Welcome to the inaugural edition of WIPR Diversity. This replaces the Influential Women in IP magazine, as we build on last year’s efforts to embrace IP diversity in every form, in addition to gender diversity.

To achieve our goal, and to reflect the many different and unique perspectives in IP, we believe that a rebrand is both necessary and appropriate.

This development comes in the wake of a groundbreaking shift for everybody as we deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. The crisis has provoked sweeping changes in our personal and professional lives and has prompted questions that have brought pivotal diversity and inclusion (D&I) issues to the fore.

Time and again, research has shown that people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic, while the burden of lockdowns has exacted a heavy toll on women from all backgrounds.

Amid this assault on our diverse communities, and despite rallying cries for change, research shows the science, technology, engineering and mathematics field continues to be predominantly—and depressingly—white, male, and privileged. This has to change.

This strange period has been traumatic for many, underscoring the importance of promoting wellbeing and removing the stigma that still persists around mental health issues.

There have been other epoch-defining events. The murder of George Floyd and the increased influence of the Black Lives Matter movement shone a glaring spotlight on the vast inequalities that still exist in our society. Smaller minority groups such as the transgender community have faced, and continue to confront, threats to their civil rights.

Our third annual diversity survey shows that the IP community is only too aware that there is much more to be done. A quarter of respondents are unconvinced that their senior leaders are strongly committed to D&I, while 59% believe that the legal sector is failing on D&I.

As we slowly emerge from the pandemic and reflect on the cataclysmic events of the past 18 months, it is vital that we learn from their effects and help to deliver real and lasting change.