Patent Formalities Officer – Newcastle

Job ref: Patent/Formalities/Newcastle

Job Type: Formalities

Location: Newcastle –  Remote (travel once a month to Newcastle) / Hybrid local to Newcastle

Hours: Full Time 37.5 hours

Benefits: Annual performance bonus, agile working policy, pension, life insurance, private medical and dental, PHI, season ticket loan, 27 days holiday per annum, holiday purchase scheme

About HGF

HGF Limited is one of Europe’s largest intellectual property specialist firms and one of only a few to offer a fully integrated IP solution, bringing over 200 Patent Attorneys, Trade Mark Attorneys and IP Solicitors together to provide a full-service IP solution.

With 25 offices across the UK, Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, France, Switzerland & Austria, HGF’s Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys provide specialist technical and legal advice to blue chip organisations and small to medium businesses across the world.  Many of our clients are household names and the work HGF does allows them to protect and exploit their inventions, new products and branding.

Role Purpose:

The Newcastle office of HGF provides legal advice, in particular relating to patents in the engineering fields, to a wide variety of clients both in the UK and overseas.  The clients can be very demanding, having complex and often changing specific requirements.  Accuracy and attention to detail are essential. The nature of the work is very deadline-driven and working on numerous different cases, which each require the same high quality of service.

This role is to provide a high quality, timely and comprehensive patent formalities service for HGF clients of the Newcastle Office, as directed by the fee earning teams. This is a business critical role in a busy and highly valued Formalities team.

Main Responsibilities:

• Provide an administration service for the filing and prosecuting of British, International (PCT), European and other national patent countries
• Ensure patent and patent application deadlines are met with 100% levels of accuracy
• Ensure the legal and fee requirements of each application are met according to the requirements of the relevant country
• Progress actions required of shareholders and attorneys to meet the required deadlines
• Forward maintenance and renewal of all Patents to our Renewals team
• Prepare, execute and, where appropriate, legalise all the legally required documentation needed to support the ‘filing’ or registration of patents
• Arrange for timely filing of documentation, either directly with relevant national authorities or indirectly by instruction of a local attorney, to ensure that valuable intellectual property rights are not lost
• Maintain the computerised record system for patents and patent applications.
• Continually track the current status of cases and maintain a due date diary system so deadlines are met efficiently and accurately
• Liaise with shareholders and attorneys to ensure actions assigned to them are progressed within the required timescales
• Maintain a good understanding of patent law in the range of countries in which we regularly file patents; and a high level of specialised knowledge relating to patent formalities and their associated administration, in order to provide a professional service to clients
• Produce correspondence and communications for clients and patent authorities using standard templates and emails
• To help develop practices and procedures within the guidelines established by the attorneys to improve the efficiency of the service

Candidate Essential Experience, Qualifications and Skills:

• Demonstrable previous experience of the full range of patent formalities procedures and filing administration requirements for the UK, Europe and other countries
• High levels of accuracy and attention to detail under time pressures
• Able to use own judgement to process clients’ applications appropriately
• Highly efficient and organised in approach to work
• Able to quickly and effectively prioritise workload daily
• Excellent awareness of timescales, able to work consistently and calmly within tight deadlines
• Good at building rapport with attorneys in order to influence their actions required for applications within timescales
• Must be a team player, willing to work co-operatively with, and support, team members
• Proactive enough to resolve problems on own initiative and improve processes
• Confident with MS Word and Excel, able to quickly pick up internal systems

Candidate Desirable Experience/Qualifications:

• CIPA Certificate in Patent Administration

HGF Values

People – People matter. We treat people fairly, with respect and compassion. We foster a friendly, inclusive and enjoyable culture for everyone to prosper in. We invest in our people and offer appropriate coaching and training to assist with development and learning. We promote a healthy work-life balance. Progression is based on merit.

Excellence –  We strive to be the best. We pursue excellence in all our individual roles resulting in outstanding legal and technical advice for our clients. Our people are pragmatic, responsive and commercially minded. We do not presume but listen to understand so we can engage proactively and appropriately.

Teamwork – We stand together. We work with our clients to protect their interests, and with each other as a mutually supporting firm. We value, appreciate and listen to others, regardless of role, recognising each individual’s particular blend of talent, skill and experience. We are individually and jointly accountable and take responsibility for our actions and decisions.

Progressive – We innovate. We continually improve our services and processes through understanding, creativity, and investment. We evolve by taking opportunities and adopting new business procedures, unencumbered by historical structures or out-of-date attitudes. As a firm, we have an entrepreneurial spirit, and encourage new thinking in our people.