PATLIB2022

Jean-Eric Paquet
European Commission

Jean-Eric Paquet became Director-General of DG Research and innovation on 1 April 2018; his involvement in EU research policy dates back from 2002, as Deputy Head of Cabinet of Philippe Busquin, then Commissioner in charge of Research and Development. He also worked in DG Transport, where he led the development of the Trans-European Transport Network Policy. He was also EU Ambassador in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania from 2004 to 2007. Between 2015 and 2018, he was the Deputy Secretary-General of the European Commission in charge of Better Regulation and Policy Coordination.
 

Anita Krohn Traaseth
European Innovation Council (EIC)

Anita Krohn Traaseth is a Norwegian business executive, Chair and Non-Executive Director in several growth tech companies and a board member of the EIC. As the former CEO of Innovation Norway (2014-19), one of the Norwegian Government's most important financial instrument for innovation and development of Norwegian enterprises and industry, she also oversaw the important role as National Contact point for SMEs in Horizon 2020. Under her lead, Norwegian companies were highly successful in securing an important place in EU programs such as the SME instrument. She is a high-performer with over 20 years' experience in private & public sector, and has broad operational experience leading and transforming complex matrix organisations.  

Peter Dröll
European Commission

Peter has been working in the European Commission since 1991 with positions in environment, enlargement negotiations, industry policy, innovation and research.
Since 2010 at Directorate-General Research and Innovation where he has been responsible for Innovation then for Industrial Technologies.  Following the re-orientation of DG Research and Innovation towards sustainability, his competences have been enlarged to include industrial R&I agendas and business intelligence as well as knowledge valorisation policies.
Peter is a lawyer by training with a doctorate degree in German constitutional law and European law.

Cristina Aleixendri Muñoz
bound4blue, ES

Cristina holds a BSc. & MSc. in Aeronautical Engineering and an Executive MBA from IESE Business School. She has also attended several programs at the University of Cambridge, ESADE Business School and Singularity University. Cristina has participated in more than 10 national and European projects, being the inventor of more than 5 patents in the field of wind-assisted propulsion systems and its various applications.

Katiuska Cruz
ANI - Portuguese National Innovation Agency

Katiuska is an economist specialised in promoting entrepreneurship and innovation.
At the Portuguese National Innovation Agency (ANI), she coordinates the Networks and Technology Valorisation Unit, which aims to strengthen the collaboration between Scientific institutions and companies, in order to boost technology transfer from academia to industry, and the Born from Knowledge (BfK) programme, which main objective is to promote, disseminate and award the production of knowledge and innovation in Portugal.

András Havasi
University of Malta

András is a creative mind with a strong mechanical engineering background and an endless interest in business development.
He found his passion in technology transfer and has been contributing to the evolution of the Maltese research and innovation community as a member of the University of Malta for 7 years now. He is also an active member of the European technology transfer community through his volunteer participation in initiatives of ASTP, the premier technology transfer association in Europe, and the European Commission.
In 2020, he earned his Registered Technology Transfer Professional title, the highest recognition in the field of technology transfer.

Michael Fröhlich
European Patent Office

Michael Fröhlich is the Director of European and International Legal Affairs, PCT at the EPO. He is a fully qualified German lawyer with a post-graduate degree and Ph.D. in IP. 
Serving in increasingly responsible positions in the IP area, he is overseeing a team of lawyers and paralegals supporting key policy projects of the EPO, including the implementation of the Unitary Patent. 
Previous experience includes: 
Senior Director, EU IP & Strategy at BlackBerry, Senior Legal Counsel at Nokia, heading the Legal Affairs department at the ETSI, Chairman of the AIPPI Committee on Patents & Standard, Vice-Chairman of the GSMA IPR Working Group and Vice-Chairman of the LES Publication Committee.

José Aguilar
Instituto Pedro Nunes, PT

Head of Legal & IP at Instituto Pedro Nunes (a Portuguese Patlib Center). Lawyer. Intervention both as trainee and lecturer, addressing Intellectual Property, tech transfer and legal tech issues in several events (AUTM, LES, ASTP, ERA, OECD, OMPI, WIPO and EPO). Since 2011, invited lecturer on the Faculty of Pharmacy of Universidade de Coimbra. Member of the EPO SACEPO/PDI, EUIPO SME Expert Group and EARTO Legal Experts Working Group. Researcher at SPARC - Space Law Research Center at Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

Justyna Cięgotura
Poznan University of Life Sciences, PL

Executive with 20 years of experience in knowledge valorisation. 2001 - 2009 Business / IP Analyst at the University of Illinois at Chicago; 2011 - 2021 Technology Transfer Manager / Deputy Director at the Poznan Science and Technology Park responsible for IP and business incubation;  2021 Incubation Manager at the PULS. Graduate of the University of Economics, Poznan (MA), and UIC Master of Business Administration (MBA).

Pauli Laitinen
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, FI

Pauli heads the IPR management of the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd. VTT has over 400 patent families in its portfolio. Pauli holds Ph.D. in Physics and has 20 years of experience in technology transfer in various roles.

Shiva Loccisano
NETVAL, IT

MSc in Industrial Biotechnology, a PhD in Business and Management and a specialising Master in Project Management for Business Performance and Innovation; is an IPMA certified PM Associate.   
With more than 15 years' experience in Technology Transfer and Innovation he is heading the Tech Transfer at Politecnico di Torino. 
He is board member at Netval and Council Member of ATTP. He is also Vice-chairing the University-Industry-Government Transaction Committee in LES International and member of ASTP. 
He is author of publications in the field and has been speaker at several conferences and lecturer in Technology Transfer and Innovation courses at the post-graduation level.

Špela Stres
Jožef Stefan Institute, SI

Dr. Špela Stres, MBA, LLM is the head of the Innovation and Tech. Transfer Center at Jožef Stefan Institute. Passionate about making the innovation system more coherent and professional, she supported the creation of 11 companies & 2 Proof of concept funds. She is a Board Member of the EIC, Member of the HL Expert Group on the ESIR and delegate to the CERN KT Forum.
Previous experience includes:
HL 10-MG Group to support Tech, Facilitation Mechanism at the UNVP and Board Member of the European Assoc. of Science & Technology Professionals.
She also lectures at the Uni. of Ljubljana within her diverse areas of experience.
She holds a PhD in Physics, Master's in law in IP, executive MBAl, and patent attorney exam.

Thomas Withnell
European Patent Office

I joined the PATLIB 2.0 Team at the EPO in 2021 with a focus on Technology Transfer and SME-related matters. My background is in electrical power engineering, and I have studied business economics. I have multiple years of experience in university technology transfer, and achieved RTTP (Registered Technology Transfer Professional) status.

Denis Dambois
European Commission, DG GROW, IP unit (C4)

Since 2017, Denis is with the IP unit of DG GROW - European Commission -, where he is mainly involved in various files related to patent policy.
From 1999 he was first in charge of various IP and tech transfer issues in DG Research, before moving on to the IP unit of DG Trade, and being seconded to the EU Delegation to India from 2013 to 2016.
After a first job in engineering, his IP career started in 1991 when he joined the patent department of a multinational company, before qualifying as a European patent attorney.

Francesco Matteucci
European Innovation Council (EIC)

Innovation manager with 20 years of experience spent as a researcher in materials science, Corporate R&D Manager, co-founder and director of start-ups and joint-labs within the field of technologies for renewable energy production and storage. Besides, he managed different organization acting as intermediary of knowledge trying to exploit the research results within the field of energy and environment. He co-authored over 30 scientific papers, 5 patents, and was Visiting Professor at the University of Ferrara as well as speakers in many conferences and workshops. Since October 2020 he works as EIC Programme Manager. 

Roberto Santolamazza
T2I, IT

Roberto Santolamazza holds a Master Course degree in Car Engineering (MBA) and a master's degree in Electronic Engineering (Industrial Automation and Robotics) from Padua University, Italy. Prior to joining t²i, Roberto managed an innovation agency, Treviso Tecnologia, and worked for several years in a major consulting firm, Accenture. Before this experience, he worked for a wide famous Italian car manufacturer, Ferrari SpA, and for a major Japanese multinational electronics company, Omron Corporation, as visiting fellow.
He's adjunct Professor of Innovation and Development Economics at the Cà Foscari University in Venice.
He's now the Managing Director in charge of t²i - trasferimento tecnologico e innovazione.

Jean-David Malo
European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA), established by the European Commission

Director for Open Innovation and Open Science in 2017, he designed and expanded initiatives such as the VentureEU Initiative and the RDI dimension under the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI).
In 2019, following the European Council's request to set up the European Innovation Council (EIC), he became Director of the EIC Task Force.

Since April 2021 he is the Director of the Agency for EIC and SMEs - EISMEA.

Christoph Ernst
European Patent Office

As of 1 January 2019 Christoph Ernst is the Vice-President Legal and International Affairs of the European Patent Office, in charge of European and International Cooperation, Patent Knowledge and Legal Affairs.
Before joining the EPO, for over two decades he held leadership positions at the German Federal Ministry of Justice, while being active in various capacities at the international level since 1997 and authoring a number of publications and articles.
From 2010-2018 he was Head of Germany's delegation to Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation, Management Board of EUIPO and General Assembly of WIPO. He was Chairman of the AC of the EPOrg in 2017-18.

Marco Bravo
European Patent Office

Marco Bravo is the EPO's Director of Patent Knowledge Promotion and a.i. Director of Patent Data Management. He has co-founded four companies and a business angel fund and actively mentored 200+ technology entrepreneurs from multiple countries. Mr. Bravo is an expert in innovation, technology transfer and IP-based commercialisation. His professional experience spans industry, academia, government, and entrepreneurship, with extensive cross-cultural experience in Europe, the United States and Asia.

Cornelius Enuezie
COZAREN GmbH, CH

Founder of COZAREN GmbH, an IP management and maximisation specialist consultancy based in Switzerland.
I come with over 27 years experience of using patent search and business research skills to enable biopharmaceutical organisations to generate economic value by implementing portfolio optimisation strategies to identify licensing and commercialisation opportunities to:

Elisabeth McDonald-Maier
European Patent Office

Lisa McDonald-Maier joined the EPO's principal directorate of patent information in 1992.  Over the years she has been heavily involved in the area of training and the PATLIB Network. She was responsible for the patent information content and its implementation of the pilot project to reorient patent information centres which ran from 2010 to 2013. Since 2013 Lisa heads the unit of user support coordination and tools for patent information products and services. Today, Lisa also manages the training and continued development offerings for PATLIB centres within the PATLIB 2.0 project.

Susanna Kernthaler
European Patent Office

Susanna Kernthaler has a degree in Law from the University of Vienna. Her professional background is international trade mark law. She joined the EPO in 2019 and is part of the PATLIB team.

Kath Griffiths
Norfolk Library & Information Service, GB

A qualified Librarian with over 26 years' experience, Kath Griffiths works as a Locality Manager for Norfolk Library & Information Service situated in the east of England in the UK.
Kath is the lead for the Library Service's Business Information provision which includes Intellectual Property, as well as being responsible for the delivery and development of the Library Service's Business Support offer in the county's seven Business and Intellectual Property Centres.
Kath is the EPO Committee member for the English-speaking nations of the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, Cyprus and Malta.

Romana Schwab
Innovation Salzburg GmbH, AT

After gaining experience in various European and supra-regional EU projects, Romana Schwab has been working at the Innovation and Location Agency of the Province of Salzburg since 2011, and as Head of Department since 2022. Here she accompanies domestic companies on the topics of subsidies, technology transfer and intellectual property rights. 

Schwab is co-founder of a national IPR network and initiated the membership in the PATLIB network

Véronique Spannagel
PATLIB INPI Ile-de-France, Courbevoie, FR

Véronique Spannagel is director of the network of regional delegations for INPI France. The network, 12 branches integrated into the PATLIB network, initiates actions to support innovators through IP. In 2021, were organised more than 11 900 meetings with companies including start-ups combined to nearly 1000 high value services (coachings, financial support, etc...).
Véronique is a chemical engineer, her primary career focus was on the development of patent databases. Since 2005, Véronique has been highly involved in SME Awareness and support, initially as Regional INPI Head in Lorraine, then in Eastern France, finally inter-regional head for North-East France before getting her actual position. 

Nour-Eddine Boukharouaa
Industrial and Commercial Property Office (OMPIC), MA

Nour-Eddine Boukharouaa is a head of Innovation and Technology Transfer in the Moroccan IP office (OMPIC). He is in charge of developing the use of patent system in Morocco within universities, R&D centres, SME and start-ups. He joined OMPIC in 2005 as a patent examiner in the field of thermal energy, plastics and building materials. Since 2011, he has been in charge of several national programs related to innovation as TISC, climate change (COP21, COP22 et COP23), Inventor Assistance Program (IAP Morocco), WIPO Academy courses and technology transfer programs. He is engineer graduated from Centrale Supélec School in the field of Innovation and Leadership in 2017 and from ENSA Agadir in 2005. He has been followed many international training programs as University of California in licensing, CEIPI in Strasbourg and KTH in Stockholm.

Enrico Luzzatto
European Patent Office

Enrico Luzzatto studied chemistry in Rome, university "La Sapienza".
Joined the EPO in 1989 and in 1998 passed the European Qualifying Examination.
Became operational director in 2010.
Was also active in the training of EPO examiners and has given several lectures on patenting and procedural matters.
In 2018 joined the European Patent Academy as Senior Advisor and as of 2020 works in the same role in the directorate Patent Knowledge Promotion.

Tobias Braunsberger
PATLIB-EZN Hannover, DE

Tobias Braunsberger is a national expert for IP pre-diagnostic services (IP Scan). Having studied electrical engineering in Germany and France, he has 14 years of experience in the field of technology transfer conducting patent searches and managing patent portfolios for ten universities. He participated in several EU funded business missions to Japan promoting innovative technologies mainly in the fields of Green Energy and water treatment.   

Mustafa Çakir
Patent Effect, TR

Mustafa Çakır is an industrial engineer with 12-year experience in patent portfolio management, patent data analytics, patent valuation, licensing, deep-tech startup programs, market research and spinoff creation. 

He is co-founder of Patenteffect.com, his company providing IP, tech transfer and deep-tech startup services. He mainly leads patent data analytics services, patent portfolio management, patent licensing, patent valuation, deep-tech startup acceleration programs and commercialization services for IP-based spinoff companies.  

He is also acting as the President of LES (Licensing Executives Society) Turkey and co-director of Founder Institute Turkey.

Alexandra Jeberien
Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin (HTW), DE

Prof. Dr. Alexandra Jeberien is a professor at HTW Berlin's conservation and restoration programme. She is a trained conservator for archaeological objects and holds a Master and as well as a doctoral degree in cultural heritage sciences. While her teaching focusses on conservation techniques for archaeological objects, her research interests include preventive measurements for heritage collections. Recent projects dealt with climate and pollution control for museums.

Pavel Jirman 
ARID PATLIB Centre, CZ

Pavel Jirman is co-founder of the ARID PATLIB Centre in Hradec Kralove. He was involved his all-professional life in the development of new systems in industry, especially glassmaking and R&D at the Technical University of Liberec. He has been dedicated to methods of systematic creativity for more than 30 years, which he has applied in teaching and practice. He acknowledges the principle of Ockham's razor that the best system is the simplest.

Idil Buse Kok Hazer
Director, ODTÜ Technology Transfer Office, TR

Idil Buse KOK HAZER, attorney at law, registered technology transfer professional (RTTP) and chartered patent attorney, is the director of Middle East Technical University (ODTU) Technology Transfer Office. She is also one of the IP Ambassadors of the European IP Helpdesk and member of the PATLIB Advisory Committee. She has more than 14 year's expertise in technology transfer, commercialization of IP, managing the IP portfolio development and management, litigation, patent valuation and strategic opinion.

Růžena Štemberková
PATLIB South Bohemia University - Technology Transfer Office, CZ

She focused her postgraduate studies in the field of industrial property law and completed it in 2019 by the title of Ph. D. in the field of international patent law at the University of Hradec Králové. She is Head of Technology Transfer Office at the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice since 2012. She is Vice-Chairwoman of Transfera.cz - national technology platform. She is also a member of the newly established EPO PATLIB committee, she is also a member of the European Presidency ASTP PROTON - NAAC, a member of the ITTN network and a member of L.E.S.I. CR and SR. She is  author of a number of publications devoted to the field of intellectual property and technology transfer. 

Sven Nytoft Rasmussen
Danish Patent and Trademark Office

Studied at the Technical University of Denmark, University of Stuttgart, and Stanford University, earning his Ph.D. 1985.
Member of EPO's PATLIB advisory committee.Danish delegate to the Committee of Experts of the IPC Union, WIPO.
Dr Rasmussen leads a Danish project to further develop and coordinate IPR information and business centres targeted towards inventors, entrepreneurs, and small and medium sized enterprises.

Veronica Rui
PATLIB Area Science Park, IT

Since 2005 she has been working as Patent Information Analyst at Area Science Park, providing information on IP rights (patents, trademarks, industrial designs, utility models, copyright), providing patent landscape and more generally supporting SMEs in the field of technology transfer activities. In June 2019 she has been registered as a Qualified Patent Information Professional by the International Standards Board for Qualified Patent Information Professionals (ISBQPIP). She has a background in Biological Science and a Master's degree in Managing Intellectual Property at Alma Graduate School - University of Bologna, Italy. 

Ursula Höfermayer
Austrian Patent Office (ÖPA)

Ursula Höfermayer has been working at the Austrian Patent Office for more than 20 years. In 2017, she became Head of the IP Academy and is thus responsible for the conception, organisation and handling of the IP Academy's training and further education offers, in particular in the form of seminars, workshops and online offers for stakeholders and users of the system.  She also coordinates the education and training  of the staff at the Austrian Patent Office. Ursula is the contact person for the Austrian PATLIB centres and responsible for the organisation and implementation of the tasks of the Austrian Patent Office in its capacity as national PATLIB centre.

Edward Cooke
European Patent Office

Edward Cooke has been a patent examiner at EPO since 2016, a member of the opposition directorate since its inception in 2018. He is currently working 50% in the Directorate Patent Knowledge Promotion as part of the PATLIB team. Within PATLIB he is content creator for various communication channels and involved in the annual training plan for PATLIB centres. He holds a Dr-Ing in in Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, a LL.M in IP Law and has completed the EQE.

Iker Ayerbe
European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA) of the European Commission

Iker Ayerbe is a technology and business professional with +10 years of experience supporting SMEs, start-ups and researchers in their pursuit of breakthrough innovations. Iker currently works as Project Adviser in the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency of the European Commission, in charge of the Single Market Programme and SME pillars. Previously he was part of the team in DG R&I that designed and launched the SME Instrument and EIC programme, a highly promising whole new concept in SME support at European level. Iker holds a bachelor in Business Science and a MBA from Solvay School of Economics and Management in Brussels.

Richelle Spiekerman
EUIPO

Richelle Spiekerman is Project Manager of the EUIPO SME Network and Collaboration project. She joined the EUIPO in 2016 and has been part of its SME Programme since its inception. Richelle has held various management and director positions in the field of Human Resources both in the private and public sector.  She holds a Bachelor and master's degree in Psychology, as well as an MBA from the University of Warwick. 

Sandra Ennas
Sardegna Ricerche, IT

Electrical Engineer, head of the Transfer and Technology Area at Sardegna Ricerche, the regional Agency for Innovation in Sardegna (Italy) and manager of the Sardegna Ricerche Patlib Center. She has 26 years' professional experience in the field. Among the other she manages business incentive programs for technological innovation aimed at small and medium-sized companies and she is also the manager of the first Sardinian rapid prototyping and digital fabrication laboratory.

Rainer Kaysan
European Patent Office

Head of Department PATLIB.
Joined the EPO in 2006 as patent examiner, covering tasks from prior art search to chairing opposition procedures. Since 2021, entrusted with leading the department PATLIB, a highly skilled team which provides first class support to the PATLIB network enabling its centres to offer state-of-the-art services to their customers. Master's degree in aerospace engineering as well as business economics.