Tarso is a great ambassador for FICPI and a perfect illustration to other young attorneys and their firms about the value of joining FICPI.
There were many high-quality nominees from around the FICPI global community for the award, which asked the entrant, or a sponsor, to record a brief video about the nominee’s career, FICPI contributions and mentoring activities.
My fellow judges were FICPI Secretary General Elia Sugrañes and our 2022 Under 40s winner, Laura Mannering.
Each video made a strong case for the nominee in question. However, in the end, Tarso is a worthy winner because of the all-round strength of his career and his contributions to FICPI and the IP profession.
Tarso is one of the youngest partners at Kasznar Leonardos, having joined the firm 14 years ago when aged only 20 and still at college.
Since, he has completed a Master’s degree in Electronics Engineering and Automation, at the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, and is currently enrolled in a doctorate program in Intellectual Property and Innovation, at the Academy of Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Industrial.
As an electronics engineer, his areas of expertise are patent and industrial design filing and prosecution, draft of patent applications, patentability searches and analysis, FTO searches and analysis, infringement analysis, pre-grant and post-grant patent oppositions.
My fellow judges and I were particularly impressed that, having attended the 2017 FICPI patent drafting training course in Rio, Tarso has used all that he learnt to mentor other young IP professionals locally and nationally.
He is also putting his electronic engineering skills to good use as a member of FICPI’s Study and Work Committee, specifically the CET 6 sub-group which looks at IP issues facing innovators in software, high-tech and other computer-related fields.
For those of you joining us in London, 4th- 7th October, for the 21st FICPI Open Forum, you’ll have the opportunity to meet Tarso – his prize for winning is a Euro 1,000 rebate against registration to the Open Forum, where he will have the opportunity to address Forum attendees.
Congratulations to Tarso – and to all the talented and accomplished nominees in this year’s FICPI Under 40s contest.