mintt modules & workshops

By Alberto Di Consiglio

IP issues have entered the agendas of strategic management in industry at large, while being previously handled by specialists in the periphery of management attention. As a result, there are often missing links between IP strategies and business strategies. This lecture presents a conceptual framework for IP-strategies linked to technology strategies and possible business strategies for all-in-one strategic management, to ultimately build up the total value of an IP portfolio as part of the company’s intellectual capital.

By Andrea Crottini & Mauro Lattuada

Transferring new technologies and bright inventions to impact society is an important mission of the university. As an inventor, having contributed to such technologies and inventions is a great achievement. Licensing them to industry and startups opens the path to the market and is an absolute reward for innovators.

This module focuses on licensing, the most common way to transfer technologies. It is a very interactive module combining case studies and examples to illustrate the essential components of the license agreement. It also aims to provide a basis for licensing negotiations.

By Adam Swetloff & Ghislain Singla

More details soon.

By Natalia Giovannini, Xavier Delinotte and Kostas Kaloulis

Xavier Delinotte  holds a Master’s degree in Quality and Strategic Management specializing in Business Intelligence (HES SO) and is a Business Model Canvas trainer at Innopark.

Kostas Kaloulis is currently CEO of EVIR Therapeutics and former CEO of Arctos Medical (sold to Novartis), two companies that he helped to structure and spin-out from the University of Bern and EPFL.

Before that he headed the Innovation for the Life Sciences of EPFL, and on behalf of InnoSuisse, acted as an expert for new healthcare startups and technologies across Switzerland. He has more than 18 years of experience in research, serial entrepreneurship, and biopharmaceutical business development & strategic innovation (Merck KGaA), where he has structured, negotiated, and managed numerous licensing and strategic partnerships deals. His main career motivation is to bring scientific breakthroughs to patients. As co-founder of the ReMedys Foundation, he supports the development of products with low commercial interest, but with potentially great impact to patients’ lives.

Kostas holds a PhD in Molecular Embryology from the University of Geneva, and did Post Doctoral research in cancer genetics at the Swiss Institute of Cancer Research.

By Natalia Giovannini, Alberto Di Consiglio, Adam Swetloff and Gilles Pfend

In this session, we will explore the role and importance of data in life science patents to understand why having good data is critical and how this should fit in an IP strategy. We will first explore the underlying IP concepts relevant to data. Following this, you will be divided into small teams and apply these principles to real-world case studies in an interactive session. We will conclude with a summary of the key concepts learned and will highlight some best practices points. By the end of the session you will have a good understanding about key IP concepts including: the role of data, plausibility and sufficiency. 

By Bea Arnold, Mauro Lattuada and 

Tom Gibbs, Senior Investment Director, Debiopharm Innovation Fund

Frederic Pont, Co-founder & COO, Tune Insight

In its lifespan a startup will usually undergo one or more investment rounds.

This module presents different financing alternatives with a focus on Corporate Investment.

It gives an overview about the funding process (from evaluation till agreement signature) and about roles and responsibilities of the parties (startup, investors, Board) once the deal has been finalized.

It suggests hints on how entrepreneurs can best benefit from the expertise and experience of the funding entities.

By George Whitten

A workshop on patent matters will be presented by an industrial intellectual property expert. This workshop will address practical and business related issues and will involve the active participation of the class.

By Andrea Crottini & Ghislain Singla

What is an IP asset? Which are the concepts of IP value? How to perform a patent valuation? Which methods are used? Participants to this module will be able to acquire the fundamental concepts and apply them in one case study.

By Mauro Lattuada & Thomas Bourgeau

Software is both an essential working tool for researchers as well an important intellectual property asset for companies. In this workshop, we will introduce the basic concepts of intellectual property matters related to software, discuss the fundamentals of a software license and introduce the most common open source licenses. The main business models related to software commercialization will be also presented and discussed. Participants will work on a case study which will illustrate a typical situation which they may encounter in their research and development activities.