Hosted by Harvard Office of Technology Development and the FAS Office of Postdoctoral Affairs. Free and open to all; no Harvard ID required. The talk may be of most value to those pursuing (or considering) careers in scientific innovation, entrepreneurship, intellectual property, or technology transfer.

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Patenting Software Innovations In Europe

Computer-implemented inventions are among the most challenging types of intellectual property to protect via patents -- but a bit of behind-the-scenes insight goes a long way! A visiting delegation from the European Patent Office will demonstrate how patent applications in the EU can be most successful, in fields like cloud computing and AI.

Featuring speakers from the European Patent Office:

Raul Suarez y Gonzalez is Team Manager in the field of Graphical User Interfaces and Constructional Details of Computers since 2017. He was before examiner in the same field since 2004. Between 2008 and 2012 he has been active in the field of data exchange between IP offices in the context of WIPO, IP5 and the publication of European Patents. Before joining the EPO, Raul was an avionics system test engineer and responsible for the maintenance telecommunication systems in the Belgian Air Force. He completed a master in Electronics and Telecomuniations at the Royal Military Academy in Brussels, Belgium, and a master in Information Communication Technology at the University of Hasselt, Belgium.

Elena Lidia Toader is Team Manager in the field of Accessing, addressing or allocating within memory systems. Since 2008 she has been an examiner in this field and she also worked in various other fields in the Computers area. She became a coach in 2016 and she has been coaching new colleagues starting the job as an examiner. Before joining the EPO she worked as printer drivers developer for "Océ, a Canon company". She also worked as embedded software developer for Siemens VDO Automotive. She completed a Master Degree in Advanced Computing Systems at Politehnica University of Timisoara and she graduated the Faculty of Automation and Computers at Politehnica University of Timisoara.

Hanno Wirtz is an examiner in the field of multiprocessing and distributed systems since 2015. Before joining the EPO, Hanno worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the Chair of Communication and Distributed Systems, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, Germany. He obtained his diploma (M.Sc. equivalent) in Computer Science from the same university in 2008 as well as completed his Ph.D. in Computer Science there in 2014. During his studies, Hanno worked as a software engineer in the telecommunication industry.

TJ Klasen has been an examiner in the area of artificial intelligence since 2016. TJ's experience in patents started in 2011 outside the Office when TJ joined a large Dutch IP firm. During his time as an European patent attorney, TJ advised clients on diverse patent related issues. Before making the switch to patents, TJ worked in industry as a hardware engineer in both the US and Belgium. TJ received his B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2002, and completed a Master in Artificial Intelligence at the KU Leuven in Belgium in 2003.