Kilburn & Strode is one of Europe’s leading firms of patent and trade mark attorneys. We hire the best people and we do excellent work for the world’s finest organisations.

We deal with all aspects of patents, trademarks and designs. We work for a broad range of clients from major international corporations through to individual inventors.

London is our international headquarters. We also have offices in Rotterdam, Eindhoven, Hilversum, San Francisco and Boston. Visitors include international executives from the United States, Korea, Japan and China, top UK judges and leading figures from the international IP community.

Everything flows from our people: we encourage a culture of working together and every member of our team is equally respected. We really understand our clients’ points-of-view to give them an excellent experience, creating a friendly and innovative culture where like-minded people want to train and work.

We know that our reputation as a firm is based entirely on the quality of the individuals who work here. That’s why we’ve always been uncompromising in seeking out people who are not only at the top of their game but who also share our enthusiasm and outlook.

Everyone at Kilburn & Strode should share and demonstrate our values in everything they do here: think creatively, take responsibility, build relationships, respect others and excel.

You have an opportunity to work for a firm that lives and breathes its values and strives to create a positive working environment and culture. We aren’t committed to diversity because it’s “good for business” or because it’s the “right thing to do.” We’re committed because it makes our firm a superb place to work. Whatever your background, you’re welcome here because we love the creativity that difference brings. All candidates will be treated on their merits regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, marital status, disability, or socio-economic background.

The Role

We are looking for a patent paralegal to join our growing Life Sciences and Chemistry teams. As a patent paralegal you will support a small attorney team in Life Sciences and Chemistry and their clients to enable them to provide the excellent level of client service that we pride ourselves on.

As an organisation we are very progressive. The role would suit someone with a forward-thinking, modern outlook and experience as a patent administrator/patent paralegal/secretary.

Overview

At a high level, we are looking for someone with:

• Excellent communication and organisational skills
• A proactive, diligent and efficient approach
• Experience as a patent administrator/paralegal/secretary

To expand on these:

Excellent communication and organisational skills

A core part of your job will be supporting a small attorney team, with a range of experience from fully qualified to new trainees. Being well organised is a key requirement as you’ll be responsible for managing attorneys’ diaries, including reminding the attorneys and our clients of deadlines. You’ll also be responsible for processing patent office and client communications, including reporting communications and acknowledging receipt of emails.

You’ll help organise attorneys’ calendars and arrange meetings for them. We’ll expect you to follow standing instructions for clients where we have these. You’ll need excellent organisational and communication skills to do all of this, including good spoken and written English.

A proactive, diligent and efficient approach

A “can do”, problem-solving approach is a must. There will be plenty of opportunities for you to take on different tasks as you develop your working relationship with your attorney team and as we adjust our processes to accommodate our clients’ needs. We’d expect you to show initiative in your daily work, including identifying urgent matters and either proactively handling them or raising them with our attorneys as appropriate.

The more we can trust you to do without detailed input the better! We pride ourselves on our people and we expect all our staff to work well with others and get along with their colleagues. You will also be working with the support team and support team supervisor to ensure the best possible service is delivered to our clients and attorneys.

Experience as a patent administrator/paralegal/secretary

Having the CIPA PEB Introductory Certificate in Patent Administration would be helpful. We’ll expect you to understand the key parts of the patent process and recognise the different patent office communications that we receive from the UK IPO and EPO for UK, European and PCT applications, as well as know how to complete the official forms that the patent offices use.

As well as diary/deadline management, you will need to be able to understand and follow the relevant processes when patent office communications are received, without needing guidance on a case-by-case basis. You will also need to prepare template emails and template responses for our attorneys to work on and help finalise the work before it is sent to the client. Uploading applications and patent office responses for checking and filing is a key part of the role, as is reporting the filing of applications and responses to clients.

You will also be responsible for some finance-related tasks, primarily ensuring all official fees and costs are included and correct when a task is complete, though this may also include preparing cost estimates and responding to billing enquiries.