Meet The Team: Anna
The next in our new series of blog posts on key Mathisen & Macara team members is on Anna Bartholomew, a Patent Attorney and trainee Trademark Attorney. This post looks at Anna’s career and her role in the firm.
Biography
Anna is a fully qualified UK and European Patent Attorney with over 18 years’ experience.
She has a Master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Exeter. As a Patent Attorney, she has developed expertise in a broad range of technological areas such as mechanics, electronics, software, and computer-implemented inventions.
She has considerable experience dealing with the protection of inventions from drafting patent applications, through to worldwide prosecution and eventual grant. She is also skilled in filing trade mark applications as well as filing and defending trade mark oppositions. In addition, Anna is experienced at filing Design applications.
We now meet Anna and find out more about her and her career.
From the start to the next steps
Anna started training as a Patent Attorney after completing her degree. Before joining Mathisen & Macara, she worked at several other Patent Attorney firms and in the intellectual property department of a major US law firm where she also gained litigation experience.
In order to provide a full range of intellectual property (IP) advice to clients, her next step is to qualify as a UK Trade Mark attorney. She became part qualified last year and will complete her qualification early next year. She has told us that Mathisen & Macara “have really supported me with my studying and training and enable me to gain experiences in all aspect of IP.”
The challenge
Anna gets a real buzz from her role. It is the variety but also the chance to apply her university degree that drives her: “When dealing with patents, I work on a broad range of subject matter, but mainly in the mechanical and computer systems areas dealing with the drafting and prosecution.”
The sheer diversity means that she continues to develop professionally: “every case is different and has its own challenges, which enables me to learn something new.”
Anna also enjoys the satisfaction of completing a case too as “the best part is the sense of achievement when a patent is granted, particularly if the prosecution has been a little tricky.”
The world has changed
Covid-19 has changed many things about the way we work. Anna highlights one area where Mathisen & Macara had already started to evolve but the pandemic accelerated its progress – the firm’s move to an online file system.
“The system has enabled us to have much more flexible working”, comments Anna. This underpins the firm’s flexible working ethos: “Mathisen & Macara has always supported this, which as a working mother, is invaluable.”
And if Anna wasn’t a Patent Attorney
Although Anna enjoys her job, and “can’t actually think of any other job which I would prefer to do”, she does think about another role when she retires. “I do like the idea of becoming a movie extra once I retire so that I might one day appear in a Marvel movie!”
Outside work
Beyond the firm, Anna does find time for other activities. She really enjoys open water swimming “which I took up during the pandemic and love.”
As with her work, it’s the challenge that drives her: “I shall be doing a 3.8-kilometre swim later this year!” Good luck with that, Anna! Fortune may favour the brave but we will cheer you on from dry land!