MIP podcasts

In this special podcast, Managing IP talks to a charity that is working tirelessly to support mental health initiatives in the IP profession.

“It’s not just about being nice – it’s about business sense,” was one of many themes to emerge from our hour-long discussion with the charity Jonathan’s Voice to mark World Mental Health Day, October 10. 

Jonathan McCartney, after whom the charity is named, was a UK patent attorney who tragically took his own life in 2017 at the age of 35. He was described as loyal, kind, and loving, always doing his best for, and by, everyone.

On the podcast, his father Graham McCartney reveals that Jonathan’s death came as a complete shock after his son “appeared to hit a brick wall, mentally”. The family wanted to pay tribute to Jonathan’s life and create positive change for others, so they created the charity in his name.  

One of the key figures is Penelope Aspinall, who joined Jonathan’s Voice in 2022 as a mental health consultant and lead trainer. She accompanied Graham on the podcast, with the discussion hosted by Managing IP’s editor-in-chief Ed Conlon. 

Jonathan’s Voice spearheads and supports a number of initiatives, both in the UK and internationally, and collaborates with various organisations including IP Inclusive and the UKIPO. Graham describes one of the academics they work with as an “inspiration in the field of suicide research”.

As Graham and Penelope discuss, deadlines are the biggest cause of stress and anxiety in IP. A survey last year showed that around 50% of people were considering leaving their firm or the profession because of stress and anxiety. “It is shocking,” Penelope says. 

On the podcast, Graham and Penelope cover a wide range of important topics, including:

·       The themes their work has identified; 

·       How senior IP leaders can set the right culture in their firms;

·       What attorneys should be offered when they are promoted;

·       What Jonathan’s Voice’s ultimate goals are;

·       How people can support the charity; and

·       Their key message for anyone, including anyone in IP, who is struggling with mental health

If you’d like to learn more about Jonathan’s Voice, please visit the website jonathansvoice.org.uk or contact Graham directly at [email protected].

Managing IP would like to thank Graham and Penelope for their time and to wish them all the best in their important endeavours.

The monthly IP Lounge podcast will return next month. 

In the first episode of a two-part podcast series, Adams & Adams partner Mandy Swanepoel and senior associate Lisa van Zuydam discuss the complex topic of trade dress and its unique application in the African continent. 

Talking to Managing IP's Tom Baker, Mandy and Lisa provide practical examples of distinctive uses of trade dress to protect a product's brand, and consider both the trademark and non-trademark tools used to prevent infringement and imitation. 

In the latest episode of our monthly podcast, the team discusses law firm merger strategies, a high-profile break-up, and the latest 5G patent developments.

It’s been another busy month for the Managing IP editorial team.

In this episode of The IP Lounge, deputy editor Max Walters is joined by Sukanya Sarkar, our senior reporter in Asia, and Rory O’Neill, our senior reporter based in Europe.

We discuss how law firms find their perfect matches and what they consider before entering into mergers. As it happens, firms are not so different to us humans when it comes to picking partners.

Sadly, though, where there are unions there are also splits, and we review the high-profile break-up between Dentons and Dacheng Law Offices in China and ask if it may prompt future separations. 

Elsewhere, we cover the long-awaited launch of Avanci’s 5G patent pool and a 5G licensing deal between Huawei and Ericsson.

In the latest episode of our monthly podcast, the team discusses their early memories of covering IP before delving into the latest on the UPC and whether a proposed US study could threaten the future of pharma patents

It’s been another busy month for the Managing IP editorial team. 

In this episode of The IP Lounge, we are joined by our newest recruit, Sam Sholli. To welcome Sam, our reporters discuss how they got to grips with the intellectual property when they were in their first weeks of the job. 

We also discuss the Unified Patent Court (UPC), including the extent to which national courts will still play a role if the UPC becomes a dominant force. 

Over in the US, lawmakers are considering a study that would determine the merits of phasing out patents and monopoly-based incentives for drugmakers and replacing them with a prize system that would reward the development of successful drugs.

Finally, we discuss the reaction to the latest draft text of the World Health Organization’s pandemic treaty.

It’s been another busy month for the Managing IP editorial team. Now that the Unified Patent Court is firmly on the scene companies are beginning to decide their strategies. 

In this episode of The IP Lounge, our reporters in India and the US provide special insight into how Asian and US companies are approaching Europe’s new patent litigation system.

We also discuss industry reaction to trademark reform in Japan and China, whether the troubled relationship between the US and China is affecting legal practices, and dissect two US Supreme Court rulings.

Finally, we delve into the latest attempt at US patent reform and ask whether recent proposals are likely to succeed or fail.

In the latest episode of our monthly podcast, the team joins you live from the Managing IP Intellectual Property & Innovation Summit in London, where SEPs and the UPC were both top of mind.

It’s been another busy month for the Managing IP editorial team with the build-up to the Unified Patent Court and subsequent launch, on June 1, taking centre stage.

In this episode of The IP Lounge podcast, which we recorded from the IP & Innovation Summit held in London last week, we discuss industry reaction to the UPC as well as the latest on the European Commission’s plans to overhaul the EU’s standard-essential patent framework.

We also delve into the race for the EUIPO leadership, which has taken a major step towards completion, while our team members share their views on other hot topics discussed during the conference and what’s been happening elsewhere.

In the third episode of our monthly podcast, the Managing IP editorial team unpacks standard essential patent news, the probe into Judge Pauline Newman, and the biggest stories elsewhere.

April was a big month for SEP stakeholders, especially after the European Commission released plans to stamp out excessive royalty demands and put the EUIPO in charge of setting fair terms.

In this episode, our team analyses the latest SEP news in Europe and India and considers what’s to come.

We also delve into the USPTO’s Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking related to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, Ed Sheeran copyright litigation and trends at China’s Supreme People’s Court.

Elsewhere, our team shares their views on the investigation into Judge Newman at the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

In the second episode of our monthly podcast, the Managing IP editorial team unpacks a busy month at SCOTUS, the EU’s solution to the FRAND conundrum, and the biggest stories elsewhere.

March was a busy month at the US Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments in Amgen v Sanofi and Jack Daniel's v VIP Products. In the second episode of The IP Lounge podcast, our team runs through the arguments and shares practitioners’ insights on what might come next.

We also discuss this month’s surprising news from the EU, which is lining up the EUIPO – the trademark office – to determine fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory rates for standard essential patents. 

Elsewhere, we look ahead to April’s likely talking points – including the one-year anniversary of Kathi Vidal’s tenure as USPTO director and World IP Day, which takes place on April 26.

In the first of a new monthly podcast, the Managing IP editorial team unpack the race for the top job at the EUIPO, the key UPC trends to watch, and the biggest stories in Asian IP.

The search for a new EUIPO executive director is on and competition is fierce. There are three candidates already in the public domain, each with significant ties to the office. In the first episode of The IP Lounge podcast, our team runs through the contenders and explains how we got here. We also discuss the official start of the Unified Patent Court and what to watch from now until the end of the sunrise period on June 1. Finally, we look at the proposed overhaul of China’s trademark laws and India’s possible abandonment of more than 180,000 trademark filings.

In the third episode of a three-part podcast series by Adams & Adams on doing business within the dynamic intellectual property world of Africa, the firm’s partner Wilhelm Prozesky and Adv Rory Voller, Commissioner of the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC), explore the latest trends surrounding patents in South Africa.

Adv Voller provides a status update on the CIPC’s move from a formal examination system towards a substantive search and examination (SSE) system for patent applications in South Africa, after a decade-long consultation. He discusses the progress of actions taken so far, looks ahead at the challenges of implementation, and explains how Adams & Adams have been involved in the transformation.

In a chat with Managing IP’s Rani Mehta, Prozesky and Adv Voller discuss the benefits for patentees once SSE has been implemented, while also considering the changes in assignment requirements and other notable procedural changes at the Patent Office that patentees and businesses need to be aware of.