Anders, based in Copenhagen, is a Rouse Group Principal and one of the founders of aera, the European IP consultancy that merged with Rouse in 2024. He is a European Patent Attorney with extensive experience advising clients in relation to patentability and patenting strategies, prosecuting patent applications before various patent offices, and frequently representing clients at hearings before the European Patent Office.  

It might seem strange to start with the word ‘fun’ when talking about Anders, a Patent Attorney who is helping clients protect some of the world’s most complex and advanced   technologies, and is extremely serious about what he does.  But for Anders, having fun is, and aways has been, a central pillar of life.  In a way, it underpins everything he does, from the way he works to how he brings up his children. The role and importance of fun in achieving a balanced, purposeful and productive life has recently been the subject of a spate of scientific research and literature.  Anders was way ahead of the curve.

Perhaps recognising the power of fun just came naturally to someone with an innately open and engaging personality, but Anders’ childhood no doubt played a part.  He grew up in Odense, Denmark’s third largest city, with his Mom, Dad, twin brother, Morten, and his older brother, Ulrik.  It was a close, sport-loving family, and an environment that instilled confidence and a sense of well-being in all of them, as well as a sense of responsibility to develop their natural talents to the best of their ability.  Sport, and having fun doing it, played a hugely important role in all of this. Anders’ father was a talented sportsman and a sports equipment retailer, so it shouldn’t be any surprise that his sons turned out to  be enthusiastic and talented sportsmen.  Anders played all kinds of sport, but now skiing is probably his favourite.  He started skiing when his family went on a skiing trip to Austria when he was about seven.  It wasn’t at all a usual thing for a Danish family to do at the time, but it became an annual event and all of them remain very keen skiers.  After high school, Anders spent three months skiing in the French Alps; and during university, he spent a couple of months working as a ski instructor in Austria.  He’s not your average recreational skier! 

While sport was, and still is, hugely important to Anders, he and his brothers were lucky to be as good at school work as they were at sport, particularly in Maths and Science. There was, however, never any pressure from their parents to achieve academically - they just wanted their children to be good and doing to the best of their ability something they found fulfilling and enjoyable.  It was a good approach – not only do they all three have successful professional careers, but, perhaps even more importantly, they have retained the values they grew up with,  including  seeing, and valuing, people for what they are.  For Anders, the famous image of Barak Obama casually fist-bumping a janitor in a corridor of the White House complex pretty much says it all.

These days, Anders’ professional life obviously takes up a lot of his time,  but nothing is more important to him than his family.  The values he grew up with continue to be an essential part of that.  He and his wife Anne have two daughters: Rosa, 15, and Ellen, 11, who have both inherited the sports gene as they are both swimming competitively.  So sport remains just as much part of life as it was when Anders was growing up – and so does having fun.  Anders has managed to achieve an enviable balance between his professional and personal lives, and he insists that wouldn’t have been possible without the incredible contribution of his wife, Anne.  They make a good team.  

While still at school, Anders had enjoyed work experience with an electrician, and when the time came to think about going to university he chose to study Electrical Engineering at Danish Technical University (DTU).  In his fourth year he had the opportunity to spend a semester at Washington State University, experiencing a different culture and broadening his horizons generally. He went on to obtain an MSC in Engineering with a focus on Electronics and Mathematics from DTU, which is recognised internationally as a leading university in the area of technical sciences. There, he discovered both IP and his future career path. As a student, he was involved with the organisation of an annual fair where businesses would set up a stand and present themselves with a view to attracting and recruiting students from the University. Anders was host to a one of Europe’s largest IP firms and when he graduated, he joined that firm. He knew immediately he was on the right path and from day one was heavily involved in all aspects of patent protection.

But in many ways Anders was not a typical Patent Attorney and after some time he was thinking about different and better ways in which IP services could be delivered.  Eventually, in 2018, he and three colleagues, established the European IP consultancy, aera.  They chose the name ‘aera’, derived from the Latin word for ‘era’ in English and ‘æra’ in Danish, because they wanted to create a new era of IP services where commercial, technical and legal considerations were given equal weight in an environment of enquiry and open communication where the emphasis is always on finding the best path or the best solution – and enjoying doing it. The environment they created is typified by aera’s popular ‘Open ’ events to which clients and members of the IP community, including competitors, and other inspirational people, attend.  The basic idea behind aera must have been a good one: by the time it merged with Rouse in 2024, the firm had grown beyond anyone’s expectations.