At the Distinguished Guest Speaker Event on December 14, 2018 we invited Ms. Tanja Sovic, head of  the Patent and License Management Division at Research and Transfer Support Office at TU Wien, opens an external URL in a new window. The members of the Patent and Licence Management support inventors of TU Wien in filing patent applications and in patent management, as well as in the implementation and exploitation of inventions.

Tanja Sovic has been working as a patent and license manager at TU Wien since 2007. During that time she gained experience in patenting and the commercialization of university inventions. Prior to entering the technology transfer field Tanja worked as a scientist at the Research Centre Applied Biocatalysis in Graz and at the Politecnico di Bari in Italy. She studied chemical engineering at the Graz University of Technology and obtained a PhD in Polymer Chemistry at the Institute of Chemistry and Technology of Materials (ICTM) in 2006.

In her talk Ms. Sovic told us that the implementation of the often still basic research results into an actual product, securing the research results and the rights of TU Wien and its inventors is one of the decisive steps. She explained the importance to clairfy the ownership structure and the challenges that may occur. Furthermore, Ms. Sovic illustrated the phases of patent evaluation and the role of the inventor in the technology and knowledge transfer process. She also highlighted the importance of finding appropriate industry and research partners. After her talk, Ms. Sovic joined the buffet for further discussions and interesting questions.