Patents are a negative property right. They give you the right to stop someone doing something (but they do not automatically give you the right to do it). They protect inventions and provide a monopoly for a limited term (up to 20 years).
My job is to write the document which will provide this protection. A patent application is both a technical and a legal document. So I have to understand what has been invented, how it is different from what is already known and then generalise the concept to get the broadest scope of protection which is feasible. I also need to correspond with the patent office to overcome objections and get the patent granted. This might involve making amendments to the application - the original document must contemplate these amendments as you can’t add anything extra after filing.
I also deal with freedom to operate. This is where I try and make sure that a new product doesn’t infringe any patents belonging to other people. If I identify any problematic patents, then I assess whether or not they are valid (not every granted patent is valid).
I’m not sure I have a ‘typical’ day. I have a diary list which I have to keep on top of. This is a list of all the objections raised by various patent offices and the deadline for responding to them. So I check that more or less daily.
I also meet with R&D scientists to try and understand what they are working on, how we might protect it and what experiments they need to do to support a patent application.
Sometimes I go to hearings at the patent office to argue my case (usually either why my granted patent is valid and should be maintained or why a competitors patent is invalid and should be revoked). This can be fun and you get a decision in ‘real time’, but you need to do a lot of preparation beforehand and be totally on top of the case.