My degree just says Engineering Science. Does it qualify?

Engineering Science is not printed in the bulletin, so OED decides whether your transcript shows a degree equivalent to General Engineering. Include course descriptions with the application.

Does an engineering management degree qualify?

Engineering Management is not a listed subject. OED may review it for equivalence; otherwise you would apply under Category B or, with a bachelor's degree, Category C by passing the FE exam.

Which USPTO Technology Center will I work with?

It depends on the technology. Multidisciplinary products often go to Technology Center 3700 (Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing and Products); electrical components go to 2800, and transportation and construction to 3600.

Patent bar eligibility by degree

General Engineering and the Patent Bar

General Engineering is a Category A subject in the USPTO General Requirements Bulletin. A bachelor's, master's or Ph.D. in general engineering qualifies you to apply for the patent bar.

Check your eligibility Full eligibility guide

At a glance

USPTO category: Category A
Listed subject: General Engineering
Degree levels: Bachelor's, master's or Ph.D.
Main Technology Centers: TC 3700, TC 2800, TC 3600

Checked against the August 2026 bulletin

Eligibility

Does a General Engineering degree qualify?

Yes. The USPTO General Requirements Bulletin (August 2026 edition) lists General Engineering in Category A, the degree-based route to the registration exam. An applicant with a bachelor's, master's or Doctor of Philosophy degree in a listed subject from an accredited U.S. college or university, or the foreign equivalent, meets the scientific and technical requirement without a course-by-course review.

Many schools award a broad engineering degree without a named discipline, under titles such as Engineering, Engineering Science or Bachelor of Science in Engineering. Those titles are not printed in the bulletin, so OED compares the transcript with the General Engineering listing.

Your OED application

Exactly what to submit

An official transcript from the college or university that shows the degree was awarded. A transcript issued to you is accepted if it carries the school's stamp or seal.
Not a diploma or a letter. A diploma, a copy of a transcript or a registrar's letter naming your degree does not meet the requirement.
Course descriptions if the title isn't an exact match. If your degree title differs from the listed subject, OED checks equivalence; the OED FAQ suggests sending course descriptions with the first application to avoid delay.
Foreign degrees: objective evidence of U.S. equivalence, such as an evaluation from a foreign-credential evaluation service, alongside the transcript.

The rest of the application (forms, fees and the moral-character questions) is covered step by step in the OED application guide.

Practice

Patent work for general engineering graduates

Registered practitioners usually draft and prosecute applications in the technology they trained in. In this field that means work such as:

Technology area	Example inventions
Consumer products	Household devices, tools, sporting goods.
Electromechanical systems	Actuators, sensor assemblies, small motors.
Robotics and automation	Grippers, pick-and-place cells, motion control.
Energy systems	Solar mounting hardware, HVAC controls.
Assistive and medical devices	Mobility aids, patient-handling equipment.

USPTO

Which Technology Centers examine this work

The USPTO routes each application to one of its Technology Centers by its classification. For general engineering subject matter, these are the ones you will deal with most:

Technology Center	Why it applies
TC 3700 Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing and Products	Mechanical engineering, manufacturing and products, where much multidisciplinary work lands.
TC 2800 Semiconductors, Electrical and Optical Systems and Components	Electrical systems and components.
TC 3600 Transportation, Construction, Electronic Commerce, Agriculture, National Security and License and Review	Transportation and construction.

Routing follows each application's classification, so a single application can land outside these centers.

Patent law

Restriction and divisional applications

Generalists write applications that span art units, so restriction practice matters: when an application claims independent or distinct inventions the examiner can require an election (35 U.S.C. 121; MPEP 802 to 806), and the non-elected inventions can follow in divisional applications (MPEP 201.06).

The registration exam itself tests patent law and USPTO procedure from the MPEP, not your technical field. See the patent bar exam overview for format and scoring.

Other routes

If your degree title differs

Category A is matched on the subject your transcript names. Titles close to general engineering are handled like this:

Engineering, Engineering Science or B.S.E. without a major: Reviewed for equivalence to General Engineering. Include course descriptions.
Engineering Management: Not printed in the bulletin. OED decides equivalence, or Category B applies.
Engineering Technology (general): Not on the Category A list. Category B or Category C (the FE exam) would apply.

If you don't qualify under Category A, Category B counts science and engineering coursework (courses for science or engineering majors, grade C- or better):

Option 1: 24 semester hours in physics (physics courses for physics majors).
Option 2: 32 semester hours: 8 in chemistry or physics plus 24 in biology, botany, microbiology or molecular biology.
Option 3: 30 semester hours in chemistry (chemistry courses for chemistry majors).
Option 4: 40 semester hours: 8 in chemistry or physics plus 32 in other listed science and engineering subjects.

Category C is for applicants with a bachelor's degree who pass the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam. Run your transcript through Do I Qualify? for a quick check, then read the full eligibility guide.

FAQ