The round table that PONTI & PARTNERS organised on April 26th to celebrate the World Intellectual Property Day gathered many spectators who were able to enjoy the knowledge and experience of Montse Romero, Conxi Pérez, Glòria Casanellas and Sonia Martínez who shared their vision of the field of intellectual property and the female presence in it. An event where topics ranging from training at school and later in STEM, the absence on many occasions of referents and their importance, to the need to patent inventions to grow, enter new markets and show an innovative and creative vision were discussed.
For all the speakers, training was a key element when talking about the role of women in the industrial property system and their participation in creative sectors. For Montse Romero, manager of Albiral Display Solutions, is clear that “there is a huge lack of training” and this subsequently has repercussions on jobs because “when we ask for engineering profiles, 90% of the CVs that arrive are from men”. Along these lines, the participants declared that it is necessary to encourage young women to follow the STEM path and “to emphasise equality in infant, primary and secondary education”, as defended by Glòria Casanellas, head of the lens design team at Horizons Optical.
Sonia Martínez, co-Founder and CEO of Celtarys Research, affirmed that it was necessary to have “more role models and that those that exist should be more closely linked to feminine values, that they should show themselves to be closer to us”. Conxi Pérez, co-founder and CEO of RollDbox, also expressed herself along these lines. She wanted to highlight the role of close role models because “many times they are not valued, but they empower us and motivate us to go further” and gave the example of her mother because “she was a fighter”.
Regarding patents, all the speakers agreed that they were a basic part of their business models for several reasons. On the one hand, Glòria Casanellas was clear that “the patent is a guarantee for investors and necessary for working with large companies”. On the other hand, Montse Romero considers it essential “to protect the investment in research and development” as well as “to communicate to the market that you are an innovative, creative and pioneering company”. For her part, Sonia Martínez was clear that “it is key to protect the knowledge we have generated, it is a defence mechanism and defines the character of the company”.
To conclude the session, some questions from the audience were answered and as could not be otherwise, one of the star topics was AI. On this field, Conxi Pérez wanted to make his position clear: “AI is here to stay, what is needed is regulation and a good understanding of what it is. A great deal of transparency is needed”.
The PONTI & PARTNERS‘ round table left great moments and was interesting thanks to its participants, who addressed all the topics from their experience and knowledge. If you have not been able to follow the event live, you can now find it available on our YouTube channel: subscribe, enjoy it and don’t miss out on what’s to come!
