Technology Licensing Officer (TLO)

Responsibilities:

• Perform administrative and technical tasks to facilitate innovation, and commercialization of technologies and/or products to benefit society.
• Soliciting, and analyzing invention disclosure and making entries of such disclosure in a comprehensive database
• Assist in drafting a non-confidential description of the technology to firms that are likely to be interested in the invention to solicit their reactions as indicative of market interest and licensing potential
• Assist in drafting and negotiating a variety of agreements;
• Determining patentability and, more importantly, the licensability of a technology. This analysis includes but is not restricted to, novelty and scaling up, requirements for freedom-to-operate under other parties' intellectual property rights, regulatory issues, breadth and enforceability of possible patent claims, stage of development of the technology, manufacturing feasibility, other possible commercial applications not anticipated by the innovator, assessing the competitive environment, market scope and market dynamics, investor and industry perspectives, competitive advantage afforded, the innovator's ability and willingness to advance it to a stage more attractive to industry, etc. 
• Engage in the preliminary assessment of the patentability, registrability, or protectability of the inventions, trademarks, copyrights etc. provided by the intending innovators/researchers
• Independently verify data provided by the innovators/researchers to ensure that it is the data intended to be provided.
• Ensures to standardize documents per IP filed and also ensures that they pass the necessary steps required to file for the various types of IP such as Patent, Trademark, Copyright etc.
• Work to advance the development of groundbreaking technologies by fostering strategic relationships with entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and industry partners. 
• Assess the commercial potential of new technologies as well as managing a broad intellectual property portfolio
• Develop and implement strategies for the marketing and licensing of technologies to partners as well as negotiating collaboration and licensing agreements. 
• Any other duties relating to innovation and technology management as may be assigned from time to time by the Director of the project.

 Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in Law, Intellectual Property, or any related field with a minimum of Second Class Lower
• At least one year of working in an IP office or related organization
• A master’s degree in Law or a related field is an added advantage
• Relevant certifications will be an added advantage