Name: Hasti Jahangiri
Job Title: Trainee Patent Attorney
University: University of Manchester
Degree: BSc Chemistry, PhD Materials Science
I arrive at the office usually around 9 with either a coffee at hand if it’s a Monday or make myself a tea if not. After setting my belongings aside, I’ll usually ease into my day by catching up with a colleague for a few minutes before beginning my day.
First and foremost, the emails must be checked. This is an initial skim through for anything that needs responding to immediately. As a trainee you probably won’t encounter many urgent emails but there may be occasions where a senior member of staff requires your immediate help.
As a new trainee I then tend to work on a set of trainee exercise that my firm has put together to introduce trainees to patent drafting, amendment, opposition, and general claim interpretation. I find these exercises especially helpful as they mirror the day-to-day real case work that I have already been exposed to very early on in my career with Wilson Gunn. The exercises ensure that I have a thorough grounding in the skills required to do most day-to-day patent attorney tasks, and I find “real” cases to be great discussion points with my mentor who I see almost every day.
After a few hours of thinking and problem solving, I tend to take a short break to stretch my legs in the gardens outside (cue the rain) before starting the next task after lunch.
In the afternoon, I could be helping draft emails to the UKIPO or EPO following an examination response. I find these types of assignments particularly insightful as I can read the project case files and understand the invention before beginning to discuss matters with my mentor. Once I understand the invention and the objections raised in the examination report, I can begin to formulate the reasons as to why there may be a difference between the prior art and the present invention.
I treat patent reading as a game of ‘spot the difference’, but as a trainee, this may not always be as straightforward as you might think. This is mainly due to the fact that the key difference may not lie where it seems to be the most obvious! It can be challenging but also incredibly rewarding when I do figure out the correct answers.
The most exciting moment in my professional career has been sitting in on an oral hearing and helping to prepare the documents for it.
Each day brings its own set of challenges and therefore rewards but I find the best part of the profession to be that no two days will be the same, and that is not something a lot of people in other professions can say!
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