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How COVID has changed the lives of women in IP
Panellists at the International Women’s Leadership Forum discussed how 2020 has altered their profession, and why diversity and empathy are more important than ever

In past years speakers at Managing IP’s International
Women’s Leadership Forum sat behind tables in hotel ballrooms and shared
insights on important topics like finding the right mentor, confidence building,
and intellectual property strategy.
And while the speakers at this year’s virtual forum did
touch on those issues, the one topic that surfaced in every panel was how the
pandemic has changed their lives. Panellists mentioned that through working
from home, changing jobs, or managing employees at a distance, COVID-19 made
them rethink things they took for granted about their role.
- IP
counsel reflect on gender challenges and progress
- The importance of mentorship for women in IP
- Female IP leaders divulge COVID-created career challenges
Leadership qualities
Kate Swaine, partner at Gowling WLG in London, began her
discussion on leadership and building for the next generation by asking panellists
how they define leadership and whether or not leadership means something
different for the young generation of lawyers starting their career during the
pandemic.
Speakers emphasised that qualities such as empathy and
compassion have been essential for good leadership over the past nine months.
Victoria Head, head of legal at the Football Association in
London, said it is important for leaders to communicate with their teams and
understand that while the pandemic has affected everyone, it has not been the
same for every employee.
“I think the last nine months have made certain qualities of
leadership come to the fore. I think empathy is the strongest trait leaders
have shown and understanding that everybody is dealing with professional
stresses and strains,” she said.
Work-life balance
The panellists agreed that working from home has several
advantages such as shorter commutes and more time with family. The downside,
however, is that many employees have found it difficult to switch off and put
their computers away.
Judith Garritzmann, assistant general counsel at pharmaceutical
company Elanco in Munich, said it is important for those in management
positions to encourage employees who are working from home to separate their work
and home lives.
“I don’t think women allow themselves to make room for
everything and they feel they have to hide their personal life or hide that
they have kids. We need to have conversations about this,” said Garritzmann.
Parjeet Tawana, director of patents at Benevolent AI in
London, agreed and added that for many women with small children at home, it
has been especially difficult to juggle work and family obligations during the
pandemic. One suggestion she had was to take small breaks throughout the day
and get a change of scenery.
She said: “I’ve suffered from guilt and thought I wasn’t
doing enough with home schooling and balancing my own work. We have to be more
purposeful with the time we have. Take half an hour and go for a walk away from
the computer without thinking about work.”
Diversity at work
Elizabeth Weiswasser,
partner at Weil Gotshal & Mangesin New York City, began her
panel on inclusion and diversity in the workplace by asking panellists to
explain what they have done to help foster an inclusive work environment.
Hazel Thorpe, senior
patent examiner at the UKIPO, said that her office has several diversity groups
including ones for women, ethnic minorities, and neurodiversity, which is the
idea that neurological differences like autism and ADHD are the
result of normal, natural variation in the human genome
She told the panel
that at first her workplace discussed having a gender group where both men and
women could share their experiences, but after contacting staff she found that
many members wanted a women’s-only network.
“The feedback we received from members of staff was that
it’s important to have a safe space to talk about women’s matters,” she said.
Anita Shaw, patent attorney at IBM in London, said that
without diversity her company would not be able to innovate and keep up with
competitors. She added that diversity is not something companies should think about
only after global events in the news, and that business leaders should make
sure that every employee considers their company to be a safe space.
“Diversity is part of innovation and as soon as you have a
diverse team you have different points of view coming from different
backgrounds. As a firm it helps us to think more broadly and get closer to our
clients who are diverse,” she said.
“If you come from a small company or firm that doesn’t have
a group for diversity and inclusion, don’t be scared to start that conversation
within your company leadership. There are folks who can help you, like IP
Inclusive. My message is: you don’t have to do this by yourself.”
Pandemic strategy
The pandemic not only affected where people work by
shuttering offices and moving everyone to the kitchen table, it also had an impact
on corporate IP strategy.
Ann-Charlotte
Järvinen, partner at AWA in Stockholm, led the panel on managing corporate IP
in a volatile and changing landscape. She began by asking panellists to
describe how COVID-19 has affected their companies, and how they were facing
the challenges created by the pandemic.
Sharon Harrison,
trademark counsel at Mondelēz International in Birmingham, UK, said that the
pandemic has caused an increase in sales, and infringement.
“We’ve had some specific issues with COVID and infringement.
There have been many phishing scams and COVID merchandise like face masks with
unauthorised features of our brand. We’ve had some interesting discussions
about how to resolve this,” she said.
Harrison told the panel that infringement cases have
increased by 100 compared to this time last year, and that surprisingly much of
it is COVID-related.
“We did not expect this level of infringement; we have seen
things like Oreos [sandwich cookies] on face masks that sold on Etsy. We have
no quality control over this and it’s been really interesting to see how things
evolved over the year,” she said.
For Sue Ratcliffe, head of IP at chemical company Synthomer
in the UK, COVID created an increase in business activity and innovation. She
said that many of her engineers have become more creative under lockdown, which
has led to an increase in patentable ideas.
“We haven’t had as many people in the lab, but one
difference this year is that people have had more time to be innovative because
they’ve had more room to think about things. This has led to more innovation
and ideas. This means my workload has increased,” she said.
Stay at home?
When asked whether anyone on the panel was looking forward
to working from the office again, Harrison chimed in that although working from
home has its advantages, there are certain aspects of office life that she
misses.
“There are the anecdotal conversations on the way to the
coffee machine, for example. It is so much easier to just pop your head around
the desk and ask a quick question rather than craft an email. It’s important to
have those calls and connections and have fun.”
Fun will probably not be what comes to mind when people reflect
on 2020, but it is hoped that empathy and leadership will be.
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