You were doing fine right up to:
Therefore, neither could have ever developed an expertise in matters of intellectual property law. Intellectual property truely is a dead end, on the other hand there is no basis for stating that a non-techie cannot under any circumstances develop into a very competent expert in that realm.
PS: If anyone doubts the dead end statement, check out who gets laid off first or replaced last when money is tight.
PPS: It's virtually a non-issue under any government contract.