Patent Attorney to Sleep ‘Rough’ to Help the Homeless

Many readers of this blog will know – or at least know of – Karen Sinclair.  Karen is one of my colleagues at Watermark – Intellectual Asset Management.  More importantly, for present purposes, she is a Principal and Chairman (her preferred title) of the firm.

Hopefully, many readers will also be familiar with the Vinnies CEO Sleepout.  This annual event is run by the St Vincent de Paul Society in order to raise awareness, and funds for Vinnies to support people experiencing homelessness as part of a larger Escape from Poverty campaign.

Through the CEO Sleepout, business leaders help to raise money towards achieving Vinnies’ goal, which is not just to service the homeless, but to bring about an end to homelessness.  As their website states, the discomfort of sleeping on the streets is a fragment of the larger reality that Vinnies hopes to impart upon influential leaders of the community.

On Thursday 19 June 2014 Karen is hoping (really!) to be spending the night outside, exposed to the elements, along with many other business leaders around Australia.  For those readers who may be unfamiliar with the climate here in Melbourne, Australia, the average overnight minimum temperature in June is 6.9 Celsius (44 F).  There is, statistically speaking, around a 7% chance that the temperature will drop below two degrees Celsius (36 F), and about a 50% chance that it will rain!

In order to get there, Karen needs to reach – and hopefully exceed – her fundraising target of A$5000.

Click to view Karen's profile and donate

Some of you will know Karen through her contributions to teaching aspiring members of the patent attorney profession over a number of years.  Others will know her through her involvement with the Licensing Executives Society (LES), where she is currently a vice-chair of the Asia Pacific Committee, and its local chapter LESANZ.  Still others will know Karen from her recently-concluded tenure on the Professional Standards Board for Patent and Trade Marks Attorneys.  Or perhaps you have worked with – or against – her on some IP-related matter.

In any event, if you do know Karen it is likely that you either want to do what you can to support her, or what you can to ensure that she spends a night out in the cold – or, possibly, both!  And even if you do not know Karen, Vinnies is a great cause.  Also, if you are an Australian taxpayer, all donations above A$2 are tax-deductible.

So, do what you can to send a patent attorney out to spend a night in the cold!

Tags: Personal