ConTEL 2007

Keynote talk 3

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Commercial Patent Evaluation

Dr. Vesna Hassler
European Patent Office

Abstract:

Intellectual property can be protected in different ways, such as, for example, by patents, utility models, trademarks, designs, or copyrights. A patent grants exclusive rights to a patentee to prevent or exclude others from making, using, or selling the claimed invention. The rights are granted for a limited number of countries and for a limited time.

The patent system is an integral part of the global economic activity, whereby the increase in patent filings closely mirrors the world economic growth. Last October the American Stock Exchange introduced an index reflecting the value of patents. The index takes into account the value of a company's intellectual property and is calculated every 15 seconds.

Patents are seen as part of the so-called "intangible" company assets on which the modern knowledge-based economy is increasingly depending. Consequently, patents as assets should be somehow made controllable and manageable. That implies that they should be made visible as resources and that their application should be measured and reported on.

This presentation will give an overview of patent valuation methods and tools. They can help a company decide about the patenting strategy by determining whether an innovation really has a commercial potential.

Speaker's biography:

V. Hassler received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Zagreb University, and a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering and Communications from Graz University of Technology. She worked as assistant researcher, assistant professor, visiting fellow and lecturer at several universities (in Zagreb, Graz, Vienna, and Singapore). She published a number of conference and journal papers, and two books (Security Fundamentals for E-Commerce, and Java Card for E-Payment Applications, publisher Artech House). She serves as Ph.D. examiner and reviewer for several conferences and journals.

She participated as a consultant in the first Austrian digital signature project. From 2000-2004 she worked for the Secure Information Technology Center - Austria in the areas of public key infrastructure, digital certificates, evaluation of secure products, smart cards, and security audits. She was involved in the standardization activities of the European Electronic Signature Standardization Initiative. She is a licensed security auditor for the IT Baseline Protection from the German Bundesamt fuer Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI).

Since March 2004 she works for the European Patent Office in Vienna, in the Patent Information - Research & Prototyping directorate.

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