Our interns often move on to pursue careers in intellectual property law and technology transfer; some interns, like Sharon Ngwenya, do both.
Sharon Ngwenya was an intern in the office while she was a postdoctoral fellow in the Fellowship in Research and Science Teaching (FIRST) program. Before Emory, Sharon earned her doctorate from Texas A&M University and earned her bachelor’s in science in biochemistry from Oakwood College in Huntsville, AL. After completing her postdoctoral studies at Emory, Sharon joined the law firm Ballard & Spahr as a technology specialist of intellectual property. She later transitioned into technology transfer as a licensing associate at The University of Tennessee Research Foundation in Knoxville, TN. Currently, she is a senior licensing associate at The Methodist Hospital Research Institute in Houston, TX.
In this two part series, we caught up with Sharon to find out about her current career path and how a tech transfer internship has helped along the way.
How did you find your first job?
I liked my first job at Ballard Spahr, an IP law firm. While IP law offices and tech transfer offices both have the goal of filing patent applications that result in issued patents, the day to day activities are quite different. At Ballard, I learned to not only how to read patents but I also worked with the attorney to draft patent applications. I had the opportunity to read office actions, work with the patent attorneys to devise a strategy of how we would overcome the patent examiner’s rejection of the claims, and participated in drafting responses to office actions citing literature as well as case law. The knowledge that I gained at Ballard has helped me in my tech transfer career when reviewing a new invention disclosure and trying to anticipate if and for what reason the claims that we submit will be rejected.
What would you say is the biggest difference between starting out at a law firm vs starting out at a tech transfer office?
The biggest difference is that although patent attorneys/agents endeavor to write patent application that have commercial value, they do not have the tech transfer office’s responsibility of finding potential licensees, “selling” the idea and negotiating agreements that satisfy every involved party.
What were your favorite and least favorite aspects of being a patent agent and working in tech transfer?
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Patent law firm favorite aspect: Overcoming a patent examiner’s rejection on a patent application and moving closer to issuance.
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Patent law firm least favorite aspect: I started working at the patent law firm a couple of weeks before the economic downturn in 2008. This made it difficult to fulfill the billable hour requirement.
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Tech transfer favorite aspect: Getting a deal signed for a technology that I worked on from the time it came in as a new invention disclosure.
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Tech transfer least favorite aspect: The difficult inventor and the politics (but I am finding that you just can’t get away from either one anywhere you go).
Since your first job was in IP law, what brought you back to tech transfer?
My start in IP law coincided with the economic downturn. There was a wave of layoffs in 2009, and unfortunately, I was caught in that wave. When I started my job search law firms and some tech transfer offices were not hiring at the time. Considering that most people were unemployed for a year or more during that time, I was very fortunate to receive an offer for a tech transfer position within 3 months of being laid off!
Stay tuned next week for Part II, when we continue our discussion with Sharon and turn our attention to the OTT internship and what she learned along the way.