INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY HEAD OF DEPARTMENT

“There is a direct relationship between protection of intellectual property and innovation”

I work for both Stamicarbon and the Tecnimont Group as head of IP (Intellectual Property). IP is basically all the knowledge that Stamicarbon and the other members of the group are generating. It's not my task to invent, but to protect the intellectual property that is invented.

Engineers come to me when they think they may have invented something new. Every time an inventor comes to me with something new, I have to try and understand it, to really grasp what it is they've created. This is important in order to be able to protect it. I have to expand on what they've invented, to define it in the broadest way so that we have greater protection.


Before I started working in intellectual property, I had the impression that pretty much everything had been invented already. This is not true; there are always improvements and innovations. These innovations drive progress at Stamicarbon. I think there is a direct relationship between protection of intellectual property and innovation.

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Jan Willem Goedmakers