PATENT OFFICER FOR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY DEPARTMENT at AGC Glass Europe

AGC Glass Europe offers challenging, and highly rewarding career opportunities. Join a leading international glass company, share a global stage of incredible opportunity with more than 50,000 employees world-wide. Work and grow alongside some of the brightest people in your field.

The Company: AGC Glass Europe

Based in Belgium, AGC Glass Europe is the European branch of the AGC group (Asahi Glass Co., Ltd), the world’s largest producer of flat glass.
AGC produces, processes and distributes flat glass for the construction industry (external glazing and indoor decorative glass), the automotive industry, solar applications, specialized industries (glazing for railway and subway cars and ships, glass for domestic appliances) and various high-tech applications (smart and interactive screens).
AGC Glass Europe currently employs some 14,000 people. Its industrial facilities comprise 18 float glass lines, 10 automotive glass processing centres and more than 100 distribution-processing units in Europe, stretching from Spain to Russia.

AGC’s Technovation Centre (Gosselies, Belgium)

The Technovation Centre located in Gosselies (Belgium) centralises research, engineering and IP activities under one roof. It employs 250 people among which 180 researchers (mostly engineers and PhD’s), all driven by operational excellence and innovation.
Based on its three missions of technological innovation, technical assistance and scientific advice, the R&D Centre is developing the high-tech glass products of tomorrow while taking human wellbeing and protection of the environment into account.
Antibacterial glass, Glassiled Motion for dynamic façades TirExtreme for Multitouch screens are some of the most recent innovations.

The Role / Job :

Patent officer : your mission

Located at the Company’s European Technovation Center in Gosselies (Belgium), you will work very closely with patent attorneys in an assigned field of competence. You will also engage with technical, legal and commercial teams across various levels within the business.

Your duties will include the following :

• State of the art searches
• Freedom-to-operate studies, including definition of queries, patent searches in databases and claims analysis.
• Invalidities and Oppositions
• Patent mapping & competitive analysis

Requirements :

Professional Experience:

• Your technical background is ideally in engineering, physics, mechanics or associated domains. A PhD is a distinct advantage, but is not strictly necessary. Ideally, you also enjoy knowledge of glass.
• You have at least 1 year of experience in IP.
• You have ideally followed IP trainings (CEIPi or equivalent)
• You have acquired experience in patent searches & patent information analysis, with knowledge of patent databases (Espacenet, Orbit, Derwent,…).
• You have ideally conducted (or have been actively involved in) freedom-to-operate studies
• Preferably, you have worked in an in-house environment. Candidates with sufficient exposure to patent-related subject matters gained within a reputable private practice will also be considered.

Personal Qualities:

• You are a team-player who enjoys working as part of a global team.
• Because social communication is part of your strengths, you easily interact and engage  with different people: engineers , project managers, sales, business & R&D teams, top management, lawyers…
• You are highly articulate and able to communicate efficiently with others at all levels within the company.
• You possess an analytical mind-set conducive to the delivery of both strategic and conceptual overviews.
• Fluency in French and English is a pre-requisite for this position. Some knowledge of German is a plus.

Location : Gosselies

Are you ready to sign “Glass Unlimited” ?

Remuneration and benefits including amongst others :

• A competitive base salary paid over 13 months.
• Company car with petrol card
• Group Bonus Scheme up to 15%
• Annual Holiday of 40 days and Annual Holiday Premium
• Enrolment in a company pension scheme
• Complementary Health Insurance Scheme
• Meal Vouchers