This is a concern that I have. We hire lots of engineers, and I work with a lot of engineers, and they come to work and have no idea about intellectual property rights.
Waiting until you get to a law school curriculum or waiting until you get trained in the field as an agent is far too late. I believe that students need to have this training as part of their high school curriculum, at least in part. They don't need to know how to deal with the patent system, but they do need to know what the patent can do. It should be absolutely essential for business students and engineers to understand these things when they are coming out of university. I think waiting until they get into a job and having me knock on the door is way too late. I think knowing this would serve not only businesses like mine but also those individuals you're speaking of.