Akiv Jhirad Email & Phone Number

I have a legal and engineering background and am deeply interested in Intellectual Property, a field I have come to love through its synergy between engineering, law, and business. My areas of interest include IP transactions, valuation, and strategy. As an IP Lawyer at Own Innovation, I help companies obtain competitive advantages in the market through obtaining legal protection over their inventions, navigating market and technology risks in their industry, and guiding them through Canada's complex legal environment. Previously, as part of an IP Advisory & Valuation role I conducted transactional due diligence on global IP portfolios to assess opportunities and risks that drive the valuation of a company's intangible assets. My experience also spans patent and trademark litigation, patent prosecution, and technology transactions from two of Canada's prominent boutique IP firms.I completed my Law degree at Western University after completing a Bachelor's and Masters in the areas of electrical engineering and biomedical engineering from McMaster University. During law school I focused on a combination of IP law and corporate/tax law, and had the chance to develop a comprehensive IP strategy for budding entrepreneurs in the Ivey Business School. Prior to my legal career, I gained technical experience through developing a flight computer for a CubeSat, working on an AI-based computer vision system for autonomous vehicles, contributing to the development of a robotic system for image-guided pediatric bone biopsy surgery, and developing and testing a novel electrical stimulation device for mitigation of hormone-induced bone loss. I also had the opportunity to explore the path of entrepreneurship when I developed a handheld medical device for brain injury applications, and established a medical device startup thereafter. As part of my startup, I spearheaded our business development, including exploring options for patentability of the device. These experiences helped me understand the value that IP can bring for a company, and how it may be effectively leveraged for commercialization.My broad technology experience includes: electrical hardware, embedded systems, medical devices, wireless/telecommunications technologies, medical imaging, blockchain/distributed ledger technologies, AI/ML, computer vision, robotics, and aerospace.

Listed skills include Leadership, Artificial Neural Networks, Public Speaking, Small Business Financial Management, and 31 others.