What a year 2021 was for IP Paralegals. Another year in the pandemic meant we had to continue to think creatively and adapt to the ‘new normal’. The IP Paralegal Committee continued to meet regularly via Zoom and worked hard to improve services for members.
In April 2021, CPD (continuing professional development) was introduced to support Paralegals to keep their skills up to date and help them become more effective in their roles. The committee also introduced a new Q&A system to the Paralegals website discussion board to provide swift and regular answer to any questions. The committee continued to drive the CPD programme with regular webinar suggestions as well as helping to plan the CIPA IP Paralegal Conference.
CIPA made the difficult decision to run the Paralegals Conference virtually for the second time. CIPA staff supplied a new virtual platform called ‘Airmeet’ which was much simpler to operate for all participants than previous solutions: programme, session links, and speaker information was all in one place, with the bonus that delegates had the opportunity to ‘network’ with the sponsor and other Paralegals via the video chat function.
Christina ten Hövel of the European Patent Office (EPO), Wayne Jones and Aquila Brandon-Salmon of the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), and Mineko Mohri of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) were among a variety of excellent guest speakers. We were extremely pleased with attendance across the conference with 147 delegates tuning in for sessions. We received very positive feedback on the organisation of the event and the ‘Airmeet’ platform and look forward to holding an in-person conference in October 2022.