Mentorship, Mindsets and Managing Bias

In honor of World IP Day 2023, IPWatchdog yesterday hosted a webinar on this year’s theme: Women and Intellectual Property: Accelerating Innovation and Creativity. This webinar, sponsored by her IP.com, is a positive environment for advocates of the US intellectual property system to begin thinking about how young professionals can approach a career in the field of intellectual property law. We’ve focused on the many ways you can create your own.

This responsibility was led by Renee Quinn, IPWatchdog’s Chief Operating Officer, who has been responsible for the business side of IPWatchdog, Inc. for the past 16 years. She was joined by her Alison Erickson, Hallmark’s assistant legal counsel. Susanne Hollinger, Chief Intellectual Property Counsel at Newell Brands. Marlene Valderrama, Senior IP Asset Manager and Lead Technology Scout at Halliburton, said:

The breadth of IP work allows young women to enjoy careers across subjects

While each panelist took a different path towards their current career in the IP field, they discussed some commonalities to help them start building their IP careers. Valderrama said he was grateful to his early mentors and managers at Halliburton for encouraging him to ask questions and voice his opinions on subjects the team was discussing. agree that is important early in their careers, adding that the isolated environment makes it difficult for women in the IP space to strike the right balance on how to confidently present themselves and their opinions. Hollinger admitted that claiming to be an inventor can be intimidating, especially in a large team.

Erickson said it is important to get good mentorship and work on career thinking based on lack of knowledge about career breadth and scope in intellectual property. she explained:

“I used to think that if I was a chemist, I had to go into chemistry. No one explained to me that some of the first patent applications would be about computers, telecommunications, and mechanics… Young women aspiring to science and aspiring legal professions need to be reminded , I think the thing is that your technical mind is your greatest asset and you don’t have to drill holes just in chemistry or biology, you can apply it in many different fields.”

The subject of intellectual property is incredibly broad, but Quinn also pointed out that there are many paths to an IP career that don’t necessarily include law school. Many of these paths are available, Quinn said. This is because there are an incredible number of everyday activities affected by intellectual property. “Most people who aren’t in this field don’t realize how much it affects everyone,” she said. You write a song and it affects you.” Quinn also denies the stereotypes surrounding women with children in the intellectual property field, and motherhood is a challenge during a webinar with patent experts. She points out that her own experience shows that motherhood enhances her ability to juggle many different types of jobs. She builds herself into a stronger role model.

Creating an environment for more authentic communication is one way executives can promote IP among junior women and spark interest in IP. Erickson spoke with a diverse group of attendees about her efforts to host innovation harvesting sessions that invite conversations about corporate innovation beyond formal invention disclosures. Hollinger added that another effective way for her to promote junior women is to find opportunities to introduce the inventor team’s work to the company’s senior management.

Connect with local schools and find opportunities to mentor young STEM professionals

One way to reach the younger generation and start fostering an IP and innovation mindset among girls in grades K-12 is through volunteer time visiting science and math classes at local schools, Valderrama said. I gave my opinion. She talked about her experience working in her lab, a high school business. There she was able to direct the attention of female students designing shoes to the copyright and trademark protection that students may wish to obtain for their designs. . Valderrama said potential mentors can easily find such opportunities by discussing connections with local schools held by the company or law firm. Several panelists also offered the opportunity to instill in the girl a potential career in STEM fields and intellectual property law in the future by holding a girl’s career her day at a company or corporate legal department. I also agreed to provide.

Overall, the useful introduction of the topic of IP into everyday conversations with friends, acquaintances, and family members has contributed to the importance of the field among people who would otherwise not be involved in IP. raise awareness. Ericsson talked about a teaching moment for his daughter. When her daughter was very young, he said, her grandparents were trying to deliver her “coffee,” a classical music CD that Erickson’s daughter enjoyed. “It’s not ‘coffee’ and we had to argue for a long time about not copying other people’s work illegally,” Ericsson said. In volunteering with her local Girl Scout troop, Ericsson found that her scouts often confused copyright and trademark issues, and had more opportunities to engage with them on IP subjects.

Implicit Workplace Bias Concern Remains Despite DEI Policy

While moderating the panel, Quinn conducted a series of polls asking webinar attendees for their views on several issues related to women in IP careers. The most notable result was that 71% of respondents indicated that their company had a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policy in place, while 85% of webinar participants said they It shows that they felt they needed to deal with their implicit biases more. “I think the way to remove these prejudices is to shine a light on them,” said Hollinger. “If you’re in an all-female group and you’re working as a unicorn at a tech company, you might want to promote yourself as a unicorn.”

World Intellectual Property Day was designated by the Member States of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 2000 as April 26 (the date the WIPO Treaty entered into force in 1970).