Dev Narasimhan, a patent portfolio manager at CoMotion – the tech transfer wing of the University of Washington – loves helping innovators who are generating groundbreaking intellectual property for the first time.

He features in this year’s list for his role in guiding stakeholders from the university who have just started their journey towards IP protection.

He helps these innovators with invention harvesting, assignment obligations, patentability analysis, and filing and prosecution.

“University researchers value his experience and tireless attention to detail that inures him as a trusted partner along many of their paths to commercialisation, be it via a start-up or with an established industry partner,” his nominator tells Managing IP.

Narasimhan thrives in finding workarounds for new technologies, whether they concern overcoming prior art, establishing freedom to operate, or finding gaps in technology areas not covered by competitors.

One of his ambitions is to generate powerful IP strategies for the stakeholders he works with and help them maintain and implement those plans.

“My day is fulfilled when I can provide favourable results to my colleagues regarding IP matters,” Narasimhan tells Managing IP.

“I also do my best to outline all available options for transparency so that those I work with can get the full picture, and, when possible, formulate out-of-the-box ways to overcome any IP challenges.”