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.