EPISODE TWENTY TWO | PRIDE MONTH
To learn more about Harrity’s diversity efforts, visit harrityllp.com/diversity. For more diversity resources, including all Driving Diversity episodes, check out The Diversity Channel.
Eli Mazour‘s Clause 8 Podcast, The Voice of IP, has returned for Season 2, featuring all new exclusive interviews with the intellectual property community’s biggest names.
Don’t miss this latest episode of Clause 8 with President and Chief Legal Officer of IntuitiveX, Mark Han, about the new business model IntuitiveX created to help innovators in the medical field.
Mark cut his teeth working for the largest and most notorious “patent troll” Intellectual Ventures (IV). During the episode, Mark talks about what he learned from that experience and why he’s now excited to be in the business of bringing new products to market and building new companies at IntuitiveX.
This is an incredibly insightful episode exploring first hand how the patent process helps innovative individuals and small companies bring their ideas to fruition. Listen here!
On today’s podcast:
You can subscribe and listen to the full episode on your favorite podcasting app and learn more at voiceofIP.com. New episodes drop every Tuesday!
To see more tips for achieving patent quality, visit our Practical Patents page.
Welcome to another episode of Tech Transfer IP. Today I am pleased to speak with Elaine Spector. Elaine is a patent attorney with Harrity & Harrity with over twenty year’s experience in intellectual property law. Elaine’s current practice consists primarily of prosecuting patent applications with a focus on electromechanical technologies.
Before joining Harrity & Harrity, Elaine worked in private practice for over fifteen years handling various intellectual property matters, including patent application drafting and prosecution, trademark prosecution and enforcement and litigating complex patent cases in federal courts. Her extensive litigation experience provides her with a unique perspective in prosecuting patent applications.
Listen as Elaine shares some key differences between working in a University Tech Transfer office and working in a law firm. She also talks about the Rooney Rule and how Hannity has improved it by making it Rooney Rule 2.0, and how the Rooney Rule is different from the Mansfield Rule.
Elaine discusses her company’s rigorous hiring process to remove bias, the factors that contribute to the problem of having a small amount of diverse individuals in the legal profession, and the programs her office has launched to help bring more women into her firm, like the Annual Women’s Patent Law Workshop and the Minority Firm Incubator Program to name a few.
Elaine shares some suggestions for small firms that might struggle to develop diversity and inclusion procedures, standards, and programs. She says that reaching out is one action step patent professionals can take to improve diversity for the Patent Bar.
In This Episode:
To learn more about Harrity’s diversity efforts, visit harrityllp.com/diversity. For more diversity resources, including all Driving Diversity episodes, check out The Diversity Channel.
Harrity & Harrity Launches Black-Owned Firm Through Minority Incubator Program
Florida-Based Onyx IP Group is the first Minority Owned Firm Specializing in IP Law to Come Out of Diversity-Focused Program
Fairfax, Va. — June 21, 2021 — For Immediate Release: Harrity 4 Charity (H4C), the giving-back initiative of Harrity & Harrity, LLP, one of the country’s preeminent patent law firms, is thrilled to announce the launch of the Onyx IP Group (OIPG), the first minority-owned firm to come out of the Harrity Minority Firm Incubator (MFI), a program initiated in 2019 to address the fact that the practice of law remains one of the least diverse professions in the U.S.
Based in Orlando, Florida, OIPG is a 100% Black-owned, Intellectual Property (IP) law firm launched by the MFI’s first graduate, James Bennin. Bennin has approximately 15 years of experience in the IP field, with an extensive background in counseling clients on various IP matters in the U.S. and other jurisdictions. Prior to joining Harrity’s MFI program, Bennin was an associate general counsel handling transactional matters (including IP matters) for the University of Central Florida, one of the largest universities in the country and formerly served as IP counsel at Caterpillar, a large multi-national company, where he counseled multiple business units on matters related to IP.
Raised by a single mother in a low-income household, Bennin was the first college graduate in his immediate family. With African-Americans making up just 1.94% of all equity partners in the U.S., Bennin’s launch of OIPG is making strides for a severely underrepresented group in the field of law.
“I understand the obstacles someone with my background needs to overcome to be successful in this profession and the importance of improving diversity in the legal field,” Bennin said. “I want to use this program/platform as a means to give back and to help provide a blueprint or guide to success for members of underrepresented groups, so they can see that success in any professional field, more particularly in the legal field, is a realistic possibility in their future.“
Serving as Of Counsel for OIPG are Keri Sicard, who has more than 20 years of experience in the field of IP law and is experienced in a wide variety of technologies from the simple to the highly complex; and Michael Antone, who has over 20 years of experience in large law firm, corporate, and venture capital environments in the area of IP and business operations counseling.
Added Bennin, “I am tremendously excited about the opportunity to launch the Onyx IP Group and am well prepared to provide exceptional work to clients while also furthering my goal of making a positive impact – particularly for those, like myself, in minority groups.”
The Stats … According to the 2019 Vault/MCCA Law Firm Diversity Survey on overall law firm demographics, 82% of all lawyers and 89% of all partners are Caucasian. Just 2% of all partners are African-American, under 3% are Hispanic and under 4% are Asian. None of the statistics regarding specific minority percentages have changed over the past decade, despite the fact that those populations in the U.S. have increased during the same timeframe.
About the Minority Firm Incubator … Harrity—which has launched a variety of service-driven initiatives under its H4C philanthropic arm—is hoping to help be the change for diversity in the legal field with the MFI program, which supports the recruitment, retention and advancement of attorneys who will contribute to the diversity of the legal field by launching minority-owned patent firms. A year-long, multi-phase program, Harrity’s MFI program works to train minority attorneys in patent law and help them overcome the barriers to launching their own patent law firms. The program encourages minorities to become leaders in the field for both quality and diversity and sets them up for success.
Commented Elaine Spector, a partner at Harrity, who co-chairs the firm’s diversity committee. “Having a diverse workforce leads to a more integrated practice. Women and diverse inventors want to consult capable attorneys who look like them and who understand them and the context of the goals they are working to achieve.”
Adds partner John Harrity, who co-chairs the diversity committee with Spector, “Diversity generates quality legal innovation. The benefits of differential skillsets, outlooks, approaches and ways of processing make a team stronger, bringing varied and valuable insights to cultures, systems and policies, which is what is required to be change leaders.”
More H4C News on ‘Driving Diversty’ … Visit us online to learn more about Harrity’s multi-faceted diversity initiatives, which, in addition to MFI, also include The Diversity Channel, The Harrity Academy and Harrity for Parity: A Women’s Patent Workshop. Visit the firm’s weekly vlog, Driving Diversity, which addresses such issues as hiring practices; how intersectionality relates to underrepresented groups falling into more than one community; implementing the Rooney Rule 2.0; how a firm’s culture affects diversity; flexibility; patents pathways for women of color; mentoring/tutoring programs; and more.
Harrity’s diversity initiatives: https://harrityllp.com/diversity
Driving Diversity vlog: https://harrityllp.com/thediversitychannel
About Onyx IP Group:
With combined experience (private practice and in-house) in the electrical, software and mechanical technology areas, the Onyx IP Group provides legal counseling for patent drafting, patent prosecution, trademark, and transactional matters. Visit us online at https://onyxipgroup.com
About Harrity & Harrity, LLP:
Harrity & Harrity, headquartered in Fairfax, Va., is a leading patent preparation and prosecution firm specializing in the electrical and mechanical technology areas. The firm has obtained more than 8,000 patents since its founding in 1999. Our clients trust in our high-quality work, experienced people, industry-leading innovation, and outstanding service. Harrity actively promotes diversity and inclusion at the firm and throughout the legal industry, with an additional focus on giving back to the community through Harrity 4 Charity. Visit us online at https://harrityllp.com
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Eli Mazour‘s Clause 8 Podcast, The Voice of IP, has returned for Season 2, featuring all new exclusive interviews with the intellectual property community’s biggest names.
Chris Agrawal is President of the Association of Intellectual Property Firms. He’s also the reason Eli got into patent law in the first place. If you’re a startup founder worrying you’re already behind on building a portfolio of patents, or you’re wondering how to scale your patent program, listen here!
You can subscribe and listen to the full episode on your favorite podcasting app and learn more at voiceofIP.com. New episodes drop every Tuesday!
EPISODE TWENTY ONE | FLORIDA CLE REGULATIONS CONTINUED
To learn more about Harrity’s diversity efforts, visit harrityllp.com/diversity. For more diversity resources, including all Driving Diversity episodes, check out The Diversity Channel.
Eli Mazour leads Harrity’s patent prosecution team, developing and implementing best practices for managing workflow and creating innovative, data-driven patent prosecution strategies which allow him to reach favorable results at the USPTO. Eli has been using Patentprufer, the world’s first community-based examiner analytics tool, since its inception to help him reach agreements with USPTO patent examiners for our clients most important applications.
In “Perfecting Your Prosecution Strategy with Patentprufer”, Eli demonstrates some of the most valuable features of this tool and shows how to efficiently use examiner analytics in your patent prosecution strategy.
You can watch the full webinar below.
Register for Patentprufer, the world’s first community-based USPTO examiner decision-making tool, for free through the end of the year. Visit patentprufer.com to get started!
EPISODE TWENTY | THE IDEA ACT
To learn more about Harrity’s diversity efforts, visit harrityllp.com/diversity. For more diversity resources, including all Driving Diversity episodes, check out The Diversity Channel.
Questions covered in this discussion include:
You can watch the full session below.
To learn more about Harrity’s diversity efforts, visit harrityllp.com/diversity. For more diversity resources, including all Diversity Dialogue webinars, check out The Diversity Channel.
You can watch the recording, which shares various perspectives and stories to help and empower law firms to move the needle towards increasing Diversity and Inclusion in a significant way, below.
To learn more about Harrity’s diversity efforts, visit harrityllp.com/diversity. For more diversity resources, including all Driving Diversity episodes, check out The Diversity Channel.
Watch the incredibly candid interview below:
To learn more about Harrity’s charity efforts, visit harrityllp.com/harrity4charity.
EPISODE NINETEEN | ARE CLE PROGRAMS DISCRIMINATORY?
To learn more about Harrity’s diversity efforts, visit harrityllp.com/diversity. For more diversity resources, including all Driving Diversity episodes, check out The Diversity Channel.
Eli Mazour‘s Clause 8 Podcast, The Voice of IP, has returned for Season 2, featuring all new exclusive interviews with the intellectual property community’s biggest names.
If you’ve ever wondered how and why Judge Alan D Albright of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas became America’s go-to judge for patent cases, you don’t want to miss this episode of Clause 8.
Judge Albright is as transparent in this episode as he is in the courtroom. So if you’re wondering how to make your case more efficient, how you can clerk for him, or why it’s easier to predict where to be struck by lightning than how to become a district court judge, don’t miss him on this week’s Clause 8.
On this podcast:
You can subscribe and listen to the full episode on your favorite podcasting app and learn more at voiceofIP.com. New episodes will drop every Tuesday!
EPISODE EIGHTEEN | SIMPLE STRATEGIES FOR ENGAGING DIVERSE INVENTORS
To learn more about Harrity’s diversity efforts, visit harrityllp.com/diversity. For more diversity resources, including all Driving Diversity episodes, check out The Diversity Channel.
FAIRFAX, Va. – A lawyer in Fairfax had a sudden heart attack and was saved by a friend’s knowledge of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Next week is National CPR and Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) Awareness Week, and now he’s challenging folks to join a fundraiser to support research for these life-saving procedures.
In 2016, John Harrity was a healthy, 49-year-old athlete who followed a strict diet and had no family history of heart disease. Playing in a weekly basketball game, he felt like he couldn’t breathe and suddenly fainted. Harrity had what he described as one of the worst types of cardiac arrest – a so-called “widow-maker.”
“Luckily, that night my friend called 911 immediately, and within seconds of me hitting the ground, they were performing CPR – and that saved my life,” he said. “I mean, it is the reason that I am here today.”
Harrity encouraged people to watch the American Heart Association’s Hands-Only CPR video to learn how to help in a heart-attack emergency. Another way is to participate in the upcoming Washington, D.C., “Lawyers Have Heart” 10-K race. The free event is open to everyone and will be held online the weekend of June 11. More information is online at lawyershaveheartdc.org.
Federal data show heart disease remains the number one killer in the nation and the second-leading cause of death in Virginia. Harrity pointed to his own experience as evidence the chances of survival are double or triple if CPR is performed immediately after cardiac arrest. He noted the urgency behind learning the life-saving technique.
“Seventy percent of out-of-the-hospital cardiac arrests happen in the home,” he said, “and only about 46% of people who experience an out-of-the-hospital cardiac arrest receive that immediate help that’s needed, including that CPR.”
More than 350,000 Americans have a cardiac arrest outside of a hospital setting each year, and about 90% of those are fatal, according to the American Heart Association.
Click HERE to listen to the newscast on Public News Service.
Join us for the 31st Annual Lawyers Have Heart free virtual event in support of the American Heart Association, the largest organization dedicated to educating the community on heart disease & CPR. Register here.
