We are pleased to welcome Dr Mary Turonek to our Perth Chemistry, Resources and Oil & Gas Teams. With a PhD in physical and inorganic chemistry, Mary specialises in the oil and gas sector as well as mineral processing, hydrometallurgy, mining processes and equipment, electrochemistry and battery technology, water treatment, waste management technologies and general engineering. With such impressive credentials, we are thrilled she has joined us at Wrays!
Mary, everyone who meets you will notice how much enthusiasm and energy you bring to the world of IP. What excites you every day in your job?
As a patent attorney, you have the unique privilege of learning about new technologies and engaging with businesses that value innovation. It’s such a stimulating environment. I meet and work with lots of people who are experts in their field and you never really know what the next invention will be. The prospect of getting the best outcome for clients – persuading a recalcitrant examiner to accept the patent or a win at a hearing – also appeals to the competitive side of me.
You started your career as a chemist in an academic role. What made you decide to become a patent attorney and in particular, focus on the area of oil and gas?
Honestly, my decision to become a patent attorney was a leap of faith – I really didn’t know what to expect and wondered whether I would be pushing paper and tied to the desk. From day one I have never looked back. I love getting out to client premises and seeing the invention first hand, either in development or practice. Best day ever was when I donned a hard hat and steel cap boots and clambered over an LNG pilot plant.
I was fortunate to begin working with local oil & gas clients in 2005 when Western Australia was on its way to becoming a leading LNG producer. My practice grew and diversified over time to span upstream and downstream technologies, in particular offshore and subsea engineering, natural gas processing, LNG production, refrigerants, shipping logistics and GTL processes. I’ve also had the opportunity to work with major international oil producers and oil-field service providers which has been a wonderful learning experience.
The nature of your work means that you have the privilege of being at the beginning of the innovation journey. In your experience, what is a common factor for any business to ensure the success of innovations?
It’s essential that there is an alignment of the IP strategy with the business’ commercial strategy, otherwise, the business is not going to fully realise the value of its innovation. In particular, the IP strategy should follow the innovation cycle. For instance, before investing in R&D for new products, a well-executed IP strategy should be able to inform the business about the competitor IP landscape and risk of infringement of third-party IP rights. This intelligence then feeds into R&D investment decisions and guides the R&D team about whether any workarounds are required. The business then needs to seek IP protection early, prior to any disclosure or commercial use, so proprietary rights can be secured.
Additionally, there needs to be buy-in from every level of the business into the IP strategy and clarity about their specific role for the implementation of that IP strategy for the business. Senior management should treat its IP strategy as an integral part of the overall risk strategy for the business and have appropriate governance processes in place. Middle management has an important role to ensure there is capture of IP within the organisation and to promote an innovation culture within the organisation. And every employee needs to be able to identify IP within the business and feel confident about participating in an appropriate assessment process.
What key intellectual property issues are your clients in the oil and gas industry currently facing?
Emerging technologies such as automation, IoT, machine learning and AI provide an enormous amount of data from which rich insights about operations, maintenance, productivity and efficiencies can be gained. Issues such as controlling access to the data by third parties, misconceptions about ownership of data, and developing new business models to extract value from these data sets are relevant to not only the oil and gas industry but health, agritech, mining, finance – the list goes on.
It’s incumbent on IP professionals to present pragmatic advice and solutions to these issues for their clients. I also think it’s important to keep abreast of how other industry sectors are grappling with these issues to see where analogous approaches might be useful.
There is a lot of pressure on the oil and gas industry to develop engineering solutions for sustainable development. What new technologies do you see emerging in this industry that will work towards achieving this goal?
Industry 4.0 technologies mentioned above will obviously be very important to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase efficiencies around energy consumption. But I think there will also be a trend towards investment and development of alternative sustainable energy technologies such as hydrogen and energy storage as this sector transitions from fossil fuel to a broader spectrum energy sector.
The process of protecting intellectual property can, in many cases, take a number of years. How do you manage the long-term relationship with your clients to achieve the best commercial result?
Regular communication with the client is key – ensuring that the IP strategy continues to be fit for purpose can only be achieved by understanding changes to the client’s business landscape and how they are adapting their business strategy accordingly.
I find it particularly rewarding when my input and the questions I raise lead my clients to explore other avenues which hadn’t occurred to them.
You enjoy sharing your passion and knowledge of IP by mentoring students in STEM. What new challenges are students facing today and what advice do you give them?
The pace of technological change is so fast that the challenge for many STEM students is that they feel they are preparing themselves for a career unknown – one that hasn’t been ‘invented’ yet. How do they know if they are on the right path? While STEM inherently develops critical thinking, analysis and problem-solving skills which can be readily transferred to a range of careers, it is also important to develop ‘soft skills’ like communication, storytelling and creativity. So I always encourage my STEM students to broaden their interests beyond STEM and develop an appreciation of the arts and get involved in other student activities. Regardless of where their career path takes them, it will always be important to communicate effectively and collaborate with others.