Intellectual Property & Innovation Lead

About PolyCycl:

PolyCycl is an Indian R&D-centric deep-tech company working on technologies for the circular conversion of difficult-to-recycle waste plastics into valuable chemical feedstocks.

Founded in 2016, PolyCycl has spent the past decade developing proprietary technologies across plastic waste processing, thermochemical conversion using pyrolysis, engineering development and downstream purification of pyrolysis products. The company's work focuses particularly on waste plastic streams that are difficult to address through conventional recycling methods.

PolyCycl's technology platform spans the process chain from feed preparation and handling through thermochemical conversion, separation and purification to the production and upgrading of circular hydrocarbon feedstocks.

The company has an established intellectual property portfolio with five patent families and eight granted patents across India and the US and is now expanding its patent portfolio and geographic protection across Europe, North and Southeast Asia, China, Japan, the Middle East and other key markets.

The company works at the intersection of chemical engineering, process development and industrial plant engineering, with a strong emphasis on solving practical challenges involved in converting heterogeneous waste plastics into consistent and commercially useful products.

We are looking for a technically strong and intellectually curious individual to lead PolyCycl's intellectual property and innovation activities for identifying, developing and protecting PolyCycl's intellectual property.

The Role:

The role sits at the intersection of R&D, engineering and intellectual property. The individual will work closely with PolyCycl's technical teams to understand the problems being solved, identify potentially novel and protectable solutions and work with external patent counsel to convert these into a strong patent portfolio. The role will also involve researching global patent landscapes, monitoring competitor IP, identifying technology and patent white spaces and helping determine where PolyCycl should seek protection globally.

Key Responsibilities:

- Work closely with engineering, R&D and plant teams to understand pre-existing know-how and ongoing technical development.

- Identify novel inventions embedded in such know-how and translate technical solutions into clearly defined invention concepts.

- Assess the novelty, technical differentiation and potential commercial relevance of identified inventions.

- Maintain an active pipeline of potential inventions and patent opportunities.

- Help determine whether an innovation should be patented, protected as a trade secret or otherwise documented.

- Conduct detailed prior-art and patent searches using international patent databases and other technical sources.

- Analyse patent specifications and independent/dependent claims.

- Assess the relevance of prior art to PolyCycl's technologies.

- Identify potential patentability opportunities and areas of patent overlap.

- Prepare patentability and prior-art reports for discussion with management and external counsel.

- Develop technology and patent landscapes across PolyCycl's areas of interest.

- Monitor emerging technologies and patent activity in plastic recycling, pyrolysis, thermochemical conversion, pyrolysis-oil upgrading and related areas.

- Identify areas with high patent concentration and areas where meaningful white space exists.

- Work with R&D to identify opportunities for future invention and experimentation.

- Map competitor patents against PolyCycl's technology architecture.

- Maintain a comprehensive database of PolyCycl's patent families, applications and granted patents.

- Track prosecution status, deadlines, renewals, national-phase decisions and other portfolio matters.

- Work with external patent counsel on patent drafting, filing and prosecution.

- Review patent specifications and claims prepared by external counsel and provide technical inputs.

- Coordinate PCT applications and national-phase filings.

- Support decisions on geographic filing strategy based on markets, competitors, technology relevance and commercial plans.

- Identify opportunities for continuation, divisional and improvement patents where appropriate.

- Track developments in areas including plastic pyrolysis, chemical recycling, feed preparation, reactor technologies, vapour handling, contaminant removal, pyrolysis-oil treatment and downstream conversion.

- Identify potential freedom-to-operate concerns and areas requiring deeper legal review.

- Prepare periodic IP intelligence reports for the management and technical teams.

- Act as the internal IP owner and technical interface with external counsel.

Ideal Candidate:

- A Bachelor's or Master's degree in Chemical Engineering, Chemistry or a related technical discipline.

- Approximately 5-10 years of relevant professional experience with patent analysis, patent research, IP management or technology intelligence.

- Experience conducting prior-art and patent landscape searches.

- Experience with industrial processes in one or more of the following sectors would be particularly valuable: chemicals, petrochemicals, specialty chemicals, oil and gas or related process industries.

- Experience working with patent counsel and understanding patent drafting and prosecution.

- Strong ability to read and interpret patent specifications and claims.

- Ability to understand complex technical processes and identify the underlying inventive concept.

- Good written and verbal communication skills.

- Strong analytical ability and attention to technical detail.

- Patent-agent or patent-attorney qualifications would be useful but are not essential if the candidate has strong technical IP experience.

- The ability to understand the underlying technology and extract the inventive concept from practical engineering work is more important than simply knowing how to file a patent.