31 January 2024 | Vienna, Austria

On 31 January 2024, LES Austria held its Annual General Meeting. Having served the full five-year term, President Rainer Herzig stepped down, but will remain on the board of LES Austria as Immediate Past President. Former Vice President Karin Hofmann was elected President. She brings a wealth of experience to the role, both from her current position as Vice President and Member of the Board of LESI, and from her 25 years of experience in technology transfer at the Vienna University of Technology. Karin will be supported by the newly elected Vice President of LES Austria, Gernot Grober, who is Head IP at AT&S Austria, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of high-end printed circuit boards and IC substrates.

The General Assembly was followed by a presentation on the Unitary Patent and the Unified Patent Court by the Secretary of LES Austria, Thomas Adocker, attorney at law with Taylor Wessing in Vienna, and patent attorney Harald Nemec of Schwarz & Partner Patentanwälte. They reviewed the current situation 8 months after the introduction of the new system, both in terms of statistics and the case law of the new court so far, and gave an outlook on the developments to be expected in the near future.

23-24 November 2023 | Vienna, Austria

On Nov 23 and Nov 24, the event “Succeeding at technology commercialization and negotiation”, co-organized by LES Austria, LES Czech Republic & Slovakia and LES Hungary, took place in Vienna at the premises of the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien). The core of the event was the Advanced Commercialisation Course developed by LESI and the EPO Patent Academy.

75 people from all over Europe followed the lectures from renowned experts to themes such as IP strategy, IP management, licensing and negotiation issues, IP assessment and IP valuation. The final part of the course was the IP negotiation masterclass, a kind of licensing mock negotiation which most of the participants of the event also attended.

The event was complemented by two networking evenings: a pre-networking dinner at Stadtwirt the day before the event started and networking buffet and drinks on the evening of the first day.

Excellent feedback of participants to the event motivates the national groups of LES Austria, LES Czech Republic & Slovakia and LES Hungary to continue in organizing joint events in the next years.