Trainee IP Administrator (Patents or Trade Marks)

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Trainee Intellectual Property Administrator – Cardiff Office

Salary: £22,500 per annum (for a 35-hour week)

Have you considered a career helping businesses and creators protect their ideas and innovations?

With an office in Cardiff, Abel + Imray LLP is a firm that excels at advising on all aspects of patents, trade marks and designs in the UK, Europe and around the world. We also have offices in London and Bath, and an office in Delft in the Netherlands. A large part of what we do is assisting UK and international clients to protect their intellectual property (“IP”) whether that’s obtaining patents for their latest inventions, obtaining trade marks for the newest brands, or registering the appearance of new products with registered designs.

The Cardiff office is a friendly working environment housed in modern offices by the waterside in Cardiff Bay. The Cardiff office currently has 11 staff split between fee-earning legal professionals (the attorneys) and specialist support staff, which include patent administrators, trade mark administrators, patent paralegals, and trade mark paralegals.

We are now looking for two Trainee Intellectual Property Administrators (one in patents and one in trade marks) to join us as part of the support team of paralegals and other admin staff in this challenging and rewarding work. As you begin the journey towards becoming an Intellectual Property Administrator, you will be guided by structured and practical training and will learn how to provide efficient organisational support to our patent and trade mark attorneys by assisting them with administration tasks and various other office duties. Having the interest to learn administration skills goes without saying, but you’ll also need to be the kind of person who enjoys a challenge and likes using your initiative. In return, we’ll give you training and a varied and rewarding working environment.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

- Correspondence with clients and patent offices around the world.
- Typing - including revision of documents and tailoring standard documents.
- Formalities relating to patent and trade mark procedures, including preparation of forms.
- Maintenance of electronic files.
- Diary management.
- Preparing charges and invoices.

WHO WE'RE LOOKING FOR

Prior experience is not required or expected - we will train you! As such, we are primarily looking for someone who is bright, keen to learn, happy to undertake the training required to equip you for the role, and excited to be part of a team of paralegals and other support staff that help us serve our clients.

You might have just completed, or be about to sit your A-levels or finish your college course, and wondering what career would suit you. You might have been on an apprentice scheme and now be looking for your next step in the job market, or you might simply be thinking about doing something a little different. Whatever your circumstances, if you have at least a few of the following skills (or the ability to quickly acquire them), we’d love to hear from you:

- Strong English language skills.
- Competency at maths / basic arithmetic (with a calculator).
- Excellent attention to detail.
- Curiosity and a willingness to learn.
- Ability to use your own initiative and be a positive team player, with a ‘can-do’ attitude.
- Basic IT / PC skills – e.g. word-processing / using Microsoft Office.
- Organised and methodical.
- Comfortable working with deadlines.
- Good communication skills

COMPANY BENEFITS

- Private Medical Insurance
- Life assurance
- Income protection
- Flexi-time and hybrid working opportunities
- Pension scheme
- Cycle to work scheme
- Electric car scheme
- Season ticket loan
- Annual flu jabs
- Social events
- Mentoring scheme
- Free period care within our offices
- Career Progression: Ongoing support toward a full qualification and an environment where your career can blossom.
- Inclusive Culture: We have a long history as an inclusive, equal opportunities employer and we are proud members of IP Inclusive. That means treating everyone at Abel & Imray fairly, as well as respecting each employee’s personal goals and ambitions.

MORE ABOUT US

Abel & Imray is a firm of patent attorneys and trade mark attorneys. Patent attorneys are like geeks turned lawyers. To become a patent attorney, it helps to have a love of science and technology – because that’s what most of the inventions that we protect are all about. All of our patent attorneys have a STEM degree, and have learned about patent law when training as part of their job. Very few patent attorneys have a law degree – we are not solicitors or general lawyers. Trade mark attorneys do not need a science degree but, as with patent attorneys, they learn the law and the skills of the attorney as part of the training when first employed. Our trade mark attorneys have backgrounds in law, languages and sciences.

Our clients range from established global brands to UK-based start-ups, who need legal advice and support to protect their intellectual property. We help safeguard their ideas and innovations by securing patents, trade marks and design registrations. That requires us work with government-run intellectual property offices in the UK, across Europe and around the globe.

Everything we do is centred around providing the highest service and professional standards to our clients, to help them navigate the legal world of intellectual property rights. This often involves complex issues and a need to invest time and effort to truly understand the client’s needs and the issues at hand. We need to make our clients’ lives easy and give them solutions not added problems. That means that we need to work as a team to take the highest level of care over our work and the advice we send to our clients. Our support team plays a vital role in doing that.

We are committed to improving equality, diversity and inclusivity within our firm and also the wider IP community. We were one of the early signatories to the charter of IP Inclusive, the network set up specifically to promote and improve equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing throughout the UK’s intellectual property (IP) professions.

You can read a bit more about our culture on our website: https://www.abelimray.com/careers/our-culture.

MORE ABOUT THE ROLE AND HOW TO APPLY

All the training you will require to become a Patent or Trade Mark Administrator will be provided, primarily by us “in-house”. Progression to the position of paralegal and beyond is available with the career structure provided. You can get a feel for what a day in the life of a patent paralegal is like on our website: https://www.abelimray.com/careers/day-in-the-life/day-in-the-life-of-a-support-colleague.

We have a regular home working policy which would allow you to work from home three days a week, although we would like you come into the office at least 4 days per week during your initial training as it is beneficial to spend time with others in the team and for training to take place in person.

If a role in the world of IP as a Trainee Patent or Trade Mark Administrator in our Cardiff Office interests you then please apply with your CV and a covering letter. The CV should include details of your academic qualifications (or predicted grades), and your work experience, if you have any. Your cover letter can provide any extra explanation or details you would like to provide to us about you and should briefly explain why you would like the job and why you think you would make the ideal candidate.

The closing date for applications is Friday 16 May and interviews are due to take place throughout July (and August if necessary).

If you would like an informal chat about what it is like to be an IP administrator, please do give us a call and ask to speak to Ellie Pilott or Mimi Coles who has recently joined us as a trainee administrator.