I’m a patent attorney in the IT & Engineering team at Gill Jennings & Every LLP (‘GJE’) and have been at the firm since graduating from university in 2002. In that time, I’ve worked my way up from trainee to partner, and made the most of some unusual opportunities that came along, to shake things up a little!
Like most patent attorneys you’ll speak to, I’d never heard of the profession when I started university – I was doing Natural Sciences at Cambridge, focusing on physics, and initially planned to go into research. However by my third year I found that I really enjoyed the more applied (and less theoretical) side of the course, so I shifted my focus to materials science and started exploring careers outside academia. I was particularly keen to find something which “bridged the gap” between scientists and non-scientists, and that’s when the university careers service suggested patents. I met GJE at a careers fair and the rest, as they say, is history.
My first few years training were challenging but also a lot of fun. I was one of a cohort of new trainees at GJE so we were all on the same steep learning curve together, which was a great source of support – we are still close friends all these years later. The qualifying exams required a lot of study during evenings and weekends but we all got through them, with thanks to tutorials and marking of mock papers provided by the more senior attorneys. Now I do the same for our exam-sitters each year.
Throughout training, I worked on a wide variety of technologies, including gas sensors, toys, photocopiers, semiconductors and welding methods. At that stage the majority of my work involved obtaining patents for our clients – for instance, drafting new applications or working out how to deal with objections raised by the patent examiners. I was also lucky enough to meet many of our clients’ inventors, often real experts at the very forefront of their field.
In 2008 I became a senior associate, taking on responsibility for my own clients and case-load, as well as becoming more involved with other aspects of life at the firm – my favourite part of which was leading the social committee. By that stage I had started doing more and more work on security devices for banknotes and passports – things like holograms, UV features and micro-optics. That’s not something I’d ever studied at university but it quickly developed into something of a niche for me, and now the majority of my work is in this area.
That brought with it the opportunity to get involved in EPO oppositions – the most “contentious” type of work that patent attorneys typically handle – and now oppositions take up the bulk of my time, as they are so involved. I’m not complaining though: whilst stressful, there’s nothing quite like the buzz of winning a difficult hearing.
During my time as a senior associate, after 14 years or so at GJE, I decided it was time to mix it up a bit and applied to Remote Year – it’s a company that enables people to take their job and make it remote. So, with GJE’s support, I packed my laptop up and spent 12 months travelling the world while continuing to work remotely. It was quite a year: I managed to visit 15 countries, and fit in bucket-list items such as trekking the Inca Trail, all while maintaining my case work – and winning a major EPO appeal hearing during a pit stop
in Munich!
On my return to London, I applied for promotion to partner and was very pleased to step into this role at the beginning of 2018. With this came extra responsibilities for supervising trainees and junior attorneys, as well as helping with aspects of running the firm. My particular focus is on HR matters, including people development and training, and I now run the diversity & inclusion group here. I was also very involved with supporting colleagues during the pandemic.
More recently, not wanting to stay too long in my comfort zone, I was able to take a long-service sabbatical in 2023 during which I went to Costa Rica and worked with Raleigh International, running the logistics for their expeditions out there. While it was something completely different from my day job, it proved to me that the skills you develop as a patent attorney are transferrable – an eye for detail turns out to be just as useful counting tins of chickpeas as it is spotting the wrong word in a patent claim, after all!
All in all it’s been an eventful career so far, and I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next.
Patent Attorney / Partner / Gill Jennings & Every
Last Updated: October 30, 2024