Our patent and technology commercial practice is led by Chris Bull and Dina Biagio.
Chris Bull was director of IP commercialisation and led an intellectual property commercialisation team at one of the four large accounting firms in London before returning to Spoor & Fisher in 2001. Chris is a qualified patent attorney with a background in Chemical Engineering. His international experience positions the practice well to provide advice not only in South Africa but also internationally to clients on a wide range of transactions involving patent and technology assets.
Dina Biagio is qualified patent attorney who was with the Innovation Fund (South Africa) before joining Spoor & Fisher as an associate in 2007. She has extensive transactional, venture capital and early-stage technology advisory experience.
The areas in which the Patent and Technology Commercial Practice has particular
expertise are:
• Licensing transactions
• Sale and assignment of rights
• IP tax and corporate structuring
• Joint ventures, corporate venturing and spin-outs to commercialise technology
• Venture Capital transactions and fund raising with innovative technology as the core asset
• South African exchange control and regulatory issues relating to intellectual property transactions
• Due diligence and intellectual property audits for both transactional purposes and in-house management of intellectual property portfolios
• Intellectual asset management