The patent profession: visions for the future, problems for the present

The typical successful patent practitioner
of the mid-2030s: technically savvy multi-
tasking female, working from home ...

Visiting a group of patent and trade mark attorneys (but mainly patent folk) the other day for a friendly chat over a sandwich and sushi, I was asked what I thought the profile of a typical successful patent practitioner might be in 20 years time. My colleagues were a bit surprised and perhaps a bit amused when I opened with the words "She will be ..." since, while change is in the air, the patent profession is still under-represented by women, particularly when compared with the other major branches of intellectual property practice [on this topic, new readers to this weblog may wish to read the recent posts here and here, together with a selection of the best and worst of our readers' comments].  I added that the typical successful patent practitioner of the mid-2030s would almost certainly have a wider range of peripheral skills and knowledge and thus be able the better to engage with clients in taking a holistic approach to what the client may perceive as a purely legal issue. Thus, in answer to the question "can you patent my invention?", the client will not just receive a yes/no response but will be prompted to consider a variety of different commercial and strategic options. This Kat believes that  this is already happening to a not inconsiderable extent in many practices and among more experienced practitioners, but he feels that professional training and better use of information and resources already available online will enable the successful patent practitioner to advise across a larger spectrum of issues with greater confidence and at a higher level of competence than at present.

The unified patent court: newly
 hatched, but misconceived?

When it comes to litigation however, it is less easy to profile the successful patent practitioner, at least in the new Europe.  Regular patent attorneys, patent attorney litigators and solicitors are all equally disadvantaged by the ongoing uncertainty as to how the unitary patent and the unified patent court will change their lives and those of those of their clients, and as to the extent to which they will need to prioritise their cultivation of patent claim interpretation, drafting pleadings, manipulating procedural rules and advocacy.  The new system should be a newly-hatched chick, freshly emerging from its shell and ready to face the world as it assumes its pre-ordained form. Instead it more closely resembles a stream of escaped yolk, oozing from the shell in a direction of its own making: all agree that it may have some value, but will it in practical terms be of any use?

Group therapy plus refreshments and net-
working: the ideal mix for a patent conference

So how do we get from where we are now to where we want to be in, say, 2035?  There are three basic approaches: one, through the media, is based on the transmission of relevant legal fact and principle, so that it can be absorbed, understood, and applied where necessary. A second, through training courses, mock trials and workshops, gives people the opportunity to practise skills that require and transcend knowledge: writing specifications, drafting claims, pleadings and contracts, advocacy techniques and the like.  The third, of which this Kat is particularly fond, is the sharing of individual and collective uncertainty, ignorance and unfamiliarity with the best way to tackle uncharted issues: this for him is the best justification of the patent conference, where speeches and sessions are not mere exercises in the transmission of fact but a catalyst.  There, you have the chance to discover that you are not alone: your doubts and anxieties are those of the people attending with you, and both the sessions and the discussions surrounding them can provide insight where one there was a professional fog, clarity in place of confusion.  Although the word "networking" is overused by many conference organisers and disparaged by cynics as a euphemism for "having a good time, ideally at someone else's expense", a good conference gives those who attend the chance to speak with one another, to listen, to engage in professional dialogue and to come away with a sense of collegiality, a feeling that something has been gained by the sharing experience.  Judging by the fact that there have been a fairly large major international patent events over the past couple of years, most of which have been well attended, this Kat suspects that both those who organise these events and those who attend them feel much the same way as he does.

On a personal level, this Kat notes with some pleasure that Managing Intellectual Property magazine's International Patent Forum 2015 will soon be with us, running on 10 and 11 March.  This year's must be the third, since he was pleased to announce the second last year.  This Kat -- who has a soft spot for the magazine since he founded it in 1990 and was its first editor -- is pleased to see that admission is free for in-house corporate and patent counsel, academics and R&D professionals and that it is once again offering a £300 discount to readers of this weblog who register for it [to claim this discount, private practitioners should email registrations@managingip.com, quoting "IPKAT"].  The venue is once again London's Waldorf Hilton Hotel, which is not 100 miles from his base in Holborn, so he may well be popping in to enjoy the ambience, say hello to his friends and pick up a little inspiration.

The line-up of speakers has some familiar countenances plus a sprinkling of new faces.  Corporate speakers include Clemens Heusch (Head of European Litigation. Nokia), Julie Dunnett (Director of IP, GKN Aerospace), Kevin Fournier (IBM), Leonid Kravets (Interdigital Communications), Ian Hiscock (Head of IP Policy and Litigation, Novartis) and Adam Pilcher (Metaswitch Networks), and this Kat will be curious to know how confident are the patent decision-making processes in the enterprises which they represent. To give just one example, he has heard several different versions of what US software patenting is all about in the wake of Alice v CLS Bank [noted on this blog by Darren here], but what is the reality on the ground so far as patents examined and granted before and after Alice are concerned, and for examiners, businesses and investors?  Likewise he has received mixed messages concerning China's patent grant and protection policies. These are great topics to talk through and to see how much consensus can be reached when patent owners and practitioners can get put their heads together.

The Forum's website can be accessed here. See you there?