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.