Elena Alonso

In 1999 Elena obtained her Master in Telecommunications Engineering at the University of Cantabria (Spain), after a stage at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Lausanne, Switzerland), where she completed her diploma project. She then joined Nokia Networks, where she assumed different tasks in the deployment and technical support of several GSM operators in Spain and Portugal. She also belonged to the UMTS and 3G pilot team.

In 2001 she became a patent examiner at the European Patent Office at its branch in The Hague (The Netherlands), where she dealt with inventions in the field of optical networks.

In January 2006 she moved back to Spain and joined the Patent Department of one of the best known Spanish IP firms, with offices in Spain, Portugal and throughout Latin America. There she worked as a patent consultant in close cooperation with some of the co-founders of BALDER, drafting and prosecuting patent applications worldwide (with a special focus on the prosecution of patent applications before the EPO), carrying out prior art searches and preparing patentability, infringement, validity and freedom to operate opinions, in the telecommunications and electronics areas. She has advised major telecommunications companies and has been involved as an expert in several patent lawsuits.

Being a native of the northern Spanish town of Santander, in 2010 Elena returned to her roots, becoming the Director of the Valorisation Office (VO) at the University of Cantabria. The VO is, among other tasks, in charge of protecting the results obtained by researchers by creating IP rights, transferring (licensing) those IP rights to the industry and extending the patent culture throughout the university community.

But Elena missed the contact with industry and the turmoil of daily work and the inherent challenges to private practice. Therefore, in October 2012 she did not hesitate to accept the offer received from BALDER.

Elena is a qualified European Patent Attorney (EQE) since 2008. She is a native Spanish speaker, fluent in English and French and understands German and Dutch.

Elena devotes most of her free time to her family, although she tries to reserve a little for friends, traveling and enjoying literature and movies.