The Informals are a group of trainee patent attorneys in various stages of the profession, from various firms, across the UK. The Informals represent the interests of student members of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA), both within CIPA and towards other professional bodies.
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I began my career as a trainee patent attorney 12 months ago, after spending nearly a decade in academia. Looking back, I was prepared for working on real cases from day one and for a steep learning curve that is often discussed on careers websites – actually, these exciting challenges attracted me to the job in the first place.
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Recently, we were invited to observe an opposition hearing before the European Patent Office (EPO).
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James holds a first class Master of Chemistry degree (MChem) from the University of York. His masters project focused on synthesis and expansion of medium-sized organic rings. James’ work in industry included significant synthetic contributions to oncological drug discovery projects.
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On the 18 and 19 October 2022, I attended a two-day conference at Alderley Bioscience Park hosted by BioNow. Appleyard Lees sponsored the event and we have been regular attendees of BioNow conferences for many years. Over the course of two days, a series of talks were held by renowned researchers in the fields of oncology and precision medicine.
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Talks began with Eskil Waage from the EPO joining by video link. He’s been working on the Unitary Patent (UP) and Unified Patent Court (UPC) since 2008, so has a wealth of experience, and gave a presentation on the differences between European Patent Office (EPO) opposition and UPC revocation action.
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On 14 September, I attended the Northern Gamechangers awards organised by Elevate, Manchester
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At Appleyard Lees, trainee patent attorneys prepare for exams in a number of different ways. There is informal on the job training, such as drafting replies to client emails, studying for the exams in your own time, and in-house tutorials, then there are external revision courses. I’ve found that each of these components plays an important role in revising for the exams.
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On Thursday 09 June 2022, I attended the Manchester Legal Awards at the Midland Hotel with some of my colleagues from the Manchester office. It was the first time that the event had been held for two years due to the pandemic.
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On the 11th and 12th of May, Appleyard Lees held a professional development program (PDP) in Leeds for the trainees at the firm. The PDP featured talks on various topics, presented by people in several positions across the firm, as well as an external presenter. PDP was an invaluable experience to all regardless of whether we had just started a few weeks ago or a few years ago.
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Medilink are a specialist consultancy for the life-sciences sector in the North of England. Appleyard Lees had sponsored the Partnership with Academia Award. The award was won by LightOx, a business developing light activated chemotherapy for treatment of early-stage mouth cancers.
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