Fellows and Associates Reports an Uptake in Client Instructions
London, United Kingdom (PRWEB) May 29, 2014 -- Pete Fellows, Managing Director reports: “We noticed that the market in Europe and particularly the UK began to pick up in late 2013 and this continued in the beginning of 2014. But the demand now is a significant change in how the market has behaved in the last few years.”
The area with most demand is for that of qualified patent attorneys with a technical background in electronics for positions in London, followed by engineering and then some growth in the requirements for trade mark attorneys. According to the firm available positions for patent attorneys with a chemistry or biotechnology background remains relatively flat, although there have been some encouraging signs in respect to biotechnology positions in recent weeks.
Demand for the most part appears to be at a specific level. “Many of the firms are recruiting patent attorneys who have qualified relatively recently as there seems to be a demographic shortfall due to graduate intake being lower in the years immediately following the recession,” adds Pete, “and this demand is creating issues such that firms will have to be flexible in the background of the candidates they consider or risk paying over the odds or consistently losing out on candidates they try to recruit. Simply trying to outbid is no guarantee of securing a good candidate; there is always another firm willing to pay more and the firms that have had most success have an extremely strong brand image as employers, with good peer review from people who have joined them.”
As a result of the candidate shortfall in the electronics area specifically, Fellows and Associates are endeavoring to recruit from overseas. In particular, they have focused on sourcing candidates within the European Union who are European qualified patent attorneys and also patent attorneys from jurisdictions similar to the UK such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA.
Added to market growth in the area of patent and trade mark attorney recruitment, Fellows and Associates have also begun working with leading intellectual property service providers, for a range of positions from operations to sales and account managers. Key clients include Valipat, who’s Chief Executive Officer, Patrice Durand, has contributed with an interview on the Fellows and Associates website.
Phillipa Field, a consultant with Fellows and Associates hopes recent market growth continues, “I have just returned from Hong Kong where I was attending the INTA Annual Meeting. We feel that providing recruitment provision to IP service providers is a key growth area as it is a market that is underserved by the recruitment sector. Companies either have to go to generalist recruiters with no knowledge of intellectual property or legal recruiters with no experience of these types of roles.”
The growth in new instructions is positive news according to Pete Fellows but “I have some reservations, the work at present is booming in specific areas but not uniformly as it was in pre-recessionary 2007. The demand is limited to a very particular type of candidate profile which means that jobs can be very difficult to fulfil as there is simply not enough supply. It is up to us to encourage firms to look outside of narrow parameters and broaden their scope as much as possible to give the best chance of success. Certainly, in my view, the firms that work more closely with recruiters than those that keep them at arm’s length are more likely to be successful as recruiters may persuade them to consider options they might not have done via a direct application or one made without consultancy support by the recruiter submitting it.”
About Fellows and Associates
Fellows and Associates recruit Patent Attorneys, Trade Mark Attorneys, IP Lawyers and other Intellectual Property professionals worldwide. The firm offers a diverse range of recruitment services including search, advertised selection and managed campaigns. Fellows and Associates’ management consultancy division offers targeted strategic advice to firms within the Intellectual Property sector worldwide. See http://www.fellowsandassociates.com for more, phone +44 207 903 5019 or email contact(at)fellowsandassociates(dot)com.
Pete Fellows, Fellows and Associates, http://www.fellowsandassociates.com, +44 1924609110, [email protected]
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