Date: 2 Mar 2023 (Thu) 

Time: 9:30-10:30am (HKT)

Venue: Zoom

Speaker: Ms. Lita Nelsen, Former Director of MIT Technology Licensing Office

Register Now: https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_hdetail.aspx?guest=Y&ueid=86437 

(Zoom link will be sent to registrants prior to the webinar)

Abstract

A patent is fundamental as a form of protection to keep others from copying your invention and competing with you. Patents are often critical in an academic setting if the inventors and the university are to bring the invention into reality. Companies and venture investors are usually unwilling to invest in risky product development unless there are patents to prevent competition from immediately copying a successful one. This talk, based on experience at the MIT Technology Licensing Office, will quickly describe what is needed to obtain a patent and then discuss additional issues including:

• Patenting and academic publication
• Prior art
• Third-party patents that can block you
• Filing stronger and broader patents
• Working with the TTO
• What the TTO needs from the scientist/inventor

About Lita Nelsen

Lita Nelsen served in the Technology Licensing Office of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for 3 decades, 25 years of which as director of the office. Throughout the period, the MIT TLO has licensed over 500 startup companies based on MIT research technology. She is the author of various articles and book chapters on technology transfer. During her tenure at MIT TLO, she has been invited to lecture and consult in tech transfer and university-based entrepreneurship in over 20 countries. She was also a co-founder of Praxis (now Praxis-Auril), a UK non-profit-making company for training tech transfer professionals, which earned her the title of a Member of the British Empire (MBE). Having retired from MIT, Lita is now a consultant on university licensing technology for young startups. She volunteers as a mentor in the MIT Sandbox Program, mentoring undergraduate students on kick-starting companies.