In 1940, Hattie McDaniel became the first black actor to win an Academy Award. The Oscars were held in a"whites only” hotel so, after accepting her award, she was forced to sit at a segregated table, away from the rest of the cast of"Gone with the Wind".speaks for a world that waits for a system created by white males to properly recognise the beauty and significance in movies made by women and people of colour.
In the midst of the awards “silly season” in the field of law, a prominent intellectual property law index and referral network announced its awards and rankings for top IP law firms and IP practitioners around the world. And, being a"woke" organisation, it also ranked the top 250 women in IP. Of the top 250 women in IP law globally, only six hail from Africa. That’s 2.4% of the total. It could be argued that the low percentage reflects the amount of trademark and patent filing activity on the continent compared to the rest of the world, but it still gives one pause. Is there another reason?
I’d venture that the answer is both. A black senior IP practitioner I spoke to agreed: “It is disheartening that in 2020, critical principles of empowerment and diversity are still ignored. These are fundamental issues that are relevant to and affecting the legal fraternity in general.