Intellectual Property UK Job Market Report

Intellectual Property UK Job Market Report

It has been quite some time since I’ve put together an IP job market report, so I thought I had better outline exactly what it is. Well, it’s an entirely anecdotal view on the current opportunities within the IP sector from our experience of it. We do act for most patent and trade mark firms in the UK as well as an assortment of corporate clients and law firms so hopefully this article will give you a sense for what might be going on and how that could influence your next steps.

Electronics/physics/computer science patent attorneys are difficult to find, which means if you are one, opportunities abound….

Yes, pretty much every firm in the UK is recruiting in this technical area, so my advice would be even if you have only a modicum of dissatisfaction with your current firm moving is highly likely to improve the situation, largely due to the overwhelming range of available options and therefore choice. You are very likely to get a salary bump too. Don’t use more than one recruiter, it will lead to duplication and chaos without any discernible benefit. Be very specific about what you want, make sure that the recruiter you work with understands this and be sure your CV doesn’t end up anywhere you don’t expect.

Engineering is pretty busy too…

It’s not quite as busy as electronics but there are some really exciting options, particularly if you are looking for a position outside of London. (Side note: regional positions for patent attorneys pay the same as London, so there is highly likely to be a net financial benefit even if you moved for the same salary, although you would likely achieve an increase). Firms will offer a relocation allowance and career advancement can often be easier to achieve outside London where there is less competition from peers.

Biotechnology and chemistry are slowly getting there…

It has not been particularly busy in these technical areas but it’s certainly busier than it has been. There are vacancies in chemistry in London and the north at part qualified level as well as firms being more open to Partner level hires (such as this one in the Northwest).

Moving as a Partner is easier than ever before although it’s still not plain sailing.

Firms are much more open than they have been at any time in the last ten years to considering hiring attorneys directly into the partnership. If you do feel trapped by your current circumstances an exit is certainly possible. From our point of view a very softly-softly approach works best and we will work with you to find a match without telling the world you are looking to move. We have had quite a few recent successes of attorneys joining firms as a salaried partner and also some cases of an equity offer. We can also advise on the best way to extricate yourself from your firm and give our thoughts on the terms of your contract.

Trade marks remains an unusual beast.

Trade mark attorney recruitment is never busy and it’s never not busy. Positions come and go but rarely at the same time. We are recruiting a couple of amazing associate positions in Manchester and in London at the moment as well as a Partner level hire in London.

If you want to move to the UK, now might just be the time.

Firms are much more open to visa sponsorship, particularly in the areas of engineering and electronics/physics. We’re particularly looking for people who are newly or recently qualified and prepared to cross qualify.

And finally…

We don’t only recruit in the UK, if you are a firm struggling to find intellectual property staff, either fee earners or senior operations, perhaps our approach can find some stones still left unturned.

For a full list of what we’re recruiting for have a look at www.fellowsandassociates.com/jobs 

IP News Round Up

IP News Round Up

It seems that there's lots of juicy IP news to report to you, we've picked some of our favourites here:

Harry and Meghan trademark their items!

We’re pretty sure you will have heard by now that Prince Harry and Meghan have decided to take a step back from their royal duties but you may not know that the pair registered a trademark for their organisation last year; Sussex Royal the Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. This saw them separated from Prince William and Kate. It seems that their step back could have been a carefully thought out plan with them reportedly trademarking more than 100 items to their Sussex Royal brand more than six months ago. This includes pencils, socks and bookmarks which could possibly set them up to pursue new business opportunities in their new ‘financially independent life’. The registered trademark will allow Meghan and Harry to ‘take legal action’ against anyone who uses their brand without permission according to the UK’s government website. 

You can read more about this here. 

Celebrities go wild trying to trademark their lives:

Many celebrities file for trademarks each year to prevent others from making a profit from their ideas, phrases or names. Some of these strange examples are:

Taylor Swift trademarking her three cats’ names, Meredith, Olivia and Benjamin Swift. She also tried to trademark the lyrics from her song ‘This sick beat’ and ‘Nice to meet you. Where you been?’

Kim Kardashian controversially tried to trademark the name ‘Kimono’ for her new shapewear line but was greeted with much backlash for cultural appropriation after the name kimono was referenced to a traditional Japanese garment.

Cardi B filed a trademark for the word ‘okurrr’ and it’s misspelling. Many people felt she was not the rightful owner of the phrase and therefore her application was denied.

Kylie Jenner is trying to trademark the phrase ‘rise and shine’ after she went viral for singing to her daughter Stormi when she woke her. 

You can read more about this here.

Dame Vera Lynn wins trademark battle:

Halewood International say that Vera Lynn is cockney rhyming slang for gin however, Dame Vera opposed their trademark and claimed it could be construed as her endorsing the product. She is a 102-year-old singer who is well-known for many reasons. It would be inevitable that the public would believe that she has endorsed the gin products. Fiona McBride, partner at Withers & Rogers said ‘she won the case to protect the use of her own name as a well-known singer and charity worker.’

You can read more about this here.

Fortnite lose copyright legal battle:

The video game Fortnite has become increasingly popular last year, it has in-game dances which are based on pop culture references and add an interesting twist to the game. Fortnite inventor Epic Games has been in a legal battle over the famous ‘Carlton Dance’ which premiered on the show ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel Air’. The US Copyright Office said that the movements from the dance were too simple and therefore could not be protected by copyright. 

You can read more about this here.

Music copyright lawsuits are worrying artists:

Chart-topping musicians such as Ed Sheeran and Katy Perry have been slapped with infringement lawsuits like never before. Sandy Wilbur; a forensic musicologist claims she’s received triple the number of requests from music companies to double-check songs before they are even considered for release. Copyright laws used to only protect lyrics and melodies but it seems that rhythm, tempo and even the general feel of a song are also eligible for protection. A jury in 2019 ruled that Katy Perry owed millions for copying the beat of her hit ‘Dark Horse’ from a little-known song by rapper Flame while Ed Sheeran settled an undisclosed amount of approximately £16m to Matt Cardle when he was accused of copying note for note of Matt’s song ‘Amazing’ in his song ‘Photograph’.

You can read more about this here. 

Do you have any more to share with us? Let us know on contact@fellowsandassociates.com 

My short career as a teacher - part 1

My time as a teacher and why I won't be going back!

Rebecca Wood is a Recruitment Consultant at Fellows Finance. She has written this article so that you can learn a little bit more about her.

I’m not sure when I decided I wanted to be a teacher, it just seemed to be a decision I made at college. The teachers at my sixth form really pushed everyone to apply to university but from what I remember, not many people really knew what they wanted to do. I liked the idea of being a teacher, I was good with kids, (what else really mattered?) it was a respectable job and my wage would be pretty good eventually. I began applying to universities and attending interviews. I remember being so nervous and awkward at my first interview. We had to read a section of The Gruffalo (if you haven’t read this you need to!) aloud to a circle of strangers. I was so embarrassed; some people were putting on their scariest Gruffalo voice and I wanted the ground to swallow me up. One thing I came to learn was, acting silly in front of 30 children is fine, acting silly in front of any number of adults is humiliating. It was safe to say I didn’t get a place at that university.

Some time passed and I received my A Level results, I was going to Manchester Metropolitan University to study Primary Education. How exciting! I’d been doing some work experience beforehand and loved being in schools, I couldn’t wait to be a teacher. The first day of university was a little daunting, I didn’t know a soul and didn’t live in the usual halls of residence so had no friends to travel with. I spotted a girl on the bus, I’m not sure how but I just knew we were going to be friends. I did the only thing that I could do in this situation – made sure I found a seat next to her inside. It worked out well for me, she happened to be in lots of my classes and is going to be my bridesmaid later this year!

The university course was strange. We would have 3 hours long classes instructing us on how to clap rhythms or how to make puppets and clay models. What I learned didn’t correlate with the money I was paying for the course, the tutors seemed to teach us how to be children rather than how to teach children. I would have rather have been in bed most of the time. After all, I could have easily searched on line on how to clap ‘frog, tadpole, frog, frog.’ Although this was the case with my course, we were able to gain practical experience teaching children on a variety of school placements. Looking back now, they did not prepare us for the hell of the real thing.

After university I moved back home to Pontefract for a month where I continued my student job as a lifeguard. Rather than applying for teaching jobs like my friends, I was preparing for a 4-month trip around South East Asia. It was the best time of my life, I came back more than a stone heavier and was so sick of sleeping on mattresses slept on by an average of 5000 people, I thought I was ready to settle down and get a full-time job. I arrived back from the trip in January and began working as a supply teacher. Obviously, I needed money after the trip so when an opportunity came up for a long-term position at a school, I jumped at the chance. A recruitment consultant set me up for the job, failing to mention that I was about to be teaching the worst class out of the 21 in the school. Three teachers had left them since September due to their behaviour. I had no idea what I’d gotten myself in to, and I’ve definitely learnt a lesson from that recruitment consultant!

As a new teacher there’s a million and one things to learn, this school was not the place where I was going to learn a thing. I only had a TA for the mornings, which would have been fine if there wasn’t a child in the class who regularly produced number twos during class time, or another child who threw chairs at people at every opportunity. I found myself regularly hanging out of the door hoping that someone would walk by and rescue me from the disaster unfolding. After around three weeks and at least 10 crying sessions after school, the local authorities came to visit the school. This, and the dreaded Ofsted visit, are when even resilient teachers begin to crumble. Everyone was panicking.

I had a strong word with the children that morning, bribery is usually the way forward to get what you need from them. Obviously, the visit was falling on an afternoon when I had no TA so I explained to the class how they could benefit from great behaviour when our ‘special visitors’ arrived. What was I thinking? They didn’t care. I honestly remember looking up at this class in front of me and completely surrendering. I may as well have held my hands up and told them they’d won. One child was throwing rubbers across the classroom, another swearing, another about to start a fight with a child across the room. I could see the visitors’ faces in absolute horror and felt so helpless. I sat down at one table and pretended I couldn’t see what was happening with the rest of the children. It was such a terrible approach to teaching, I had no idea what else to do. I think it’s pretty obvious that I left that school that night.

Now this could have, and should have, put me off teaching for life. However, I’d spent four years at university for this career, I needed to pick myself up and search for an NQT (Newly Qualified Teacher) job to start in September. I was low in confidence by this point but somehow, at my first interview I managed to bag myself a job in a year 3 class which was super close to my home.

Perfect, I could finally be a real teacher…