My Summer of IP Experience: Putting Patent Claim Drafting into Practice

In this blog post for Summer of IP 2026, Kadija Begum shares her experience attending one of our Employer Events – an IP Taster Day at Venner Shipley. As well as getting a sense of the people and working environment, she got the chance to draft a patent claim for a real invention and consider how this might need amending following patent office examination.

Kadija writes:

I’ve become a regular at IP Inclusive and Careers in Ideas events this summer, subscribing to their events calendar and using it to keep up with the latest opportunities and events. When I saw Venner Shipley’s taster day listed, I knew I wanted to be there, but applications were closed. I reached out directly to the coordinator to ask if for availability, and thankfully there was space for me to join, which meant on 27^th July 2026 I found myself at Venner Shipley’s London office for a full work experience day.

The day started with an introduction to Venner Shipley from the HR team, along with a talk covering the firm’s history, the different types of intellectual property (IP), how to apply for patents and trade marks, and what a career in IP can look like. We were then given a tour of the office, which was a beautifully designed space that immediately gave a sense of the kind of firm Venner Shipley is. We met a partner during the tour, and what stood out to me most across the whole day was how friendly and approachable everyone was, from trainees through to partners.

Next, a trainee patent attorney went through the exam structure for both UK and European qualification routes and what training involves day to day at Venner Shipley, which was useful grounding before moving into the practical part of the day.

That practical session was the highlight for me: a drafting and response exercise built around a real granted patent Venner Shipley had worked on. We started by looking at the client’s invention, its background, and its inventive feature and purpose. As a group, we drafted our own claim for the invention in a broad fashion, mentioning only the inventive features. We then worked through the examiner’s written opinion, which pointed to a specific piece of prior art disclosing much of what our independent claim covered. We discussed exactly where that overlap was, reworked the claim to address it, and then compared what we’d come up with to the actual claim that was amended and granted. It was a great, practical way to understand how claim drafting responds to search results in practice, which is something I’d only really understood in theory before. We ended the day with an open question and answer session with a partner from the firm, where we could ask anything we wanted about the firm and the profession.

I want to say a huge thank you to Venner Shipley for hosting such a well-organised and engaging day. It’s given me a clearer picture of what claim drafting involves, and I am looking forward to develop this in other IP events coming up this summer.