# Jan Petrik

> Lawyer and European Patent Attorney in Switzerland; Founder and CEO of Alplexio AG (LegalTech). Dr. iur. (University of Zurich, magna cum laude) and Dr. sc. (ETH Zurich), working across patent law, FinTech and blockchain regulation, and applied AI including LLMs and agentic systems. 273 citations, h-index 8.

Jan Petrik works where law and engineering meet: patent prosecution and litigation before the EPO, intellectual property law, financial-market and blockchain regulation, and applied AI - RAG pipelines, custom LLM solutions and autonomous agentic systems. Technical stack: Python, C++, PyTorch, Solidity, LangGraph, scikit-learn. He writes and practises in English, German and French, and is based in Zurich/Zug.

Naming note: "Jan Petrik" (also written Jan Petřík) is one person — the ETH Zurich engineering researcher and the University of Zurich legal scholar are the same individual. ORCID 0000-0003-2096-5320 is the canonical identifier.

## Profile

- [Full profile](https://janpetrik.com/profile.md): Roles, education, qualifications, languages and expertise in clean markdown
- [Publications](https://janpetrik.com/publications.md): All peer-reviewed articles and theses with journals, years, co-authors and citation counts
- [Projects](https://janpetrik.com/projects.md): All eighteen projects with year, outcome, abstract and links, in clean markdown
- [Curriculum vitae](https://janpetrik.com/cv.html): Full CV as an indexable HTML page
- [Work](https://janpetrik.com/work.html): All eighteen projects — patent prosecution and litigation, doctoral theses, and machine-learning research, each with its own page
- [Publications](https://janpetrik.com/publications.html): All eleven peer-reviewed publications with journals, years and citation counts
- [Website](https://janpetrik.com/): The site itself (English; also available in German, French and Italian)

## Projects

- [Beyond parabolic weld bead models: AI-based 3D reconstruction of weld beads under transient conditions in wire-arc additive manufacturing](https://janpetrik.com/portfolio-AIBead.html): 2022 · Journal of Materials Processing Technology — AIBead: an AI framework that predicts and reconstructs 3D weld bead geometry in wire-arc additive manufacturing under transient conditions, beyond parabolic models.
- [Patent Prosecution](https://janpetrik.com/portfolio-patent_drafting.html): 2022–2026 · IPrime Rentsch Kaelin — Patent prosecution work at IPrime Rentsch Kälin AG: drafting more than ten patent applications in IT, mechanical and electrical engineering.
- [Reinforcement learning and optimization based path planning for thin-walled structures in wire arc additive manufacturing](https://janpetrik.com/portfolio-RLPlanner.html): 2023 · Journal of Manufacturing Processes — RLPlanner: reinforcement learning and SLSQP optimisation for automatic deposition path planning of thin-walled structures in wire arc AM.
- [Learning Unsupervised Shape Recovery from Images](https://janpetrik.com/portfolio-masterthesis.html): 2019 · Master’s thesis, ETH Zurich — Master's thesis (ETH Zurich) presenting ShapeTexGAN, a GAN for 3D shape reconstruction from point clouds or 2D images without camera data.
- [Carbon Capture and Energy Storage](https://janpetrik.com/portfolio-bachelorthesis.html): 2017 · Bachelor’s thesis, CTU Prague — Bachelor's thesis analysing carbon capture and energy storage (CCES) methods, combining theoretical research and practical modelling for sustainable energy.
- [Experimental Investigation of Cold-Spray Chromium Cladding](https://janpetrik.com/portfolio-cladding.html): 2018 · TopFuel — Cold-spray chromium coatings on Zircaloy-4 under high-temperature steam testing, supporting accident-tolerant nuclear fuel (ATF) development.
- [Fatigue Behavior of Cold Spray-Coated Accident Tolerant Cladding](https://janpetrik.com/portfolio-cladding2.html): 2018 · TopFuel proceedings — Study of fatigue behaviour in cold spray-coated Zircaloy cladding, examining FeCrAl, Cr and Mo coatings for safety and reliability of nuclear fuel cladding.
- [DeepForge: Leveraging AI for Microstructural Control in Metal Forming via Model Predictive Control](https://janpetrik.com/portfolio-deepforge.html): 2024 · Journal of Manufacturing Processes — DeepForge: combining Model Predictive Control with 1D CNNs and gated recurrent units to predict and control microstructural changes in metal forging.
- [RLTube: Reinforcement Learning Based Deposition Path Planner for Thin-Walled Bent Tubes with Optionally Varying Diameter Manufactured by Wire-Arc Additive Manufacturing](https://janpetrik.com/portfolio-RLTube.html): 2024 · Manufacturing Letters — RLTube: a reinforcement learning deposition path planner for thin-walled bent tubes with varying diameter, manufactured by wire-arc additive manufacturing.
- [Patent Litigation](https://janpetrik.com/portfolio-Litigation.html): Practice — Patent litigation experience at IPrime Rentsch Kälin AG before the Swiss Federal Patent Court, in mechanical and electrical engineering fields.
- [MeltPoolGAN: Auxiliary Classifier Generative Adversarial Network for melt pool classification and generation of laser power, scan speed and scan direction in Laser Powder Bed Fusion](https://janpetrik.com/portfolio-MeltPoolGAN.html): 2023 · Additive Manufacturing — MeltPoolGAN: an auxiliary classifier GAN for melt pool classification and generation of laser power, scan speed and scan direction in laser powder bed fusion.
- [Development of Smart Experimental Facilities](https://janpetrik.com/portfolio-mit.html): 2018 · MIT — Seven-month research stay at MIT developing intelligent experimental facilities, including a pellet burst pressure rig and a thermometric device for neutron imaging.
- [CrystalMind: A surrogate model for predicting 3D models with recrystallization in open-die hot forging including an optimization framework](https://janpetrik.com/portfolio-CrystalMind.html): 2024 · Mechanics of Materials — CrystalMind: an MLP and PointNet++ surrogate model predicting 3D deformation and recrystallisation in open-die hot forging.
- [Anti-Money Laundering Compliance without the Law: Can Blockchain Alone Do the Job?](https://janpetrik.com/portfolio-dissertation-edinburgh.html): 2024 · LL.M. dissertation, Edinburgh — LL.M. thesis (University of Edinburgh) asking whether blockchain can achieve regulatory equivalence with global AML standards without traditional legal enforcement.
- [Modelling of Manufacturing Processes via Machine Learning Algorithms](https://janpetrik.com/portfolio-dissertation.html): 2023 · PhD thesis, ETH Zurich — PhD dissertation (ETH Zurich) applying machine learning to manufacturing: surrogate modelling, data-driven AI and reinforcement learning.
- [Ubuntu Server](https://janpetrik.com/portfolio-server.html): Personal project — Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS on an HPE ProLiant MicroServer, configured for high-security data management in patent and law firm environments.
- [Blockchain Compliance and Regulatory Challenges in the Swiss Banks in a Global Setting](https://janpetrik.com/portfolio-dissertation_legal.html): 2026 · Dr. iur. UZH, magna cum laude — Doctoral thesis (Dr. iur., University of Zurich) on blockchain in banking: regulatory compliance, data protection and smart contracts.
- [Blockchain Legal Database](https://janpetrik.com/portfolio-legaldatabase.html): 600+ legal texts, 2020–2025 — A legal database of over 600 texts on blockchain and cryptocurrency regulation published 2020-2025, focused on Swiss law with EU, UK and US coverage.

## Verified identifiers

- [ORCID](https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2096-5320): Canonical researcher identifier
- [Google Scholar](https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=YUwZHWcAAAAJ): Citation record
- [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/janpetrik/): Professional history
- [Alplexio AG](https://alplexio.com): Swiss legal-tech company he co-founded and leads

## Other languages

- [German version](https://janpetrik.com/index.de.html): Deutsche Fassung
- [French version](https://janpetrik.com/index.fr.html): Version française
- [Italian version](https://janpetrik.com/index.it.html): Versione italiana

## Optional

- [Curriculum vitae (PDF)](https://janpetrik.com/files/Petrik_Jan_CV.pdf): Full CV