06 Feb 2017
Carel Smit is a former S&P Global 100 IP counsel, now IP strategist, author and speaker. He has been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, Popular Mechanics, as well as a host of local and international publications and radio shows.
A former ABC panelist, he co-founded Photizo (a medical devices company), Smit & Van Wyk Inc. (a boutique IP firm), Xensis S.A. (a software distributorship), Patentworx (an e-learning company), and Patenteur (an Australian IP law firm). He is the CEO of INTANGBL, an IP strategy company focused on mining and autonomous vehicles. He creates and implements IP strategies to help enterprises protect, launch and profit from their innovations.
Having served also as IP advisor to local and foreign governments, Carel’s publications, public seminars and workshops have shown thousands of innovative companies how to ID and protect their IP and use it to attract funding, drive profitability, and collaborate freely with others.
In his career in IP law he devised IP strategies for multinational companies, government organisations, and SMEs. He is an expert at IP monetisation, having served as senior patent counsel for Australia's leading patent assertion entity, while also having written and prosecuted high stakes patents in the fields of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, mining, and medical devices. He has monetised patents for internet, e-commerce, and communications technologies from Australasia, Africa, and the US.
In 2016, several life-threatening health issues that he had ignored helped him realise that he needed to follow his true calling and help businesses maximize their potential through innovation and IP.
