Patent Engineer

The Company

NEXTCHEM is the Maire company’s business unit dedicated to Sustainable Technology Solutions. Thanks to the extensive know-how of nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon capture, fuels, chemicals, and polymers, we offer innovative solutions and processes to fully enable the energy transition. At NEXTCHEM, our main goal is to enable a low-emission future through our technological portfolio. We leverage our expertise to serve the decarbonization of industries, from transportation to agriculture, from energy to materials. Technology is powerful, we use it to make the difference. Every day, we put our skills to work in new ways to pursue our shared purpose and make a real and positive difference.

Our goal is to build a sustainable future and leave a positive impact on the planet. To achieve this, we seek individuals with ambitions equal to ours, individuals who are committed to transforming our shared vision into reality. Join us to make an impact.

The Challenge

Maire Group is currently expanding its IP capabilities with resources dedicated to all companies in the NEXTCHEM business unit that will be responsible for protecting NEXTCHEM’s innovations, by creating registered IP such as patents.

The IP team of NEXTCHEM will operate in close cooperation with the IP Department already available in Stamicarbon, a Dutch based company and the licensor of all nitrogen related fertilizer technologies in NEXTCHEM, and established within the Innovation Center of the Stamicarbon organization.

The new resources will be based in Italy.

We are looking for a Patent Engineer.

You are part of the internal IP team of NEXTCHEM as well as closely cooperating with the IP department in Stamicarbon . As our next Patent Engineer you are responsible for the harvesting and protection of new inventions within NEXTCHEM. And consulting expert regarding formality procedures relating to patent, design or trademark applications as well as the prosecution procedure till grant of a patent, design or trademark. You are responsible for carrying out various Intellectual Property searches such as novelty, freedom of operation, invalidity, and opposition searches using various specialized patent and non-patent databases.

As our next Patent Engineer your authorities are to:

• Extract the invention after the inventor interview and draft preliminary claims;
• Perform patentability search on the invention;
• Draft outline of the patent application based on inventor interview and with coaching and supervision of patent attorney;
• Act as contact person for outside counsel during drafting and review of patent application.
• Carry out various Intellectual Property searches such as novelty, freedom of operation, invalidity, landscape and opposition searches;
• Generate and present the outcome of those Searches to the relevant persons.

As a Patent Engineer you perform as Patent Engineer as well as Searcher.

As Patent Engineer you:

• Assist colleagues regarding patent issues;
• Invention harvesting (interaction with inventors): Assist Research & Technology colleagues in identifying potentially patentable inventions;
• Make in depth study of the technology in order to understand the invention;
• Patentability Search: Define scope of search based on preliminary definition of invention in communication with inventors. Perform the search by searching in databases, exploring and analyzing relevant literature; and judging based on search report the patentability of potential inventions and if necessary redefine the invention;
• Understand how to delimit the invention to distinguish from the prior art (see Patentability Search);
• Prepare draft claims and outline of the invention for outside counsel based on definition of invention in light of the prior art;
• Help inventors (and R&D) with every aspect of the patent process. Support inventors to prepare invention disclosures;
• Learn about the invention, then research other similar inventions and discuss the concept with other inventors to determine if there is any similarity to another invention that might prevent a patent from being issued;
• Interact with inventor/outside counsel to finalize draft patent application;
• During prosecution of patent application interact with inventors, business and outside counsel to ensure best available protection.

As Searcher:

• Database search and continuous updating of our current patent database; Track company’s patent and trademark portfolio;
• Novelty Search; Analyze search request in communication with clients. Based on this information, generate the technical question and perform the search by searching in databases, exploring and analyzing relevant literature;
• Come up with conclusions and communicate these;
• Patent landscape searches; describe the patent situation for a specific technology in a given country or on the global level to e.g. identify certain patterns of patenting activity or certain patterns of innovation (innovation trends, diversity of solutions for a technical problem, collaborations);
• Based on the gained information, generate a patent landscape report to facilitate their understanding, and certain conclusions or recommendations based on the empirical evidence provided by the search and analysis;
• Patent Analyses, State-of-the-art; Perform a closer look at recent developments in selected technologies through technology reports as well as pre-defined searches of the latest published patent applications;
• The technologies have been selected based on public interest or relevance to prominent areas of public policy;
• Track the overall rate of international patent activity, Monitor the different players, including private firms, public institutions and individual inventors working in the selected technology area; • Review the geographical spread of patenting activity;
• Access related documents, such as international search reports;
• Follow up patenting activity at the national level in certain countries, Conduct more specific searches linked to a defined subclass of interest;
• Freedom to Operate, Infringement; find patents or pending applications which may cover a proposed product or process
• Validity search and opposition search; find documents or prior use that may reduce the claim scope for one or more claims of a granted patent, report only those references that have the potential to describe or anticipate the invention as claimed;
• Bibliographical Search; provide information with regard to the legal status, search publications based on application numbers, patent numbers, inventors, applicants etc.

The Candidate

For our next Patent Engineer we are looking for someone who has:

• Technical Master Degree in science or engineering and strong legal component;
• A technical background and knowledge to be able to analyze technical questions;
• At least 3-5 years relevant work experience within an international legal or IP environment;
• Knowledge of procedures in the European Patent office and others around the world;
• Knowledge of substantial patent law: understanding of the legal concepts of novelty and inventive step as well as the problem-solution approach and how this impacts patentability of inventions;
• Worked with specific (ICT) systems and databases and maintaining and updating information within those databases and systems;
• Practical and theoretical knowledge of Substantive Patent Law and its formal procedures;
• Understanding of Patent IP administrative processes in general, including formalities concerned with National, International and Regional filings including European Grant Procedure Patent laws;
• Pro-activity and a thorough technical background combined with strong analytical skills and well developed sense for details and priorities;
• Balance and identifies priorities;
• Strong analytical skills in combination with understanding of IP law to identify and define new inventions;
• Judge patentability and business value of new inventions;
• Organization skills and the ability to interface with various stakeholders;
• Excellent communication skills;
• Excellent command of the English language.

The Reward

NEXTCHEM offers a rewarding and challenging job with opportunities for personal input. The organization is 100% internationally focused, has the ambition to expand and offers individual possibilities to learn and develop in a true business environment. There is an open and very pleasant atmosphere with plenty of room for discussion with highly committed fellow professionals.

Our people are the players and enablers of the transformation taking place. Therefore, investing in protecting their health and safety and providing initiatives to promote their professional growth, recognizing merit, making the most of everyone’s potential, and guaranteeing equal opportunities are our priority objectives.

We:

• Continuously invest in the development and growth of our people as they are our main asset and allow us to achieve the great results we are known for around the world;
• Constantly challenge our path to market leadership by keeping open minds;
• Actively work to ensure that each of our employees feels valued for their personal qualities and skills, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, social background, or physical characteristics. Terms and conditions of employment as well as fringe benefits are above market standards