Organization and executive group

NIPO's executive group

• 

  Kathrine Myhre

  Director General Norwegian Industrial Property Office (NIPO)

  Kathrine Myhre has extensive experience in innovation, business and export strategy, and the establishment and scaling of companies.

  Kathrine holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Reading (UK) and the University of Oslo (UiO). During her studies, she was an active student politician with a strong interest in innovation, and she made her mark as President of the Student Parliament at UiO in 1993.

  She began her professional career at the University of Oslo, where she worked with intellectual property rights (IPR), building an innovation culture and creating businesses based on new university research. She was one of the initiators behind Birkeland Innovasjon in 2004 (now Inven2, the university’s technology transfer office, TTO), where she served as Director of Innovation for several years. Later, she became Director of Innovation at the research and business park IT Fornebu.

  In 2009, she founded the health cluster Norway Health Tech as a non-profit member organization, focusing on innovation, business development, and international scaling of health companies. In 2015, Norway Health Tech was awarded Norwegian Centre of Expertise (NCE) status through Innovation Norway’s cluster program.

  Kathrine assumed the position of Director General of the Norwegian Industrial Property Office (Patentstyret) on 1 January 2021. She also serves as Deputy Chair of the Board of the Export Strategy Council (Eksportstrategirådet).

• 

  Bjørn Lillekjendlie

  Director Patent

  Phone number	+47 99 00 00 98
  E-mail	bli@patentstyret.no

• 

  Bernt Boldvik

  Director Design and Trademark

  Bernt Boldvik holds a law degree from the University of Oslo, with specialisation in copyright and information law.

  Bernt joined the Norwegian Industrial Property Office (NIPO) in 1994 as an examiner in the design field. During this period, he also worked for a couple of years as an adviser at the Norwegian Performers and Artists Association (GramArt).

  Bernt became Head of the Design Section in 1999. In this role, he was responsible for managing and developing the design field, and for the preparatory work on the Design Act. He has worked as Director of the Design and Trademark Department since 2001, except in 2019, when he served as Acting Director of the Knowledge and Communications Department.

  Bernt has extensive experience in intellectual property rights, international work in this field, administration and leadership in the public sector.

  Phone number	+47 90 53 53 34
  E-mail	bbo@patentstyret.no

• 

  Otto Scharff

  Director Digital Services, Acting Director Business Management (Finance)

  Otto Scharff heads the Norwegian Industrial Property Office’s Digital Services department. He holds a Master of Arts in International Political Economy from the University of Warwick and an MBA from the Norwegian School of Economics. He has previously worked on international affairs at the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry and the European Commission. He has also been employed as an adviser at KPMG Business Advisory.

  Since autumn 2005, he has led the development of the Norwegian Industrial Property Office’s courses and commissioned services, in addition to its digital services initiative. Otto served as Director of Knowledge and Communications until the end of 2018.

  Phone number	+47 99 29 80 19
  E-mail	osc@patentstyret.no

• 

  Jostein Sandvik

  Director Legal and International

  Jostein Sandvik graduated with a Cand. Jur. degree from the University of Oslo in 1994. He wrote his thesis on patents for microbiological processes and products resulting from such processes.

  Jostein joined the Norwegian Industrial Property Office in July 1994. He has worked with trademarks, both as a case officer and as a head of unit, and assisted Professor B. S. Lassen in the work on Norwegian Official Report (NOU) 2001: 8, Act relating to trade marks, with comments from the Trade Mark Law Committee II.

  Jostein has worked closely with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Culture, and the Ministry of Justice and Public Security. He also has extensive international experience and has, among other things, represented Norway in WIPO and the EPO, and taken part in EFTA free trade negotiations and EEA-related work.

  Jostein joined Legal and International in 2002 and was appointed Director of the department in 2012.

  Phone number	+47 45 00 05 41
  E-mail	jsa@patentstyret.no

• 

  Elisabet Mæland Fosse

  Director Market and Communications, Acting Director Business Management (Records Management and HR)

  Elisabet Mæland Fosse has a degree in food technology and a Master of Management from BI in innovation, economics and management.

  Elisabet joined the Norwegian Industrial Property Office (NIPO) in 2020. She has 25 years of broad management experience as a senior and middle manager in larger organisations, and as an entrepreneur. She also has more than 20 years of experience in brand building, chain operations, business development and risk management from the private sector, including DNV GL, NorgesGruppen and ICA Norge. She has served on several company boards during her career.

  As a manager, Elisabet has led several development and restructuring processes. During the last three years before joining NIPO, she worked in Norway’s start-up environment as the managing director of a technology company. Elisabet is strongly committed to innovation and business development, and has several years of experience as a conference moderator, lecturer and course leader.

  Phone number	+47 90 88 11 73
  E-mail	emf@patentstyret.no