From Science to IP: Hands-on Patent Law

Event for expert public only

From Science to IP: Hands-on Patent Law

Patent law in natural and life sciences

When:          7th & 8th December 2023; 9:00 - 17:00 each day

Language:   ENGLISH

Where:         Online

Who:            Doctoral Candidates and Postdocs at Berlin University Alliance (FU, HU, TU, Charité)

Electives:    Elective I; personal skills and interdisciplinary courses (0.5 ECTS-CP points)

Registration:   To register use our registration form.

Description and Contents:

You can read a lot about patents and other industrial property rights. However, there are two fundamental problems for young professionals in life sciences trying to find out about a possible career in the field of industrial property. First, it has been extremely hard to get an idea of what a patent attorney’s daily work looks like. Second, there has been no training or workshop material specifically tailored for people with a background in life sciences.

This workshop offers the unique opportunity to explore a patent attorney’s daily work by means of case studies that are based on real patent cases. It is conceived in a way to mimic the training experience of a trainee in a patent attorney’s office. Thus, the workshop is hands-on training and you will have to jump in at the deep end. Moreover, you will work on life-science and chemistry cases throughout the workshop and get insights into the various legal aspects (including case law) that a patent attorney must be knowledgeable about. Finally, you will learn to appreciate the similarities and differences between different jurisdictions (such as European, German, and U.S.).

• What is an invention? (Legal definition; Examples; Non-inventions)
• How can an invention be protected? (Overview of industrial property rights; Patent claims; Working examples of patent claims; Patent claim interpretation)
• What is a patentable invention? (Novelty; Inventive step;Industrial application)
• What is sufficiency of disclosure? (Legal definition; Examples; Medical-use claims)
• What is added matter? (Legal definition; Examples)

Workshop Facilitator:

Dr. Markus Ackermann

As a German patent attorney (“Patentanwalt”), European patent attorney, and author of peer-reviewed publications Markus Ackermann has a great deal of expertise in industrial property law. In addition he has scientific expertise in Neuroscience (graduate student  at Pennsylvania State University and Post-Doc at Georg-August-Universität Göttingen) and Biochemistry (Ph.D. & IMPRS-LS student at    (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München).

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