PETOŠEVIĆ PEOPLE: Q&A with Olga Kudoyar

Part of the PETOŠEVIĆ Ukraine team since 2018, Patent Consultant Olga Kudoyar handles patent prosecution in Ukraine and the Russian-speaking region. Her background in biotechnology is an advantage when handling patent applications for clients from pharmaceutical, food, agriculture and related industries. We asked Olga about her work, her favorite food and music, things most people don’t know about her, and much more.

1. How did you start your career in the IP field?

   When I was in my senior year of undergraduate studies in biotechnology (which is far away from IP and jurisprudence), I was searching for a new job and I came across a patent attorney assistant vacancy. During the job interview, I realized that working in IP might be interesting and yet challenging for me at that moment, so I decided to try it.

2. What is the most challenging aspect of your work?

   Bureaucrats who establish the laws and, as a consequence, the laws that they established.

3. What do you most enjoy doing at work?

   What I find quite satisfying is organizing and coordinating every part of my work in an efficient way. However, the most enjoyable part is working hard on a response to an official action and in the end receiving an approval from the examiner and a grant decision.

4. What would you be working in, if you weren’t working in IP?

   I would probably be engineering methane digesters or entire wastewater treatment systems. I would at least try to find a job related to those fields.

5. What was the first job you’ve ever had?

   I was a sales assistant in a small shop during the summer holidays while at university. The shop sold stationery and office supplies, which was like a little heaven for me.
   

6. What is your favorite thing to do when you are not working?

   Anything that does not involve strong brain activity! For instance, something physical is great, like doing yoga or cycling. I also enjoy any type of creative work, like painting or knitting. I am also a huge lover of books and sleeping in.

7. What book did you read last?

   I have a bad habit of reading several books at the same time. “The Three-Body Problem” by Liu Cixin and “The End of Eternity” by Isaac Asimov were the last pair.

8. What is your favorite song/music at the moment?

   “3000 miles” by CHAMPS is stuck in my head these days. I generally don’t have a favorite music style; it depends on my mood. Sometimes I go for AC/DC, and sometimes it is Ludovico Einaudi.

9. What is your favorite dish of all time?

   Any vegetable salad with dill and fresh bread.

10. If you could meet anyone in the world, from the past or present, who would it be and why?

    My grandfather on my mother’s side. He was an army medical officer during World War II and also a great amateur photographer. Because of his hobby, I had the chance to glance into the life he had with my granny while they were traveling through military communities, and because he was taking many photos, now I have many of my mother and her sister. He also left medical books with interesting pictures which I used to entertain myself with during childhood. He influenced my mom very much. Grandfather died when I was three years old, so I did not have a chance to ask him any of the questions I would have loved to hear his answers to.

11. What was your favorite subject in school and why?

    Math (both algebra and geometry) and foreign literature. These subjects were fun, unlike some others, such as the health and safety training course. Math was always a little challenging in a good way, and literature allowed me to travel through unseen lands and dream about the things that have never existed.

12. What did you want to be when growing up?

    There wasn’t only one particular profession. I had many interests and always wanted to combine things that could not really be combined. For example, I wanted to become an astronaut and also to heal animals. For me, it should have worked out like this – when I am in orbit, I am an astronaut, but when I am on land, I am a veterinarian.

13. Tell us three things most people don’t know about you.

    When I was about six or seven, my mother thought I had some type of a compulsive disorder, because I had the odd habit of touching things if I had been in contact with them before. For example, if I was sitting on a chair, I would touch it when I stood up. My mom didn’t ask me about it at the time, but the nature of the habit was very clear to me as a child. I watched a scientific program about atoms and the structure of matter, and it said that people possibly consisted of atoms that originated from the stars. I imagined that it was easy for objects and people to exchange atoms, so if I would sit on a chair, I would give my atoms to the chair. I didn’t want to give my “star atoms” to anyone or anything, so in order to bring them back, I needed to touch the chair again after standing up.

    The second thing most people don’t know about me is that I have dyed my hair dark blue, red and blonde. When my hair was red, even my mother didn’t recognize me in the street after I left the beauty salon.

    Finally, I have jumped from a plane at an altitude of 3,000 meters!

14. If you could learn to do anything, what would it be?

    I would love to pilot a jet aircraft.

15. What is your biggest frustration about the world around you?

    People!

16. What is the most important thing you have learned in the last five years?

    Everything that happens within a lifetime is comparative. It is a very simple statement to read, but it is a hard one to understand and follow.

17. What do you wish you could have told yourself at age 13?

    Have the courage to dream more.

18. What cities/countries have you lived in?

    I have only lived in Kyiv and in Shostka, my native town in Ukraine.

19. If you could live in another country of the 30+ countries where PETOŠEVIĆ operates, which would you pick and why?

    I have never seriously considered moving to another country, but the first country that comes to mind is Uzbekistan, maybe because I have always wanted to visit Samarkand.

20. If someone came to your city for 24 hours, where would you take them?

    I have been living in Kyiv for about 10 years, but I cannot say that I know the city well. This is why I would hire a guide and have a tour through the historical part of the city.