26 June 2018


Kate Taylor leads a team of 17 attorneys, 11 of them women


“More employers need to provide the environment in which women can thrive and more women need to be confident enough to enter into this brilliant field” Kate Taylor


Empowering women at work


Biotech, pharma, and chemistry show highest rates of women named as inventors


While women in STEM was the key theme for Intellectual Property Day earlier this year, it is part of a long- term strategy at HGF, an intellectual property specialist firm with a clear focus on peer support for women. Intellectual property specialists don’t


come much bigger than HGF, with 16 offices across the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands and Switzerland. With one of the UK’s largest teams of specialist life science attorneys, HGF provides cli- ents with practical, legal and strategic advice on managing their life sciences intellectual property. This extends from protecting new research from the UK’s most prestigious universities, to high- profile oppositions and court proceed- ings on market leading products. Its support of women in the work-


place is perfectly illustrated by the career path of Patent Attorney and Partner Kate Taylor, who heads up the HGF life sciences team. Kate and her team stand between our great inven- tors and the people who threaten to exploit their work. Through patents, trademarks, copyright and the protec- tion of industrial design, she and her team play a vital role as guardians of the work of researchers, inventors and manufacturers in the thriving life sciences sector.


THE FACT that she combines her high-flying role with being a wife and mother of two young children is testimony to the way she has success- fully juggled her work/life balance, along with the support she and others receive from HGF, which positively encourages and empowers women in the workplace. Research carried out last year by


the Intellectual Property Office shows that since 1975, there has been a 500% increase in the proportion of patents


involving a female inventor and a 400% increase in the number of individual female inventors, but this comes from a low base. There is still a significant gen- der disparity, with only 0.3% of patents coming from all female teams. The fields of biotechnology, pharma-


ceuticals and chemistry show the high- est rates of women named as inventors in international patent applications filed via WIPO. Kate, who leads a team of 17 attorneys (11 of them women) in the life sciences arm of HGF, wants to see more women enter into the STEM sector, and for that talent to be nurtured. “Lots of progress has been made,


and the balance is better now than it was,” she said. “More employers need to provide the workplace environment in which women can thrive and more women need to be confident enough to enter into this brilliant field.”


HGF has its own dedicated Women


in STEM team which provides access to a network of like-minded individu- als, topical advice and resources. The team runs events designed to deliver key news, legal updates and practical advice relating to Intellectual Property and the latest developments in the STEM industries, as well as providing networking opportunities. It comprises IP solicitors, patent attorneys and trade mark attorneys, with expertise covering chemistry, engineering, elec- tronics and life sciences.


SUCH IS THE portfolio of HGF, includ- ing the world’s biggest corporations, the most prestigious educational insti- tutions and Nobel prize-winning inno- vators, that the company has experts at hand with a wealth of knowledge and insight to share, with an acute under- standing of the demands facing women


Sheila MacNeil has made a huge dif- ference to people’s lives through her ground-breaking life sciences research work – and she is a perfect example of just how much women can achieve in STEM. Sheila is Professor of Tissue Engineering in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on developing


Women leading in STEM She developed the product Myskin™


biomaterials and tissue engineering which will benefit patients, alongside fundamental work to develop new understanding and tools in the area of tissue engineering. She has filed patent applications across the globe with the support of HGF in order to protect her technology. MacNeil’s group has a long history of


working with clinical NHS colleagues using tissue engineered skin to benefit burns patients (from 1992) and more recently patients with chronic ulcers (from 2004) and for patients requiring reconstructive surgery of the urethra (from 2007).


(a combination of a biomaterial and patient’s skin cells) which was clinically evaluated and developed commercially and has been available in the UK for patients with extensive skin loss due to burns injuries and for patients with chronic non-healing ulcers. This prod- uct, available from 2004 to the current time, is currently available through the company Regenerys Ltd. Additionally, she has developed 3D


tissue engineered models used to study a wide range of normal and abnormal conditions spanning wound healing, skin contracture, pigmentation, mela- noma invasion, angiogenesis, bacterial infection and skin sensitisation. Sheila’s current projects include


developing tissue engineering approaches for reconstruction for burns contractures and using human fat to improve the clinical outcome post grafting of patients who have suf- fered severe burns. Her recent patents involve developing


Sheila MacNeil has filed patent applications across the globe with the support of HGF in order to protect her technology


new biomaterial approaches to stimu- late healing in chronic ulcers (protected by a joint patent filing with colleagues in Pakistan) and she leads a group of scientists and clinicians developing a tissue engineering approach for repair of the weakened tissues of the female


pelvic floor - protected by a patent now licensed for translation to the clinic by a new company Symimetics Ltd. She has also worked with clinical col-


leagues in India through two projects funded by the Wellcome Trust which has led to a simplification of the current approach to corneal regeneration and to a new methodology to improve early detection of infection in the cornea - projects funded by the Wellcome Trust and protected by patents filed by HGF.


in the STEM industries. For Kate, based in the York office,


it has been a one-employer journey which started 18 years ago when she left the University of Newcastle-Upon- Tyne with a BSc in Genetics and a Mas- ters in Biotechnology. By 2009 she was a partner. She admits she would have struggled to balance work and being a mother if it wasn’t for the forward- thinking attitude of her firm. “I couldn’t combine this job with


being a mother if it wasn’t for the way HGF positively encourages and sup- ports women in the workplace,” she said. “I hope I can be an example to others that women and mothers can carve out a brilliant career in science.” Kate has considerable experience


of drafting patent applications and developing IP filing strategies in the life sciences field. She coordinates global patent portfolios for spin out


companies and international corpora- tions. Kate has a substantial prosecu- tion practice and is highly experienced in acting before the European Patent Office in prosecution, opposition and appeal matters; fighting on behalf of the clients whose inventions and research she is protecting. HGF is also currently offering spe-


cialist support through the Brexit pro- cess, during a period of understand- able uncertainty over the protection of Intellectual Property during and after the process. HGF has undertaken con- siderable scenario planning so that the firm is fully prepared and can devise a strategy for Brexit. As far as HGF are concerned, Brexit means business as usual: providing their clients with the best advice to manage their IP.


For more information visit www.hgf. com or email enquiries@hgf.com.


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