Cipher helps launch patent industry DEI initiative

Ahead of the launch of ADAPT – Advancing Diversity Across Patent Teams – at an industry gathering in San Francisco next week, Cipher has recorded a podcast with the founders.

Mike Binns and Braxton Davis, who are both Associate General Counsel at Meta, told Cipher why ADAPT was required in the patent professional workforce.

In their revealing interview, Braxton reveals how his early experiences with the police spurred him to go to law school.

Law school, however, “actually didn’t prepare me for the task at hand of being a patent practitioner, for drafting and prosecuting patent applications.”

Mike, born in the West Indies, highlights that “minorities generally don’t often hear ‘lawyer’ as a profession, and less so patent law, which is this entire field, within intellectual property.”

He goes on to reveal that there are far more professionals with his first name than there are racially diverse women. 

The pair add that “it’s not about a data set. It’s just about a mindset of saying, ‘Where are we missing diversity of thought?’”

Cipher Vision Podcast

Read a transcript of the highlights of our conversation with Mike and Brandon in and listen to the full podcast: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in IP.

Further information

Cipher customers are entitled to a discount at the LOT – BRIDGE members meeting.