From paralegal to product designer – our newest recruit, Hannah Eccles, brings all her experience and appetite for continuous learning to CedarIP’s mission to transform IP management.

When Hannah applied for an entry-level Junior Secretary role at a legal firm in her home town of Leeds, she had no idea that she was at the start of an amazing career in IP, but she was soon hooked: “I loved that it feels endless. Constantly changing and learning are things I need in a career, and working in IP certainly never got boring.   You’re not just sitting at a desk doing a mundane job, you’re helping protect ideas that people have genuinely invested time and energy into, and that could change the world.”

“…you’re helping protect ideas that people have genuinely invested time and energy into, and that could change the world”

As she progressed – and supported by valued mentors who trusted her with real responsibility from the start – Hannah built her qualifications. She is CIPA, EPAC, and CITMA-qualified and has hands-on experience across administration, management, and operations. She also developed a critical eye for process efficiency and client service improvements, noting that: “I was always the one questioning inefficiencies and looking for better ways of working that suited the clients and the business.”

This curiosity led her to CedarIP: “It feels like a chance to take everything I’ve learned and apply it in a way that will provide a product that benefits the IP industry on a much larger scale.”

The changing paralegal role: from transactional to consultative

Since Hannah took her first steps into the industry, she has seen the paralegal role evolve beyond recognition “in a good way.”

From a transactional, supporting role behind the scenes, paralegals are now far more visible and central to how teams operate. “There’s more trust, more responsibility, and a real recognition that we’re not just “doing tasks”, we’re managing risk, maintaining quality, and often acting as the glue that holds everything together.”

As a result, says Hannah, the role is more demanding, with more systems to navigate and higher expectations. Increasingly, she believes, technology has not kept pace: “I think the role has outgrown a lot of the tools we’re still using, which can be a lot of pressure when they are only equipped to handle the more traditional ways of working.”

Friction and frustration: reimagining IP workflows

Hannah’s daily experience working with IP technology systems highlighted the friction and frustration that acts as a productivity drain when they don’t quite work the way you need them to: “You end up developing lots of small workarounds, and after a while you realise how much better things could be if those problems were solved at the source.  You end up adapting yourself to the system, instead of the system supporting how you want to work.”

This is a large part of Hannah’s motivation for joining CedarIP: “There are great IP management systems out there, but I still just felt like something was missing and that maybe I could help provide it.”

CedarIP gives Hannah the opportunity to be part of the change, shaping a product from the start and bringing the value of her lived experience to the table. “I know what it feels like to be up against deadlines, to worry about whether something’s been calculated correctly, or to lose time digging for information that should be easy to find. When we’re designing features, I’m always thinking – would this actually make my life easier if I were still in practice?”

Building technology foundations for the future

Designing IP Management Systems that solve today’s problems and anticipate tomorrow’s challenges is a puzzle that CedarIP seeks to solve – and the time for action is now.

“The world is changing, and there is definitely a pressure to do more with less; more work, more complexity, more expectation from clients and senior leadership,” says Hannah. “But so far, there hasn’t been a huge leap forward in the tools we’re using. A lot of systems still rely heavily on manual input, and that naturally creates risk.  Even experienced professionals can make mistakes if they’re working around a system rather than with it. There’s also the issue of information scattered across technology ecosystems – emails, documents, different databases – which makes it harder to feel in control.”

“Even experienced professionals can make mistakes if they’re working around a system rather than with it.”

With the help of Hannah and the rest of its experienced management team, CedarIP is stripping back the complexity of IP management and rethinking it to make things clearer, more connected, and more intuitive. Appropriate use of AI and automation will reduce the need for manual intervention while ensuring professionals remain in full control – supported by technology rather than constrained by it.

As Hannah puts it: “For me, it’s about giving people that sense of confidence in the tools they are using and feeling that your system has your back, rather than being something you have to constantly second-guess.”

Meet Hannah and learn more about the CedarIP platform at INTA

Hannah will be joining the rest of the CedarIP team on stand #1435 at INTA in London’s ExCel. It’s her first time attending the meeting, despite so many years in the industry and she’s looking forward to experiencing firsthand what so many colleagues have described over the years: “Everyone describes it as intense but in a good way.  Lots of conversations, lots of energy, and a real sense of the global IP community coming together.  I think after working in practice for so long, it’ll be really interesting to experience that from a slightly different perspective too – and put faces to names for so many people I’ve only met online.”

Above all, Hannah is looking forward to conversations that illuminate the experiences of prospective CedarIP customers: “Hearing what people are struggling with, what’s working for them, and how they see things changing.  Those are always the moments where I learn the most.”

Meet Hannah and CedarIP at stand #1435!