DAY 1 – Monday 2 May – 15:30-17:00
Swiss Tech | Room 3C | Level Garden
Moderators
Jennifer Brant
Innovation Insights, Switzerland
Jennifer Brant runs a consulting business based in Geneva. She provides policy analysis and strategic advice to companies, NGOs, and inter-governmental organizations on global market access and regulatory issues, notably in the areas of innovation, public health, technology, intellectual property, and trade. Jennifer is currently the Director of Innovation Insights, a cross-sectoral business initiative that advocates for enabling policy environments for innovation and technology diffusion. Previously she worked for Sidley Austin and Oxfam. Jennifer has graduate degrees in international law, economics, and development.
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Kaveri Marathe
Global Innovation Forum, United States
Kaveri Marathe holds a B.A. in Journalism and Art History from New York University and a M.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University. She started her career in journalism working in New York City for publications including Travel+Leisure Magazine and Manhattan community newspaper, WestView. In 2011, she moved to Washington, DC to begin her Master’s degree and, during that time, she served as a fellow with both the U.S. Department of Commerce and UNESCO in Paris. She most recently worked for Xyntéo, a sustainability consultancy firm based in Oslo, Norway.
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Thanks to global supply chains and online networks, startups and small businesses can participate effectively in the global economy for the first time in history, often alongside or in partnership with major multinational corporations, universities, and NGOs. Yet innovators and entrepreneurs have scarce resources to devote to maximizing international opportunities, and promoting and protecting their innovations on a global basis. While corporations have legal and financial resources to devote to developing impactful partnerships and protecting their intellectual assets, small and young companies are often left to fend for themselves, hoping that they do not run afoul of global laws or get taken advantage of.
This participatory workshop will engage globally-minded startups with experts and practitioners in sectors including medical technologies, clean energy, biotech, and ICT. Participants will examine three key challenges that young companies face when they engage abroad:
- intellectual property rights (IPRs) management,
- navigating foreign legal risks and regulations, and
- modifying or “localizing” the brand and offerings for different markets.
Because collaborative, or “open,” innovation is an important trend, the workshop will emphasize working with partners across borders in the digital age.
Participants will leave this workshop with new, practical knowledge that they can apply to their innovative activities. The workshop will be managed such that participants can learn from the session even if their field of technology is not featured in the discussion, or if they are not themselves inventors.
- Emil Pot, Independent IP Counsel, Belgium
- Dimitra Christakou, Managing Director, CambridgeIP, and Mentor, Ecomachines Ventures, UK
- Mukul Kumar, Coach for Clean Technology Start-ups, Switzerland
- Marcelo do Amaral, Chief Executive Officer, Global Yeast, Brazil
In India, as per 2011 census, nearly 44% of rural households do not have access to electricity, and those who have access suffer from unreliable electricity supply affecting education, income generation and access to information. For lighting one-third of households rely on kerosene, which provides poor quality lights and is damaging to health. Lack of access and reliable supply undermines the ability of the households and micro/small enterprises to move out of the vicious cycle of energy poverty. In rural India, several of these enterprises are owned and managed by women entrepreneurs and Self-help Groups (SHGs), which were established for income generating activities and empowerment of women. In 2005, Government of India initiated a large national rural electrification programme to provide electricity to all village and households. It has been recognized that grid supply may not be feasible or cost effective for every village, and hence due attention has been given to renewable based Decentralized Distributed Generation (DDG) systems such as biomass gasifiers. This paper provides insights regarding experience of developing two-stage biomass gasifier for Indian conditions through an interesting technology transfer and intellectual property rights sharing agreement and its field implementation through partnerships with the state government and community based organizations in the State of Odisha and Madhya Pradesh. This technology will provide reliable electricity to women groups owned livelihood activities, increasing the income generated by them, and electrify rural households.