Marks & Clerk protects innovation and ideas from brilliant
minds. As noted in our previous article in this series on
neurodiversity, our co-founder, George Croydon Marks, worked
alongside the legendary inventor and businessman Thomas Edison.
However, while Edison is famed for his achievements in science and
technology, he is also recognised today for exhibiting many
autistic traits. Related to this, and in light of the IP Regulation
Board (IPReg) 2024 Diversity Survey, Marks & Clerk is
highlighting the need to promote awareness and understanding of
neurodiversity, to allow all team members to play to their
strengths.

But how do we harness everybody’s strengths within
a team?

We believe that the key is to provide a culture and environment
in which all individuals can thrive. In particular, an environment
that allows barrier-free communication is a prerequisite to equal
participation, as set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities. At Marks & Clerk, this is supported
by our long-standing values of Trust, Collegiality,
Resourcefulness and Excellence.

For example, we believe that an accessible environment can be
created by promoting:


awareness that neurodiversity is widespread, e.g. 3-5% of
people globally are thought to have ADHD, and about 1% are thought
to have autism;

acceptance of ‘differences’;

knowledge that neurodiversity is often imperceptible: a
neurodiverse person may superficially appear neurotypical; and

awareness of interpersonal difficulties, such as the so-called
‘double-empathy problem’ between autistic and neurotypical
people.

Regarding awareness, we note for example that autism does not
– as originally thought – relate predominantly to boys
having profound learning disabilities. Lorna Wing’s
ground-breaking research paper in 1981 taught that children with
outstanding intellectual abilities, yet difficulties socializing,
were also on the autistic ‘spectrum’.

Additionally, research is now revealing that autism, especially
in women and girls, is often carefully hidden using camouflaging
skills such as ‘masking’ and ‘mimicking’. The
thought-provoking book “Autism and masking. How and why people
do it and the impact it can have” (Sedgewick, Hull
and Ellis) gives rise to the question: how many individuals fail to
reach their full potential, in their family and professional lives,
due to the huge daily effort required for camouflaging?

Similarly notable are questions arising from Sir
Baron-Cohen’s book “The Essential Difference: Men, Women and
the Extreme Male Brain”. He suggests that
’empathizing’ (intuitively understanding what another
person is thinking) has a statistical bias towards the
female brain. On the other hand, ‘systemizing’ (e.g. to
understand a natural science, engineered system or mathematical
pattern) appears to have a statistical bias towards the
male brain. However, he is emphatic that there is significant
cross-over. This leads to the question: how many people, under
pressure from gender-based prejudices to be emphathizers, hide
their systemizing abilities? And vice-versa?

With a better understanding of the prevalence and gifts of
neurodiversity, all of us can play our part in creating a culture
and environment for equal participation. In the context of IP, this
is essential for all of our teams, encompassing people with a flair
for technical invention or artistic creativity, and equally those
whose talents lie in vital support functions such as finance, HR,
IT, marketing and systems administration.

Hence, and in this last article of our series on neurodiversity,
Marks & Clerk pledges to continue playing its part in creating
an IP world in which everybody can contribute their best. Just as
we have done ever since our firm was first established in 1847, and
when the great inventor Thomas Edison and our co-founder George
Croydon Marks struck up their friendship.

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