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“This award reflects QipWorks’ commitment to ensuring that there is a greater representation of women in the IP industry, and our core value of supporting and encouraging education,” said Johanna Dwyer, founder and CEO of QipWorks.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (PRWEB) August 30, 2018
Johanna Dwyer, founder and Chief Executive Officer of QipWorks, today introduced an annual awards program that recognizes women of excellence in the field of intellectual property, and named Daniela Sanchez as the 2018 inaugural recipient.
Sponsored by QipWorks, the Johanna Dwyer Women in IP Award aims to encourage and support women in their pursuit of careers in IP, an industry in which they are currently vastly under-represented. Recipients receive a one-time $10,000 award towards enrolment in a full-time or part-time accredited education program related to pursuing a career in IP. They may additionally participate in a paid internship opportunity at QipWorks.
QipWorks provides intellectual property products and services to technology companies of all sizes in diverse industries. The company’s values – transparency, honesty, education and collaboration– are embedded in the culture of the company.
“I wanted to create a company that did the right things, for the right reasons, and in the right ways; a company that people want to be associated with. Most of all, I wanted to create a company that recognizes potential and ability in people and gives them opportunities to learn, grow, and achieve. Encouraging and supporting women to pursue careers in this field will benefit the industry, bringing greater diversity of experiences and perspectives,” said Ms. Dwyer, who founded the company in 2017. “This award reflects QipWorks’ commitment to ensuring that there is a greater representation of women in the IP industry, and our core value of supporting and encouraging education.”
The first recipient of the award is Daniela Sanchez, who is enrolling in University of Michigan Law School this year to focus on Intellectual Property Law. Ms. Sanchez was born in Colombia and relocated with her family to the United States when she was 10 years old. She quickly adjusted to her new culture and overcame the language barrier. She excelled academically, graduating magna cum laude with a B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Upon graduation, Daniela moved to New York City and took a position teaching biology in a public high school. It is here, teaching underrepresented students, that she realized the importance of giving back to her community, which eventually lead to her ongoing involvement with the Big Sister Association of Greater Boston.
In 2015, she was provided with the opportunity to move back to Boston and take a position with the Innovation Lab at Saudi Aramco, where she was introduced to Intellectual Property. At Aramco, Daniela helped to create and implement a process to manage intellectual assets arising from the company’s R&D efforts. Following her time at Aramco, Ms. Sanchez completed an 8-month full-time paid internship with QipWorks, working as an intellectual property analyst, where she assessed patent portfolios across a range of technology areas.
“We are extremely proud of Daniela for getting accepted to University of Michigan Law School, and we wish her the best for her studies and for her career in IP,” said Ms. Dwyer.
Women are currently underrepresented in IP. A study by the Washington DC-based Women’s Institute for Policy Research (WIPR) uncovered that while female representation in the patent-owning ranks had significantly increased since 1977, only 18.8 percent of all patents had at least one women inventor by 2010. Bloomberg Law reported in 2018 that in a sample of 50 attorneys in seven intellectual property trials in 2017, only 8 percent of attorneys in leadership positions (lead counsel, partners in speaking roles at trial, and in-house or client service) were women, and only 28 percent of attorneys overall (team leads, partners and associates) were women.
Applications for the 2019 Johanna Dwyer Women in IP Award will be accepted until May 1, 2019 and the award recipient will be announced August 1, 2019. More information can be found at http://www.QipWorks.com/jdwipa.