainees, is also looking for a qualified patent attorney to lead its recently-opened Aberdeen office and drive it forwards.

Newell said Marks & Clerk is "investigating" whether to convert to limited liability partnership (LLP) status. Marks & Clerk has experience in fields including biotechnology, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, nanotechnology, medical devices, IT & software, electronics and mechanical engineering. In addition to its three Scottish offices the firm has nine other offices in the UK, as well as offices in Europe, North America and the Far East and long-established relationships with other leading intellectual property firms worldwide.

Hargreaves said one reason he was attracted to Marks & Clerk was because, uniquely among patent attorney firms, it has global coverage.