Reuters seeks an intellectual property reporter in San Francisco

Reuters is looking for an enterprising, West Coast-based reporter to cover collisions over intellectual property rights, with a beat that includes everything from self-driving car patents and gene-editing technology to copyright battles in the music industry. The reporter will be expected to cover breaking news and deliver scoopy and insightful stories on how patent law is evolving and adapting to new industries and technologies.

The main focus of the position will be the Bay Area courts that handle a heavy caseload involving major technology companies. It may also extend to IP litigation in Seattle and other West Coast cities, as well as cases in Texas jurisdictions that are popular with patent plaintiffs. The reporter will coordinate with our IP reporter in Washington, D.C., as well as colleagues throughout the newsroom, to ensure we are not missing important news or trends on the patent, trademark and copyright fronts.

As an Intellectual Property Reporter on Reuters’ growing legal news team, you will:

Write about high-stakes court battles, rulings, and hearings daily and key cases and broader trends as they develop
Have a deep understanding of the field, established sources and an ability to write quickly and accurately with valuable insight for legal professionals, as well as a wider audience
Stay on top of spot news and be continually pitching deeper dives and enterprise pieces
Demonstrate beat expertise and dominance
Collaborate with our data and video teams to develop initiative and multimedia stories
Work seamlessly with Reuters teammates

To be our Intellectual Property Reporter, you will likely have:

An ambition to break news, a commitment to accuracy and a keen attention to detail
Excellent news judgment and a stable of inside sources
Previous experience covering intellectual property law and/or demonstrated ability to understand legal issues and report and write about them clearly
A minimum of five years of experience as a journalist, with three years of experience as a legal reporter
Northern California location is preferred, other locations may be considered for the right candidate

To be considered, please submit a cover letter explaining your interest in the position, as well as a resume and 3-5 recent clips.

Please note, the deadline for applications is Sunday 29th May 2022.

To apply, go here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.