David Hurtado is a Colombian entrepreneur, founder and CEO of LicenciArte, and an expert in patents.
Originally from Cali, Colombia, David Hurtado studied biomedical engineering at the Universidad Autónoma de Occidente. For his undergraduate thesis, David designed an ergonomic table for college kids in wheelchairs. However, when trying to sell the patent, he realized the barriers that researchers and educational centers have when it comes to exporting knowledge and monetizing their patents abroad,
After this experience, David dedicated himself to studying the laws that exist for patents, and from there, he founded his own startup.
After studying for a master’s degree in patent law, David Hurtado has sought to take Latin American innovations and technologies to another level through LicenciArte. This project promises to become the administrator of the largest patent pools in Latin America, which will allow negotiating packages of “wholesale” patents with prestigious multinationals such as Sanofi, Decathlon, or Merck, among others.
Hurtado plans to transfer more than 30 patent families from different corners of Latin America through his consortium by 2022, as well as to launch himself as the main regional player in this patent licensing market, which today is already valued at $ 180,000 million, but which according to IBM estimates, will reach $ 1 trillion soon.
David identified a small but very brilliant group of innovative scientists in Latin America who have all the capabilities to generate disruptive proofs of concepts at a global level to give greater well-being to world society. They barely know how to negotiate them with first-world companies that can turn them into tangible products or services, nor do they have the financing or technological capacity to verify their usefulness, nor the network of contacts to reach them. He considers that the strategy that the countries of the region are using to transfer knowledge or technology is not adequate. For that reason, it is necessary to create solutions that transform this process and change the course of the history of patents that were born in Colombia and the region.
