IP Stories

This time we had the pleause of interviewing Dr. Carles Puente i Baliarda, who patented the first fractal antenna in the world. We talked about using patents as a business tool and not just as a defensive tool; about the need to be naive to become an inventor; and about the future of antennas in IoT (Internet of Things).

Links of interest:

We speak with Dr. Miguel Salas Natera (PhD in Communications Technologies and Systems as well as a Master's Degree in Space Technology). Miguel is from Venezuela, but he has lived in Madrid for many years, and this is where he currently works as Associate Professor and Researcher on SATCOM and Antenna Systems, at the UPM (Polytechnic University of Madrid).  

We had the pleasure to talk with him about his research work as engineer, the challenges and benefits from working in a university environment, the initiatives that help tech transfer, his experience working in international projects and participating in spin-offs, the future of Space Tecnology and many other things. This interview is so interesting!

This episode is part of a tech transfer special, a series of interviews to better understand the transfer of knowledge from research centres, universities and laboratories, to the industry and our lives.

Links of interest:

We had the pleasure to interview the Senior IP Officer at KU Leuven R&D, Pascale Redig. Her job involves managing research collaborations between academia and industry from an IP perspective, negotiating the contracts, as well as the commercialisation of the research via licensing. 

We talked with her about the importance of the collaborations between academia and industry, understanding each other's needs and “making it happen”, so that we can create new opportunities for researchers and “make the research work for the community”.

This episode is part of a tech transfer special, a series of interviews to better understand the transfer of knowledge from research centres, universities and laboratories, to the industry and our lives.

Links of interest:

We had the pleasure to interview Miguel Silva-Constenla, CEO & Co-Founder at AllRead Machine Learning Technologies, a spin-off from the Computer Vision Center of Barcelona, and now a scale-up with solid revenue and a dedicated team of 30+ people.  

Miguel holds a Master’s degree in Physics & Computer Science and an International MBA. He served in the Spanish Army as Specialist in Electronic Hi-tech combat systems and graduated with Honors. He worked in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in the telecommunications industry, and later co-founded an extensive list of Tech companies across Europe, Middle East and Asia-Pacific, including the leadership of a Venture Capital Fund.  

He’s a great communicator and during this interview he gives great advice to entrepreneurs. Don’t miss it! 

This episode is part of a tech transfer special, a series of interviews to better understand the transfer of knowledge from research centres, universities and laboratories, to the industry and our lives.

Els Henckaerts, MD, PhD is the head of the Laboratory of Viral Cell Biology and Therapeutics at KU Leuven. In this interview with Els, we see her as a researcher, as the CSO of a recently stablished spin-off and as a professor and mentor.

We learned about the advances of gene therapy, the importance of having the right support and strong patents when creating a spin-off, the relationship between the academic research and the pharma industry, and the amazing feeling she gets from seeing her PhD students thrive and collaborate with them.  

Dr. Isabel Vercauteren is CEO at Aphea.Bio, a company dedicated to provide novel science-based solutions to build the agriculture of the future: sustainable, reliable and profitable. It founded in 2017 as a spin-off of the VIB and its partner universities Ghent University and KU Leuven. We talked with Isabel about the challenge of raising capital (they have secured € 70 million Series C Funding); the importance of IP and their incredible work at Aphea.Bio.  This episode is part of a tech transfer special, a series of interviews to better understand the transfer of knowledge from research centres, universities and laboratories, to the industry and our lives.

Links of interest:

Patrick Chaltin is the Managing Director of the Centre for Drug Design and Discovery (CD3). He is a qualified European Patent Attorney and was previously active as IP manager at the IP unit of KU Leuven Research & Development, where he was responsible for the management of the IP created by KU Leuven within the pharmaceutical field. 

Paul Van Dun is the General Manager of KU Leuven's Technology Transfer unit. To give a bit of context - about 200 findings are reported by researchers from the KU Leuven Association to their IP department. From these findings, in 2022, 144 patents were granted, resulting in a total of 825 active patent families in KU Leuven’s portfolio. Paul talks to us about his unplanned journey and the wide range of interests that have led him to his current position; also, about not losing sight of, what should be, the main goal of research, and the key elements that he sees in successful startups.  This episode is part of a tech transfer special, a series of interviews to better understand the transfer of knowledge from research centres, universities and laboratories, to the industry and our lives.

Links of interest:

In this episode we had a great chat with Dr. Oliver Scherenberg, an intellectual property attorney based in Germany, with over 15 years of experience in licensing and monetization. We talked about the misunderstandings around IP in the creative and technological industries; the specific concerns around NFTs and Web3; the challenges of our time and AI. He is very active in LinkedIn where he also talks about free resources that we can all use to learn more about these topics. Links of interest:

This episode is such a roller coaster! Arnaud has told us about the beginnings of his company, The Blinc Group - a leading innovator in the cannabis vaporizer industry. We have learned how they use patents not only to protect themselves from competitors, or to defend themselves in court from the allegations of an industry giant; but also, to shape their business strategy, making the most of their innovation. 

He gives some great advice to entrepreneurs based on their experience, and probably it's quite different to what you are used to hear. 

We had a chat with Dr. Hayleigh Bosher, an internationally published legal academic, speaker and legal consultant specialising in intellectual property, media and entertainment law. She is Senior Lecturer and Associate Dean (Professional Development and Graduate Outcomes) at Brunel University London, Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Intellectual Property, Policy and Management, blogger for the specialist IP blog The IPKat, Deputy Editor of the European Trade Mark Reports, and founder of the World IP Women (WIPW) network. She holds a PhD in Copyright Law from Bournemouth University, under the Vice Chancellor’s Scholarship Award.

We talked with her about how IP works in the real world, about the music industry and the things she's proud of. We had a great time during this interview! (and you can tell).

Links mentioned during this episode:

This episode is part of our Word IP Day special, that this year is about ‘Women and IP: Accelerating innovation and creativity’. To honour such an important subject, we have interviewed four successful women inventors with extensive IP knowledge. Their stories and messages of encouragement for anyone interested in pursuing their careers in the STEM industries, and particularly for young women, are inspiring. If you enjoy this episode as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you, please remember to share and follow us!