Monthly Archives: August 2022

SUMMER 2022

Company: Sisvel S.L 

Location: Torre Glories, Barcelona 

Time period: Nine weeks from June to August 

Hola! We are David Olsson and Jesper Hagberg. We have spent the summer doing an internship for Sisvel in Barcelona and thought we might share our experience with you. 

Sisvel was founded during the early 80s and is a company specializing in the management of patent pools within the field of standard essential patents. What this means is that Sisvel has many years of experience ensuring that inventors and patent owners within areas such as 5G and Wi-Fi receive royalty payments for their IP. For us, this meant working with and learning from some of the brightest mind within a complex and exciting business area. 

Over the course of the summer, we have gotten to work with a variety of tasks. Perhaps primarily, we carried research used for the preparation of potential legal actions. With both of us coming from an engineering background, this gave us great (and perhaps well-needed) experience in working with technology from a legal perspective. In addition, we were tasked with analysing the 5G patent landscape to see what companies are in the forefront of the development of the standard. 

Having worked here, we understand the importance of regulating the market of standardized technologies. By regulating, it creates an incentive for inventors to create technologies that can be shared and used by everyone. Technologies such as 4G, 5G and Wi-Fi are examples of this. From a licensing agreement the royalty payments will trickle down to the inventors and make their efforts worth. This is all made possible by an administrator such as Sisvel. Organizing these patent pools that were mentioned earlier, will help to create a greater leverage when it comes to negotiating with the potential licensees. Without actors such as Sisvel, there would be significant less contribution within these fields because it would just not be worth the effort! 

A big thank you to CIP and Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship for both the internship and for the educational background needed to do the job. We feel truly privileged to have been given the opportunity to not only work in one of the nicest cities in the world, but at a company at the forefront of a business field so closely related to our studies. 

SUMMER 2022

Company: Tivic Health

Location: Hayward, California

Time Period: 9 weeks from July to August

Hi everyone!

We’re Stijn van Weegberg and Emanuel Slettengren. We’d like to share about our summer internship experience at Tivic Health Systems, Inc, located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Tivic Health is a bioelectronic medicine company, focused on non-invasively alleviating congestion and sinus pain by using electric microcurrents. It was founded in 2016, has around 15 employees, and has its first commercial product on the US market now: the ClearUp – a device for sinus pain and congestion. It went public at the end of 2021 – making it an exciting growth company to work at.

Our summer was focused on mapping the Intellectual Property landscape in two different areas of technology that Tivic Health are considering moving into in the future. We analyzed the IP in these areas to find opportunities where there is potential for Tivic to attain exclusivity, and gave recommendations to the company. With individual backgrounds in both technical medicine and law, we were able to help each other out when needed. In addition, having worked with Intellectual Property through multiple cases during our studies greatly prepared us for our internship. Beyond working directly on the project, we also had time to interact with all the different people at Tivic, including its management, learning about their various roles and how they have contributed to Tivic’s success.

Additionally, spending time in the San Francisco Bay Area was simply amazing – it allowed us to immerse in the culture, the food, its people, and all the wonderful touristic activities it has to offer: from the Golden Gate Bridge to Yosemite National Park, and from Alcatraz to Chinatown.

If you have any more questions, feel free to reach out to us!

Stijn van Weegberg and Emanuel Slettengren

SUMMER 2022

Company: CIPHER 

Location: Remote & London office

Time period: 8 weeks, from June to August 2022

Hi!

I have had the opportunity to intern for CIPHER during the summer. CIPHER is a company with a mission to enable patent owners to make rational decisions by providing strategic patent intelligence, powered by machine learning and the overarching vision to unleash the strategic value of patents. In practical terms, Cipher uses available patent data and uses supervised machine learning to provide insights for their clients. This enables the clients to create value from their patent portfolios, reduce litigation, and attain insight into various tech areas and their competitors to mention a few. My internship has entailed deeper knowledge in various technology areas, which I hadn’t been exposed to before due to my law background. Furthermore, I was able to have close contact with clients, both presenting work and iterating after clients’ wishes, as well as using patent data to provide insight in the form of an article.

My main task during the internship was to build so-called classifiers, which meant enabling the algorithm to find patents in the technology area that the client wishes to get insight into. The finished classifiers were then presented to the client for review and iterated according to their wishes.  I was also able to dig into which technology area I wanted and provide new insights through an article. I chose to focus on Automotive mobility and connectivity, zooming in on NPE litigation activity in the Automotive industry. This meant I got a practical example of how patent data can be used to provide insight into the legal arena.

To summarize, I am very grateful to have been part of CIPHER and for contributing to increased attention and importance of patent data as a strategic tool for governing a company,  for allowing me to be hands-on with the clients as well as giving me the opportunity to create insight of my own. I had a brilliant time with CIPHER, and I would recommend everyone to take part in an internship if there is an opportunity!

Felicia Torstensson

SPRING 2022

Company: Spotify
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Time period: January – June

Hi all,

Jesper Lesseur Björnek and Erik Malmberg speaking. During the spring of 2022 we had the great pleasure to take part in the CIP Internship Program, which allowed us to combine our master’s thesis work with an internship at Spotify – the world’s largest audio streaming platform. It was a challenging, yet stimulating, time and a fantastic way to crown our journey after two years on the ICM-track.

Over the last decades, the world economy has experienced a shift where intangible assets have increased rapidly at the expense of their tangible equivalents. Brands are proposed as one of the most valuable intangibles a company can have to its disposal, very much noticeable in the tech-sector. Developing a clear understanding and overview of one’s brand assets is thereby a crucial task in order to exploit the full potential of the brand. Hence, our work aimed to sort out how a brand can be understood and claimed as a set of intellectual assets to enable additional value creation – applying the tools and frameworks related to Intellectual Asset Management, present in the ICM-track.

Among numerous examples to choose from, the major highlight of the project was undoubtley the chance to get to know one of the world’s most inspiring companies from the inside and out. While being rather familiar with the product itself, already using it several hours a day, we were stunned when getting a glimpse of the huge machinery operating behind it. The level and diversity of expertise amongst the people we met was just incredible and very inspiring to experience for two graduates ready to start their own carreers.

Finally, we would like to express our gratitude towards our amazing supervisors Ellenor Hayes and Per Wendin for their support and guidance throughout this stimulating, and sometimes bumpy, journey. If you ever hesitate whether to apply for a CIP internship or not, just do it – you will not be disappointed.

Kind regards,

Jesper and Erik

SUMMER 2021

Company: Simsen Diagnostics

Location: Sahlgrenska Science Park, Gothenburg

Time Period:  8 weeks from June to August

Hi Folks! We are Olivia Westberg and Jacob Nissén Karlsson. We want to share some insights with you from our summer at Simsen Diagnostics. Simsen Dia.. is an early Medtech start-up that offers analysis of complex DNA sources, which enables cancer detection from a simple blood sample. The company will help to improve the healthcare system, and the diagnostics of cancer treatment for patients. For both of us, it meant a lot having the opportunity to work with a technology that is helping people.

The business idea is based on a comprehensive research that the board has conducted and developed. The company was founded in 2020. Since the company is in its early stage, we got to dig into a lot of responsibility and exciting work tasks. None of us had a background within the biotechnology field, which made this a rewarding challenge. However, working with both advanced and, for us, unknown industry gave us an even more thrilling learning experience.

Our main task this summer was to create an investment memorandum for the company’s first investment round. The task included redefining and developing the company’s value proposition, as well as strategic plans to utilize the intellectual assets to their full potential. In addition, we conducted a market analysis and made changes to the brand’s management by designing a new webpage.

Having reflected on our contributions at Simsen Diagnostics, we are delighted that we are enrolled in the School of Entrepreneurship and Business Design, which has taught us fundamental knowledge about entrepreneurship that gave great leverage the past summer. We also want to highlight how the experiences and insights from the CIP courses have been critical for understanding Simsen Diagnostics’ intellectual assets, and furthermore to utilise and protect them in the best way.

To summarize our summer internship at Simsen Diagnostics, we are very happy to be a part of a company that has a real impact on the health care sector. The internship allowed us to apply our skills in a hands-on case that challenged us in several different ways.

If you want to get more insights and advice from us in the future, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

Olivia Westberg and Jacob Nissén Karlsson

SPRING 2021

Company: Ericsson AB

Location: Stockholm, Sweden

Time period: 20 weeks, from January through June.

Hello! We (Isak Lind and Rasmus Kockgård) would like to share our experience of combining our master´s thesis work at Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship with an internship at Ericsson AB, through CIP. Our thesis work aimed to investigate how green tech, and green IoT manufacturing technology, in particular, could be utilized to a broader extent through mechanisms of sharing intellectual property. The internship at Ericsson gave us the ideal conditions to carry out our thesis work. Ericsson is a well-renowned provider and licensor of connectivity technology that enables environmental savings. Thereby, through their substantial expertise and extensive network with other organizations, we were able to complete our thesis and assist Ericsson in further investigating the possibilities to spread green tech through mechanisms of sharing intellectual property.

Due to the ongoing pandemic, the internship was performed remotely. It started off with us having several e-meetings with our supervisors where we discussed expectations, the scope of the internship work, etc. For us to get an understanding of Ericsson´s patent and licensing processes, we got to speak with multiple national and international IP professionals who were happy to explain their respective functions for handling IP. We were both humbled by the time and patience all the employees showed us. During our internship, we analyzed and categorized past green tech sharing initiatives such as GreenXchange, ECO Patent Commons, and WIPO Green. Courses in IP-Strategy and Patent & Innovation Engineering, provided by CIP, gave us the proper knowledge to make in-depth analyzes. Additionally, we held a workshop with participants from several different departments connected to Ericsson´s IP and licensing. The workshop aimed to vertically ventilate opinions and thoughts through the organization on how to spread green tech and generate value. Here, our learnings from the CIP-course Knowledge-based Business Development and Management gave us the proper tools to mediate between different interests. It became clear to us that even though IP strategies are complex to understand and formulate, we were well equipped with knowledge and frameworks from the CIP courses to build our reasoning. Together with the guidance from our supervisors at Ericsson, we were, in the end, able to deliver a much-appreciated recommendation for how to further spread green tech and generate value through mechanisms of sharing intellectual property.

To conclude, we would like to send our deepest gratitude towards our supervisors at Ericsson, Mathias Hellman, and Sanna Lundin. Furthermore, we highly recommend applying for the internships CIP is providing, particularly at Ericsson! The internship gave us invaluable practical knowledge and even though the requirements can seem frightening, you are well prepared through the CIP courses.

SPRING 2021

Company: ASSA ABLOY & Spotify

Location: Stockholm, Sweden

Time period: 20 weeks January through June

Hi!

During spring 2021, we (Michelle Fransson and Marta Sadriu) took part in the CIP Internship Program which allowed us to combine our master’s thesis work with a dual internship opportunity at Spotify and ASSA ABLOY. You might be wondering what Spotify, a global audio streaming service, and ASSA ABLOY, a global leader in access solutions, could possibly have in common. Well, the answer is data.

As more products and services are becoming digital and connected, more data can be collected and stored. This enables companies to access and leverage value embedded in data, which in turn leads to data becoming a new type of property – an invaluable asset that can be produced, processed, transferred and stolen. Therefore, our project goal was to investigate “Data as an Intellectual Asset”. This meant defining how data drives value for Spotify and ASSA ABLOY, and how companies can work to manage, protect and control their data in an efficient way. By using the tools and frameworks related to Intellectual Asset Management, taught in the ICM track, we were able to investigate and capture data assets at the two companies by combining a legal, business and technology perspective. An important part of the result was the identified difficulties in communicating about data across organizations.  Therefore, the project resulted in a “Data Asset Framework” that can help organizations understand their data as intellectual assets, and create guidelines for how data can be utilized, protected and controlled.

One of the major highlights of this project has been the opportunity to deep dive into two of the most interesting Swedish companies that operate and compete on the global market – a truly unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! We were given free reins to investigate the companies in order to understand how they operate and create value. This mainly meant conducting a wide number of interviews with employees across both companies. The research was complemented by an investigation of relevant literature in order to strengthen the quality of the results and provide a strong anchoring to existing knowledge about data.

Conclusively, we would like to express our gratitude towards our amazing supervisors at ASSA ABLOY, Katarina Wendin, and at Spotify, Ellenor Hayes & Per Wendin, who have supported us in the best ways possible through this crazy and incredible journey. We highly recommend applying to the CIP Internship Program, and especially to a dual internship opportunity, as this has been an invaluable experience for us!

SUMMER 2021

Company: Rouse

Location: Stockholm, Sweden

Time period: 9 weeks during June through August

My name is Zaid Saeed and I am eager to give you a brief insight into my latest summer internship in Stockholm at Rouse. I am currently studying my second year of master’s studies at Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship, and I was looking to sharpen my skills within Intellectual Capital Management and Business Development, here is how the story goes:

I was both excited and relieved when I first saw that I had received a job offer from Rouse. Of all the interesting companies that were part of this internship programme, Rouse resonated a bit more with my interests and skills. Rouse is an IP consultancy business focused on emerging markets and provide a full range of intellectual property services. They have a long- standing experience and relationships in Asia, Africa and the Middle East and their services range from patent and trademark protection and management to commercialization, global enforcement, and anti-counterfeiting. Their consultancy specializes in providing strategic and multidisciplinary consulting services to technology companies and brand owners globally. What I was particularly fond of is their vision of putting intellectual property in the core of business to become one of the main value drivers. Almost all businesses rely on intellectual property to maintain competitiveness, may it be as trade secrets or patents and copyrights. To make a successful expansion, one need to consider the many cross-bordered regulations and agreements. The process is usually quite regulated and require expert advice, which is partly where Rouse operates.

Having worked in China and studied in Singapore, I have developed a certain interest in the Asian market which made Rouse the perfect candidate. Additionally, my newfound interest for intellectual capital management as well as my curiosity in being a management consultant further reassured me that Rouse was the place to be during my summer of 2021. I can without a doubt say that Rouse lived up to every bit of my expectations and even exceeded them. Not only did my supervisors Holly White and Nigel Wong tailor the internship based on my areas of competence and interests, but they also made certain that I was constantly experiencing personal development by presenting me with new challenges. The company culture was very welcoming and familiar. My mentor Holly gave me a proper introduction to many relevant actors in the business, in spite the fact that it is quite a large organization. I got to work in multi-disciplinary teams, both ethnically and skills wise, on global projects for leading actors in a variety of industries.

Throughout the internship I was constantly reminded of the value in our CIP-programme. The level of respect and gratitude that were shown to the models and methods used in our learning was very gratifying. The intellectual asset mapping framework, deguncification- based way of