ABSTRACT: Technology based business models in the telecom/IT/Electronics field have been able to provide spectacular sustained financial results as demonstrated for instance by the cases of Qualcomm and Thomson through the licensing of CDMA and MP3 technologies respectively. Still, there is a substantial gap from the technology conception until an economic return is obtained. Succesfully managing the explotation of the technology asset of a technology corporation becomes a critical challenge, there. In that sense, most of the succesful cases of technology driven corporations strongly leverage their business models on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR, i.e., patents). However, quite often patents are perceived as 'legal matters' when in fact they are the core business assets and technology tools to develop successful technology based corporations. It is a purpose of this talk to introduce scientists, researchers, engineers and technology business managers into the field of technology and patent management while explainning the recent trainning innitiatives the UPC is taking through the MERIT and MINT master programs.
SPEAKER: Dr. Carles Puente is a co-founder of Fractus and leads its antenna technology research team, with responsibility for the company’s intellectual property portfolio development and antenna development. Carles is a university professor at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) where he started researching fractal-shaped antennas while a student in the late 1980s. He gained an MSc from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA in 1994 and a PhD from UPC in 1997. From 1994 to 1999 he worked with the faculty of Electromagnetic and Photonic Engineering at UPC on pioneering developments of fractal technology applied to antennas and microwave devices. Carles was awarded with the Best Doctoral Thesis in Mobile Communications 1997 by the COIT, the European Information Society Technology Grand Prize from the European Commission in 1998 and the Premi Ciutat de Barcelona in 1999. He and his team at Fractus where awarded with the Technology Pioneer distinction by the World Economic Forum in 2005. He has authored more than 50 invention patents and over 90 scientific publications in fractal and related antenna technologies.
