New commissioner of patents and trademarks appointed

Asa Kling has been selected to be the next commissioner of patents and trademarks. He succeeds Meir Noam, who held the position for seven years.

Kling has both legal and engineering qualifications. He received his LLB from Tel Aviv University in 1997 and has a BSc in aerospace engineering from Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology.

In addition to being an attorney at law with the 10-years' post-licensing experience required for the position, which is equivalent to that of a district court judge, since 2006 Kling has also been licensed as a patent attorney. This bodes well for him being able to understand and rule on patent cases.

Kling is currently a partner of Gilat Bareket, the legal side of the Reinhold Cohn Group, where he handles various aspects of IP law, antitrust law, commercial law, company law and various international transactions. He has litigation experience relating to patents, copyright and trademarks and cross-border IP enforcement.

It only remains for the appointment to be confirmed by Minister of Justice Yaakov Neeman.