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Pandemic musings from Greaves Brewster
Like many of you, as we’ve settled into the clichéd ‘new normal’, we’ve had to find new ways to stay connected with our clients, suppliers and, of course, each other. Whilst nothing beats a faceto-face catch up with a friend, client or colleague, we have learned over the past year or so that the technology at our disposal does allow us to maintain strong relationships and build new connections. Further, in using that technology we’ve been able to make some significant strides towards our social and environmental targets. To help us help our clients obtain their crucial patents, trade marks and designs, it’s vital that we understand each client’s business, goals and needs. Before 2020, we made regular visits to all of our clients to get to know them really well. In pandemic times, those meetings have been replaced primarily by video calls. We’ve found, surprisingly, that this can lead to even better contact, with clients being more inclined to set up a call than they might have been to have a meeting. Impromptu catch ups have allowed client work to progress more quickly than it might have otherwise, and have generated very close working relationships due to regular and less formal contact. We have also provided clients with updates via webinars, videos and articles, including guidance on how to meet the requirements of the patent process when you can’t be in the lab. If you are interested in any of these updates, visit our website or contact us. To allow easy discussion of potential new matters, in the absence of real-life meetings, we have offered virtual IP clinics which have helped both existing and prospective new clients to navigate any intellectual property issues they may be facing. We are continuing to offer these free to our fellow MediWales members. If you are interested,
then please feel free to book a slot at www. calendly.com/ip-clinic Securing IP protection, especially overseas, takes a whole team. We rely on the expertise of carefully selected attorneys in all of the jurisdictions in which our clients need coverage. We choose those attorneys on the basis of their technical and legal expertise, as well as their values and how they work. We rarely work with attorneys we haven’t met, usually either by connecting at conferences like BIO and INTA, or by visiting their offices. So as not to miss out, we organised a Greaves Brewster virtual world tour. Free from airport queues, missing luggage, jetlag and carbon emissions, our travels took us to New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, China, Canada, the length and breadth of the US, as well as destinations much closer to home. We shared meals and drinks, updated each other on new law and practice and met new team members.
There have also been changes in day-to-day work. Videoconferencing now plays an important part in IP prosecution, with virtually all hearings before the European Patent Office (EPO) moving online. This has enabled cases to progress despite the travel ban. Whilst we look forward to the resumption of in-person hearings for particularly complex, multiparty cases, the wider use of ViCo will reduce costs, both financial and environmental, for many hearings, which benefits us all.
Two of our most important questions in relation to remote work were whether we could maintain our connection with our colleagues, and how staff wellbeing might be affected. Having a happy, satisfied team is very important to us. We’ve missed
putting the world of IP to rights over a morning coffee in the Greaves Brewster kitchen and hearing about the latest antics of our colleagues’ pets and children. Video calls have successfully replaced much of this, but we are still working on how to create the serendipitous conversations that arise when one bumps into a colleague in the office. To maximise wellbeing, we’ve had a series of online get-togethers, fuelled by snack boxes of local produce, and we’ve had regular surprise deliveries including letterbox brownies, houseplants and recently pens in our GB blue colourway. Seeing a far away colleague use the same stationery created an unexpected sense of togetherness. Most recently, we’ve been taking part in The Wildlife Trusts’ 30 Days Wild Challenge as a way to boost team happiness. During the first week, we were challenged to take our breakfast outside, to enjoy the fresh air and to see what wildlife we could spot. It was a great way to start each day and our inner David Attenboroughs were soon spotting all manner of insects, plants, fungi, and even some larger creatures. Although we all no doubt wish we could wake up and be told the pandemic was just a bad dream, there have been some silver linings to the lockdown clouds. Our coming together through this shared gargantuan, world-changing event has strengthened our team. The way we’ve had to work recently has improved our carbon footprint tremendously, made our business more accessible to a diverse workforce, and made us focus even more closely on communication and wellbeing. And, whether we’re thinking about the technology that we’ve relied upon, or the rapid vaccine development, we all have a renewed appreciation for the innovation that surrounds us and the wonderful scientists that make it happen.
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