On Monday 16th and Tuesday 17th of September 2019, a two-day seminar on IP issues entitled “Leveraging IP”, was successfully organized by Cyprus Seeds on CyI’s premises.

Cyprus Seeds is a non-profit organization with the mission to help commercialize innovative academic research in Cypriot universities and research institutions. It aims to fund research in Cyprus, from any area/field, with market potential with the goal to reduce uncertainty so that an external party would invest in the technology. In addition to grants, Cyprus Seeds offers mentoring, business skills training and networking with the business community and possible investors outside Cyprus.

The two-day seminar was supported and hosted by The Cyprus Institute, and was attended by a distinguished Cyprus academic and professional community. The aim of the seminar was educating the community about intellectual property and technology transfer in Cyprus.

Participants had a unique opportunity to learn about a wide range of topics, including Patent Ownership and Assignment, Sales and Litigation Strategies, and Licensing of Intellectual Property, Monetizing Intellectual Property Assets by experts in the field from K&L Gates – a fully integrated, leading global Law firm, recognized as one of the top 20 best-known law firm brands in the world in Acritas' Global Elite Law Firm Brand Index 2018 and Ascenion, an independent knowledge and technology transfer company based in Munich, Germany, that supports more than 30 European partners with a life-science focus: research institutions, universities, university hospitals and associated organizations.

The key presenter of the seminar was Mr. George Summerfield, partner at K&L Gates, who has more than 30 years of patent litigation experience, including matters in district court, the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, and the European Patent Office. Also presenting were Alessandra Feller, counsel at K&L Gates, and Dr. Anja Zimmermann, Equity Management & Evaluation at Ascenion.

The U.S Embassy in Cyprus has been supporting Cyprus Seeds since its inception, and has sponsored the visit to Cyprus by both Summerfield and two other partners from the Boston office and the Milan office of K&L Gates.