I should have realized that. Thanks.
For a person having a degree in any non-technical discipline, the US Patent and Trademark Office would never have allowed such person to come before them.
Being an intellectual property attorney without having passed the Patent Bar exam is possible but probably less useful than having a medical degree without a license. At least when you have a medical degree, you have hope of someday getting a license.
When you then consider that aunt esther was also doing marketing, the picture rapidly forms of a person just starting out from Harvard and already on a dead end track. And to consider that she was baracks assigned mentor strongly suggests they were both doing similar "harmless" work.