Rt Hon Lord Justice Richard Arnold
See Bio
read Chemistry at the University of Oxford before being called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1985. He specialised in intellectual property law and became a QC in 2000. He was a Judge of the High Court, Chancery Division from October 2008 to September 2019 and Judge in Charge of the Patents Court from April 2013 to September 2019. He has been an External Member of the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office since March 2016. He has been a Judge of the Court of Appeal since October 2019. He is the author of Performers’ Rights (6th ed, Sweet & Maxwell, 2021), the editor of the Halsbury’s Laws of England title Trade Marks and Trade Names (5th ed, Butterworths, 2014), an editor of Dicey, Morris and Collins on The Conflict of Laws (16th ed, Sweet & Maxwell, 2022) and has published numerous articles.
Steven Baldwin
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Steven is a partner in Kirkland & Ellis’ IP Litigation team in London who has extensive experience litigating complex global SEP/FRAND disputes and conducting FRAND licensing negotiations on behalf of the industry’s leading players. He frequently plays the role of global coordinating counsel charged with creating and driving forward the client’s SEP/FRAND litigation strategy across the world and has been involved in SEP litigation in over 30 countries including the U.K., the U.S., China, India, Germany, The Netherlands, France and Italy. Key recent SEP/FRAND cases include Ericsson v Apple, InterDigital v Lenovo, Sisvel and Mitsubishi v Xiaomi/Oppo and others, IP Bridge v Huawei (intervening party), TCL v Philips and Conversant v Huawei and ZTE (plus numerous others that remain confidential). Each of those cases has involved novel aspects of SEP/FRAND law and Steven has been at the very forefront of the still-developing case law on SEP and FRAND issues in the United Kingdom and Europe.
Steven’s case experience covers a broad range of technical fields including 3GPP, 3GPP2, DMR, TETRA and other wireless (standardised and non-standardised) mobile telecommunications technologies.
Steven is recognized as a Recommended Individual for 2020-23 and as “One to Watch in UK Patent Litigation” for 2023 in JUVE Patent’s rankings, is listed in IAM Patent 1000 and is listed as a notable practitioner by Managing IP. He is also listed in The Legal 500: “Steven Baldwin is a pleasure to work with. He is fantastic both in his grasp of the detail and clear strategic thinking. High customer focus. Attention to detail and prepared to think outside the box” (2022) and “clients know they are in excellent hands” (2023); Chambers & Partners (2023): “Steven is incredibly bright and hard-working” and “understands both the law and the tech…you are not going to be disappointed when you work with him.”
Justus Baron
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Justus Baron is a Research Director in Economics at Northwestern University, Pritzker School of Law, and the Founder and Director of BRELA Research in Economics and Legal Analytics. Dr Baron’s research focuses on technological innovation, standardization, and intellectual property rights. Dr Baron has written scholarly articles published in leading academic journals, as well as several comprehensive policy reports for the European Commission. Dr Baron was a member of the European Commission’s Expert Group on Standard Essential Patents (SEP) and was the lead researcher of a consortium assisting the European Commission with an Impact Assessment on SEPs. BRELA Research in Economics and Legal Analytics offers research and consulting services related to patents and technology standards. Dr Baron has produced research, advice and expert reports on FRAND licensing terms, and has been tasked to assist the European Patent Office with a comprehensive study of SEP litigation in Europe.
Rudi Bekkers
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is a Full Professor at the Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands, specializing in the relationship between standardisation and intellectual property rights. Over the last 20 years, he has published papers in established journals, such as Research Policy, TFTS, and the Academy of Management Annals. In addition, he performed more than a dozen commissioned studies, including the 2014 study Patents and Standards and the 2020 study Pilot Study for Essentiality Assessment of Standard Essential Patents, both for the European Commission. He serves as an appointed member of the High-Level Forum on Standardisation (HLF) of the European Commission and was an appointed Committee Member by the U.S. National Academies of Science. He advises IEEE on its role in Europe as an Appointed Member of the IEEE-SA Europe Advisory Council, and serves on the Dutch government advisory board on standards (Forum Standardisatie).
Carole Boelitz
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is Vice President – Chief IP Counsel of Schneider Electric. She is a practicing attorney with experience in all aspects of intellectual property protection, strategy and law. Ms. Boelitz has previously worked as Executive Director Global IP for Lenovo, Chief IP Counsel at startups Zume Inc. and Terrapower, and AGC patent counsel at Microsoft. Prior to that she was associate counsel at Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks LLP, and served in the USAF. Carole is a graduate of the USAF Academy, MIT, and Harvard Law School.
Eckhard Bollman
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I started my professional career by studying electrical engineering and communications technology at the university of Paderborn in Germany. After the university degree I worked for companies in the automotive supply industry, up to now for about 29 years for Bury GmbH & Co. KG in the positions of hardware and software development and in product management. Because of the size of the company the management of product licensing is not Performed by a separate department but also by the product management. Bury is a Tier 1 supplier for the automotive industry. The product range covers devices which are using different communication and power standards, especially 2G/3G/4G, USB and Qi-standard.
Enrico Bonadio
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is Professor of Law at City St George’s University of London. He teaches, researches, and advises in the field of intellectual property (IP) law. His research agenda is wide-ranging, having recently focused on international trade aspects of IP and the intersection between IP and new technologies. He is the author of numerous publications on several aspects of IP law, including books, academic articles, book chapters and journalistic pieces. Enrico is Deputy Editor in Chief of the European Journal of Risk Regulation and member of the Editorial Board of the European Intellectual Property Review. He regularly joins teaching and training missions organised by the World Intellectual Property Organization. In 2019 Enrico co-authored a report on standard essential patents commissioned by the European Parliament. He has been delivering classes and talks in more than 140 universities and research institutions in six continents and his research has been covered by several media outfits including CNN, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Washington Post, New York Times, Reuters, South China Morning Post, BBC, The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, Politico and Associated Press.
Benno Buehler
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Benno Buehler is a Vice President at the economic consultancy Charles River Associates. Previously, he was a senior member of the European Commission’s DG Competition Chief Economist Team. He started his career at an international management consultancy. With more than 15 years of competition experience, Benno specializes in antitrust and intellectual property matters, especially where the two issues are combined. He has worked on many aspects of competition policy, with a focus on the high-tech and telecommunications sector. He was retained as economic expert in several SEP litigation cases and advised in multiple SEP licensing negotiations. He also conducted the economic analysis in a number of landmark antitrust cases including the Samsung and Motorola Standard Essential Patent cases. He was the lead economist on several high profile horizontal and non-horizontal mergers, both at CRA and at the European Commission. In addition, he was involved in policy initiatives including the Commission’s overhaul of the Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation. His experience covers a wide range of sectors, including (mobile) telecommunications and broadband, high-tech, commodities and raw materials, paper, energy and transport. In light of his experience at the European Commission, he is familiar with the perspective of competition agencies. His academic work has been published in scientific journals such as the Journal of Industrial Economics and the European Economic Review. He has also published on competition policy in the Review of Industrial Organization as well as in Competition Law & Policy Debate. Benno regularly speaks at competition policy conferences and teaches at the Brussels School of Competition. He is a native German speaker, and is fluent in English and French.
Eduardo da Gama Camara Junior
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is a seasoned Intellectual Property lawyer with over 25 years of experience at Dannemann Siemsen. He holds degrees in Mechanical & Industrial Engineering and Law from PUC-Rio, with further specialization in IP from Franklin Pierce Law Center and Civil Procedural Law from PUC-Rio. He is also a recognized author and co-author of books on Industrial Property Law and Patents, contributing to legal publications and participating in prominent IP associations like AIPLA and ABPI. His expertise has earned recognition in leading publications such as MIP – IP Stars, IAM Patent 1000, and Análise Advocacia 500.
Peter D. Camesasca
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is a seasoned, multi-faceted competition lawyer with 28 years of experience in all major aspects of EU competition law, with a particular focus on the cross-over between antitrust and IP law in the field of SEPs. He has a strong business development track record with a leveraged client base and is a routined cross-practice and cross-office team player, working in law firms as well as with clients’ in-house teams. Peter is highly experienced working in and with different cultures (Asia, Europe, U.S.) and has a particular focus on in- and outbound aspects of the Asia/Europe interface.
Le Chen
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is currently the senior director for dispute resolution and head of IP policy Europe at Xiaomi. Previously Le was a senior IP counsel at ABB Schweiz AG, where he was a reference expert in the IP field related to digital innovation and standardisation, and led frequently patent licensing and IP benchmarking activities in the furtherance of ABB’s digital innovations. Prior to ABB, he worked at a renowned German IP law firm.
Dan Choi
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is the Associate General Counsel and Chief Patent Counsel at Microsoft. He leads the team of patent professionals responsible for Microsoft’s patent strategy, portfolio development, and patent policy. Prior to his current role and over the course of a decade, he led teams covering business units across a range of Microsoft products and has worked on complex patent transactions as well as innovative uses for IP. Before joining Microsoft in 2013, Dan was in private practice helping companies from multinationals to startups with all aspects of patent preparation, prosecution, and portfolio management. Dan holds a BSE in Electrical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering from Duke University and a JD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Rory Clarke
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Rory Clarke is a partner in the Intellectual Property Litigation Practice Group in the London office of Kirkland & Ellis. He has extensive experience litigating technologies such as mobile telephones and infrastructure, other radio systems, internet connectivity, robotics and microprocessors. Rory is frequently involved in complex global SEP/FRAND disputes on behalf of leading players in the telecommunications industry. He is currently litigating some of the most high-profile SEP/FRAND disputes before the English court. Rory also advises clients on SEP and FRAND policy more widely, including in relation to legislative developments such as the proposed EU SEP Regulation. He acts on cases at first instance and on appeal. Rory’s practice also covers the wider strategic aspects of intellectual property litigation, including acting as coordinating counsel for multijurisdictional matters, assisting clients to develop and implement their litigation strategies, and leading settlement/licensing negotiations.
Peter Chrocziel
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admitted as attorney in Germany, US, and before the UPC, has more than 30 years’ experience in all aspects of IP and IT law. He counsels large international companies and acts for several clients in their worldwide IP transactional activities. He is also focused on antitrust counselling, whether in connection with antitrust authorities, licensing or court proceedings. Peter Chrocziel is an expert on arbitration proceedings in intellectual property and has published in that area. His clients value his experience and knowledge of US law. Recommended as a “go-to guy” for both intellectual property and information technology, Peter Chrocziel is recognised as “a high-calibre practitioner” and is regularly listed as a recommended expert for litigation and licensing. Peter Chrocziel was president of LES International from 2005 to 2006. Peter Chrocziel is a professor at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Bavaria, where he teaches patent, trademark and competition law.
Giuseppe Colangelo
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is a Jean Monnet Professor of European Innovation Policy and an Associate Professor of Law and Economics at University of Basilicata (Italy). He also serves as Adjunct Professor of Markets, Regulation and Law at LUISS (Italy). He is fellow of the Stanford Law School and University of Vienna Transatlantic Technology Law Forum (TTLF), the scientific coordinator of the Research Network for Digital Ecosystem, Economic Policy and Innovation (Deep-In), and an academic affiliate with the International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE). His primary research interests are related to competition law and policy, market regulation, innovation policy, intellectual property, and economic analysis of law.
Jorge L. Contreras
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Jorge L. Contreras is the James T. Jensen Endowed Professor for Transactional Law and Director of the Program on Intellectual Property and Technology Law at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, and was a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science during 2023. Prior to entering academia, Professor Contreras was a partner at the international law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP where he practiced intellectual property transactional law in Boston, Washington DC and London. Prof. Contreras’s academic research focuses on intellectual property, antitrust law, technical standardization and science policy. He has published more than 150 academic articles and book chapters and has written or edited twelve books including the 2-volume Cambridge Handbook of Technical Standardization Law (NY: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2017, 2019). His scholarship has received numerous awards and recognition, including the Patent & Trademark Office Society’s 2021 Rossman Memorial Award and the University of Utah’s 2020 Distinguished Research Award. Professor Contreras has appeared before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, the Federal Trade Commission and the European Commission, and as an expert witness before courts across North America, South America and Europe. His book, The Genome Defense: Inside the Epic Legal Battle to Determine Who Owns Your DNA, was recognized by the NY Times as one of the top nonfiction books of the season and selected as the Best Patent Law Book of the Year by the IPKat blog. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute and the former co-chair of the National Conference of Lawyers and Scientists. He received his JD from Harvard Law School, earned his BSEE and BA in English at Rice University and clerked for Chief Justice Thomas R. Philips of the Texas Supreme Court.
Juan Camilo Contreras Jaramillo
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is the Director of the Private Law Department at Pontifical Javeriana University (Colombia) (award-winning thesis by the Pontifical Javeriana University), with a degree in Industrial Property, Copyright, and New Technologies (Externado University of Colombia) and a Master’s degree in Intellectual Property (Carlos III University of Madrid – Spain). He is a tenured professor and teaches intellectual property, property law, contract law, and international private law. He has also undertaken research stays as a visiting professor at the University of Salamanca (Spain), the Institute for Innovation and Competition of the Max Planck Society in Munich (Germany), and DePaul University in Chicago (USA).
Léon Dijkman
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is an assistant professor of law at the Institute for Information Law (IViR) at the University of Amsterdam and a senior associate at HOYNG ROKH MONEGIER. He regularly appears before the Unified Patent Court and has published on various aspects of patent law in national and international journals. Léon obtained his PhD from the European University Institute in 2023 and that year, his thesis was awarded the GRUR Dissertation Prize in the Patent Law Category. His book The Proportionality Test in European Patent Law (Oxford: Hart 2023, open access) was an IPKat Book of the Year and is currently the only English-language monograph on the proportionality principle in European patent law.
Josef Drexl
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is Director of the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in Munich, a Honorary Professor at the University of Munich and a member of the Bavarian Academy of Science. He was the founding Chair of the Academic Society for Competition Law (ASCOLA) from 2003 to 2013. He acted as a visiting professor at Oxford University, the LUISS Guido Carli in Rome, the New York University and the Université de Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas. Professor Drexl is an expert in competition law, intellectual property law and data law, in particular exploring the application of competition law to IP- and innovation- related cases. More recently, he co-authored the Position Statement of the Max Planck Institute on the European Commission’s Proposal for a SEP Regulation. His research on the digital economy focusses on the evolving legal regimes regarding the Internet of Things and the development and application of AI.
John Dubiansky
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is Senior Director, Intellectual Property and Standards Policy at Dolby Laboratories, where he focuses on advocacy and policy related to intellectual property, competition, and standardization. Prior to joining Dolby, John served in the United States Federal Trade Commission’s Office of Policy Planning, focusing on policy issues at the intersection of competition and intellectual property, including projects such as the Commission’s 2016 report on Patent Assertion Entity Activity. Prior to this, John worked as a patent litigator at law firms including Howrey and Kirkland & Ellis and as an engineer. He received his law degree from the Harvard Law School and has a degree in mechanical engineering from Cornell University.
Felix Engelsing
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is the chairman of the 4th decision division of the Bundeskartellamt responsible for the automotive, military, food and retail trade sector. The division also deals with patents/licenses and sustainability initiatives. Prior to that he headed the 2nd decision division responsible for e-commerce, food and retail trade where he led unilateral conduct proceedings against Amazon. Before, he was chairman of the 8th decision division (fuels, electricity, gas, water) and the 10th decision division (energy sector). Felix Engelsing was head of the German and European Antitrust Unit as well as the International Unit where he co-chaired the ICN Unilateral Conduct Working Group. He also worked for the legal department where he litigated cases before the Federal Supreme Court. Before, Felix Engelsing worked for an international law firm in Brussels and for the German Association of Municipalities in Bonn/Brussels. He studied law at the University of Münster, worked as research assistant and received his Ph.D. at the University of Bonn.
Steve Faraji
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is Head of Litigation, Licenses, Brand protection at Volkswagen AG in Wolfsburg, Germany. He is a qualified German and European Patent Attorney specializing in SEPs and computer implemented inventions. Prior to joining Volkswagen, he worked at AUDI AG as Head of Patents Vehicle/Production and Chief IPR Policy Manager and before that on prosecution and litigation of ICT patents for a major patent law firm in Munich.
Mattia Fogliacco
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is president of Sisvel International SA, the parent company of the Sisvel Group. He has led the group since 2017 and before that was part of its executive management team as chief new business officer. Under his leadership, Sisvel has become a point of reference for licensing SEPs in consumer electronics for Wi-Fi, mobile communication and digital video broadcasting technologies. Mr Fogliacco championed the formation of principled licensing programmes defending the interests of innovators around proprietary technologies such as VP9 and AV1. Keenly focused on creating transactional efficiencies in the markets for technologies, he steered Sisvel to aggregate patents, both by creating patent pools and by acquiring patent portfolios that later contributed to such pools.Before joining Sisvel, Mr Fogliacco was managing director of Innovation SA, a company focused on licensing and IP transactions. He also served as senior international manager at IP Bewertungs AG, a service provider of Deutsche Bank, managing three IP and innovation investment funds. Mr Fogliacco holds an MSc from Bocconi University and a CEMS master’s in international management. He is an inventor with several patent applications under his name and has published multiple articles on innovation and licensing.Founded in 1982, Sisvel is Europe’s largest licensing administrator and the only one globally that has been in operation for more than 40 years. It is a world leader in fostering innovation and managing IP. The form is driven by a relentless commitment to developing forms of intermediation in IP transactions that reduce complexity and remove friction between willing licensees and licensors.
Corin Gittinger
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is a patent litigator based in Freshfields’ Berlin and Düsseldorf offices. He specializes in patent litigation at the intersection to antitrust law, patent policy matters as well as patent licensing. He has represented national and international clients in SEP litigations concerning cellular and Wi-Fi standards as well as audio and video codecs before national courts and the UPC. He has also acted for clients in SEP-related antitrust proceedings before the European Commission. His expertise spans multiple industries with a particular focus on the cellular industry and the automotive sector. Before joining Freshfields, Corin completed his PhD at the University of Münster, Germany with a thesis on the European border seizure regime for counterfeit goods and has worked at the IP-department of a European law firm.
Agnieszka Gołaszewska
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was appointed as Head of the IP Division of the Regional Court of Warsaw on its creation in 2020. She previously served as a judge of the District Court for the Capital City of Warsaw (Commercial Department), since March 2012. Between 2017 and 2020, she was posted to the Ministry of Justice, Civil Legislation Department. As Deputy Director of the Department, she was involved in developing legislation to establish Intellectual Property Courts in Poland. She has also been responsible for implementation of the EU Trade Secrets Directive (2016/943) in Polish law. Prior to her judicial career, Judge Gołaszewska was a solicitor and member of the Warsaw Bar dealing, inter alia, with cases in intellectual property law (2007–2012). Judge Gołaszewska studied law at the University of Warsaw and University of Copenhagen. In 2015, she completed her post-graduate studies in Intellectual Property Law at the Jagiellonian University, Krakow. She obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Warsaw with a doctoral dissertation on copyright exhaustion. Judge Gołaszewska is co-author of a commentary on Polish Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Law (2019) and a commentary on Polish Civil Procedure Law (2019).
Klaus Grabinski
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is President of the Court of Appeal and Chairperson of the Presidium of the Unified Patent Court since November 2022. Before he served on the German Federal Court of Justice’s 10th Civil Division that has, inter alia, jurisdiction on patent litigation matters, including as the Deputy Presiding Justice of the Division. Prior to joining the German Federal Court of Justice in 2009, he held a number of judicial roles, including as a presiding judge of a patent litigation division at the Düsseldorf Regional Court and as a judge at the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court. He is co-author of a commentary on the European Patent Convention (Benkard, Europäisches Patentübereinkommen, 4th edition, 2023), a commentary on the German Patent Act (Benkard, Patentgesetz, 12th edition, 2023) and gives talks and takes part in panels at national and international conferences on IP matters. He was an external legally qualified member of the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office.
Alexander Haertel
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joined Deutsche Telekom as the head of patents in 2022, after 18 years of extensive patent litigation experience as an attorney-at-law. He has conducted hundreds of cases before all major German courts including nullity proceedings and opposition proceedings, with a special emphasis on cross-border disputes especially in the telecommunication and automotive sector. Alexander is an active lecturer and publishes regularly on patent law. He is, among others, an author for an upcoming commentary on the Unified Patent Court. For the Licensing Executive Society (LES) he is chair of the European Committee as well as a member of the Dispute Resolution Committee. In his position as head of patents he is responsible for all patent related litigation as well as prosecution of Deutsche Telekom. His role also encompasses any patent related licensing as well as patent policy issues.
Christian Hannon
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serves as a Senior Patent Attorney with the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s Office of Policy and International Affairs (OPIA). Mr. Hannon’s portfolio encompasses standard-essential patent issues, policy issues relating to artificial intelligence, and policy issues relating to plant inventions. Prior to joining OPIA, Mr. Hannon has held various roles in the USPTO including the Office of the Under Secretary and Director, the Office of the Solicitor, and Patent Operations. Mr. Hannon received his Juris Doctorate from George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia. Mr. Hannon holds undergraduate degrees in electrical engineering and computer engineering from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina, in addition to an undergraduate degree in computer science from Elon University in Elon, North Carolina. Mr. Hannon is an adjunct professor at George Mason’s Antonin Scalia Law School.
Bowman Heiden
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Bowman Heiden is the Executive Director at the Tusher Strategic Initiative for Technology Leadership at UC-Berkeley, the Director of the Center for Intellectual Property at the University of Gothenburg, and a Fellow of the Classical Liberal Institute at New York University. Dr. Heiden has written over 25 articles on SEPs and was a member of the SEP Expert Group at the European Commission. Previously, he played professional basketball in Europe, which is why he is so tall.
Joachim Henkel
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is a Professor of Technology and Innovation Management and Vice Dean of Research at TUM School of Management, Technical University of Munich. He holds a Master’s degree in theoretical physics, a Doctorate in economics, and a Habilitation in management. After his Ph.D., he worked for two years with the consulting firm, Bain & Company. Joachim Henkel has been researching patent management, licensing, and standards for more than 20 years. Currently, his focus is on SEPs and patent pools. Further research areas are value capture, digitalization, technology acquisitions, and open innovation,. He published his work among others in Harvard Business Review, Rand Journal of Economics, Research Policy, and Strategic Management Journal. Joachim Henkel was an Associate Editor with Academy of Management Discoveries and serves on various editorial review boards. He was a visiting scholar at University College London, MIT Sloan School of Management, Harvard Business School, and Singapore Management University. He has advised the European Commission on SEP issues, and since 2011 regularly serves as an expert witness in SEP-related litigation.
Clemens-August Heusch
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Dr Clemens-August Heusch LL.M is VP and Head of Global Litigation and Disputes at Nokia, responsible for arbitration, mediation and multi-national litigation. Registered at the Cologne Bar and a certified IP lawyer, Clemens studied at the Universities of Freiburg, Bonn and Cologne, Germany and Maastricht, Netherlands. He joined Nokia in 2008 from Bird & Bird LLP.
Fabian Hoffmann
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Judge Hoffmann was appointed to the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Court of Justice) in Karlsruhe, Germany in 2010. He is a member of the 10th Civil Division (X. Zivilsenat) which has, inter alia, jurisdiction on patent dispute matters. Prior to this appointment, he was a Judge at the Oberlandesgericht (Higher Regional Court) and the Landgericht (Regional Court) in Frankfurt am Main, where he still resides. Before taking the Bench, he worked as an assistant to lawyers admitted to the Bundesgerichtshof in Karlsruhe, drafting submissions on civil law appeals held before the Bundesgerichtshof. Judge Hoffmann was a member of the Expert Group of European Commission on licensing and valuation of Standard Essential Patents. He studied law at the Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, where he is now a lecturer teaching patent law.
Patrick Hofkens
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Patrick Hofkens joined Ericsson in November 2013 as Director IPR Policy. He works in the intellectual property and licensing unit of Ericsson and focuses primarily on F/RAND related topics and IPR policies of standardization organizations. He previously worked as Corporate Secretary and Chief Development Officer for a company active in the telecom sector focused on the design and development of products and services for the M2M market. Patrick also acted as chairman of the Board of directors of M4S, a spin off from IMEC, active in the development of reconfigurable RF transceivers. Prior to that, he worked in private practice as Counsel at Loyens&Loeff. Patrick has a master degree in law from the University of Leuven, a master after master degree in company law from the University of Brussel and is finalizing an executive master in law & artificial intelligence at the Brussels School of Competition.
Rt. Hon. Sir Robin Jacob
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graduated from Trinity College Cambridge in 1963 with a degree in Natural Sciences. He then simultaneously read for the Bar and a law degree. He was called to the Bar in 1965 by Grays Inn and received an LLB from the London School of Economics in 1967. He entered the Chambers of Thomas Blanco White QC and practiced as a barrister until 1993 specialising mainly in intellectual property. From 1976 to 1981 he was Junior Counsel to the Government in Intellectual Property and represented the Government (including the Patent Office) in all litigation. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1981, a Judge of the High Court in 1993 and a Judge of the Court of Appeal in 2002. In 2011 he was appointed Professor of Intellectual Property Law at University College London, continuing to sit in the Court of Appeal part time until 2016.
Hélène Jay
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is the VP of Audio Licensing Programs at Via Licensing Alliance. An accomplished intellectual property leader and attorney, Ms. Jay has over 20 years of experience collaborating with licensees and licensors across the IP ecosystem to develop joint licensing programs covering speech and audio compression technologies, broadcast, automotive and wireless standards. In her current role Ms. Jay is responsible for Via LA’s Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) program, one of the industry’s most successful patent pools offering access to more than 6,000 patents with nearly 1,000 licensees. Ms. Jay has closed some of the most significant licensing deals in the industry with the largest device manufacturers in the world, notably Oppo, Reliance, TCL, and Xiaomi. Also in this role, Ms. Jay led the initiative to develop the new MPEG-H patent pool in an unprecedented short timeframe. Under her leadership, the pool’s aggregation represents more than 95% of the total SEP stack for the implementation of this spatial audio technology. Before joining Via LA, Ms. Jay served as the vice president of licensing for Voice Age. She began her career as the trusted Legal Counsel of the European Standardization Organization, ETSI.
András Jókúti
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is an intellectual property lawyer with domestic and international experience in public IP policy and university technology transfer.
Since January 2022, he is the Director of the Patent and Technology Law Division at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The division provides legislative assistance in the field of patents, administers certain patent-related international treaties (Paris Convention, Budapest Treaty, Patent Law Treaty), and works with WIPO’s member states to promote the progressive development of the international patent system.
He is the former Director-General for Legal Affairs of the Hungarian IP Office (2027-18). During his 10 years at the office, he was dealing with legislative and policy matters for all IP titles, including representing the government position at various European and international expert and governance bodies.
As a Fulbright scholar, he obtained an LL.M. in IP Law (2015) at The George Washington University.
Between 2019 and 2021, he assisted the Budapest University of Technology and Economics to strengthen its IP and technology transfer operations.
Kamil Kiljański
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is currently the deputy director responsible for intellectual property at Directorate General for Single Market and Industry (DG GROW). Prior to this posting, he had been in charge of space data and international relations at Directorate General for Space and Defence (DG DEFIS), served as the Chief Economist and worked on regulatory matters in network industries and financial services. Kamil began his career at the Commission at the then newly established Chief Economist Team at Directorate General for Competition (DG COMP). Prior to that, he had been a senior economist at an antitrust micro-economic consultancy in its London office. He holds a PhD in economics and an LLM in EU law.
Aleksandra Kuźnicka-Cholewa
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is a Doctor of Law and Counsel in the IP/TMC team at CMS Poland. She is standard essential patent expert and was a member of the European Commission expert group on licensing and valuation of SEPs. She is also an attorney-at-law specializing in intellectual property law with particular focus on patents both from contentious and non-contentious angle. She is a lecturer on postgraduate studies and courses concerning IP aspects of new technologies and an author of various patent related publications. Aleksandra is recommended and recognised among the world’s leading patent professionals in IAM Patent 1000 ranking. She is also recognised by key legal directories such as Chambers Europe and Legal 500.
Matthias Leistner
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is Full Professor of Private Law and Intellectual Property Law, with Information and IT-Law at Ludwig Maximilian Unversity (LMU) Munich. His specialties are IP law (in particular patent law, copyright law and data law). He has published seven books and more than 200 articles in these fields and has been consulted by various government departments and non-governmental organisations as well as international institutions, such as the EU Parliament. He has acted as an expert before various courts and arbitration panels in Germany, England, the U.S. and Asia, including the German Federal Constitutional Court, the German Federal Court of Justice, the Unified Patent Court, the High Court of England and Wales as well as federal and state courts in the U.S.
Jamie Lewis
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has been at the UK Intellectual Property Office for more than 11 years now, specialising in a number of areas of IP law and policy, including international Trade Marks, Designs and Brands policy, Copyright (including European IP law), and more recently Standard Essential Patents and IP and competition policy.
Jamie joined the IPO during the Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property and Growth in 2013, where he was part of the legal frameworks team responsible for development of the Review’s Statutory Instruments. Currently, Jamie leads the UK’s SEP policy development, including advising seniors and Ministers on these policy matters.
Jamie is a lawyer by trade (previously working at the Ministry of Justice), graduating from the University of South Wales, where he also completed his Legal Practice Course. More recently he obtained a Post Graduate Diploma in UK, EU and US Copyright Law through King’s College London.
Taylor Ludlam
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As the Executive Director of Global Litigation, Ms. Ludlam oversees and manages, from complaint to conclusion, Lenovo’s robust portfolio of commercial and intellectual property litigation around the world, both offensive and defensive. Working strategically and cooperatively with business leaders to identify areas of risk and mitigate exposure across product offerings, Ms. Ludlam is responsible for helping to create and drive litigation strategy and for the company in a way that aligns with its core values. In private practice, Ms. Ludlam served as the head of Patent Litigation Team in North Carolina for Kilpatrick Townsend’s nationally recognized patent litigation team. Ms. Ludlam represented a wide range of clients in the telecommunications, consumer products, gaming and technology industries. She has significant courtroom and trial experience in federal courts throughout the United States, including the U.S. International Trade Commission. Ms. Ludlam was recognized in the NC Lawyers Weekly’s 2019 Women of Justice, awarded the Women in Business Award from the Triangle Business Journal in 2018, and was selected as a North Carolina “Rising Star” in Business Litigation by Super Lawyers magazine in 2014. Ms. Ludlam also serves on a number of boards and charitable organizations.
Le Ma
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is currently the Professor and Associate Dean of School of Foreign Affairs and Law at East China University of Political Science and Law (ECUPL), specialized in International Law and Intellectual Property Law. Prof. Ma has been widely involved in international colloquiums like the Annual Conference of the European China Law Studies Association (ECLS), Brazilian Intellectual Property Association’s (ABPI) International Congress on Intellectual Property, Asian Law Institute (ASLI) Conference and IP & Innovation Researchers of Asia (IPIRA) Conference as presenter on IP law. He’s also the member of Scientific Committee of IPIRA. He gives intensive course on Chines IP Law at ECUPL’s partnership institutions like Jagiellonian University in Cracow and programs like WIPO China IP Summer School. He annually conducts lectures of Chinese Legal System to students from all over the world. Prof. Ma had been assigned as the Assistant Judge at IP Division of People’s Court of Shanghai Pudong New District from 2013 to 2014. He was the Visiting Professor of University of San Francisco School of Law, as well as the visiting scholar of Macquarie University and Queensland University of Technology. Prof. Ma is also practicing law as an arbitrator.
Taraneh Maghamé
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Taraneh Maghamé is an IP business leader and legal advisor with government relations and policy expertise. In her 30+ years of practice, she has been senior counsel at major technology companies including Apple and HP, managed multi-party licensing programs at Via Licensing, and handled litigation and licensing matters at global firms including Brobeck and Perkins Coie. In 2018, Ms. Maghamé was appointed to the European Commission’s Expert Group on Licensing and Valuation of Standard Essential Patents and continues to work on IP policy matters. She has testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee and the FTC and has been included in the IAM 300 World’s Leading IP Strategists for multiple years. Ms. Maghamé established her firm in 2022 to provide clients with strategic IP legal and advisory services. She is admitted to practice in California and Washington State and before various Federal courts in the US and is a registered patent practitioner with the USPTO.
Payal Malik
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is a public policy economist and her areas of expertise are competition law and policy, M&As, competition economics/antitrust litigation, technology policy, and economic regulation of network industries. She was Economic Advisor and Head of the Economics Division at the Competition Commission of India, a position she held for ten years between 2012-2023. In these roles, she has advised the Commission on the economics of competition law across an expansive range of markets; interfaced with sector regulators, government, industry, legal and the international competition community; led case teams on competition assessment of M&As and antitrust enforcement matters; and advised the Commission on judicial review of cases before the appellate tribunal and the Supreme Court of India. While at the Commission, she worked with regulators and the Indian government to formulate policies and legal instruments in competition law, e-commerce, telecommunication, consumer and data protection. Currently, she is a Professor (Visiting) and Lead Digital Economy, Startup and Innovation Team and heads the ICRIER Prosus Centre for Internet and Digital Economy, ICRIER a Delhi based policy think tank.
Roderick McConnell
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is IP Counsel at Continental Automotive Technologies, where he is member of the SEP Team with a focus on licensing. He has a technical background in Computer Science and is admitted to practice before the US Patent and Trademark Office, the German Patent and Trademark Office, the European Patent Office, and the new Unified Patent Court. Roderick has long experience with licensing in, complemented by a few years of experience doing licensing out.
Mary-Rose McGuire
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Mary-Rose McGuire holds law degrees from the Universities of Vienna, Göttingen and Osnabrück. She was appointed as full professor at the University of Mannheim in 2010 and currently has a chair in civil law, intellectual property and civil procedure law at the University of Osnabrück.Her main fields of research are all areas of intellectual property law, in particular licence contracts, trade secret protection and (cross-border) infringement litigation, with a special focus on European harmonisation.
John Mulgrew
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is VP of Intellectual Property at Lenovo and has a mechanical engineering degree from Rice and a JD from GW Law. He started his legal career at several prominent law firms in New York and DC. At Microsoft, John led teams handling a wide variety of licensing, litigation support, and other IP transactional related matters, and for two years he also served in a broader role for Microsoft Research in EMEA where he drafted multi-party agreements with companies, universities, governments and research organizations. John joined Uber in 2017 to lead the IP team, including through the company’s IPO in early 2019. Over time, his responsibilities also included leading the Privacy Legal team during GDPR compliance, helping to reorganize the legal department to form multiple client-facing legal teams, and managing the marketing legal team. After leaving Uber, John joined Lenovo as VP of Intellectual Property where he focuses on developing a portfolio that best serves the business.
Jorge Padilla
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earned M. Phil and D. Phil degrees in Economics from the University of Oxford. He is Research Fellow at the Centro de Estudios Monetarios y Financieros (CEMFI, Madrid) and teaches competition economics at the Toulouse School of Economics (TSE). He has given expert testimony before the competition authorities and courts of several EU member states, as well as in cases before the European Commission. Dr. Padilla has submitted written testimony to the European General Court, and the UK Competition Appeals Tribunal in cartel, merger control and abuse of dominance cases. He has also given expert testimony in various civil litigation (damages), international arbitration cases, and competition cases in non-EU jurisdictions (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Jamaica, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey, and the United States). Dr. Padilla has written numerous papers on competition policy, industrial organization and finance in the Antitrust Bulletin, the Antitrust Law Journal, the Economic Journal, the Energy Journal, the European Competition Journal, the European Competition Law Review, the Fordham International Law Journal, Industrial and Corporate Change, the International Journal of Industrial Organization, the Journal of Competition Law and Economics, the Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, the Journal of Industrial Economics, the Journal of Economic Theory, the RAND Journal of Economics, the Review of Financial Studies, the University of Chicago Law Review, and World Competition. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Fide Foundation. He is also co-author of The Law and Economics of Article 102 TFEU, 3rd edition, Hart Publishing, 2020.
Yogesh Pai
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is an Associate Professor at National Law University Delhi and Director of the Centre for Innovation, Intellectual Property and Competition (CIIPC) and SPRIHA IPR Chair Professor (in-charge) instituted by the DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India. He is also the Director of the WIPO-NLUD-IPO Joint Masters/LL.M. Degree Programme on IP Law and Management at NLU Delhi. Dr Pai is a scholar at CIP2, George Mason University, Washington D.C., where he was previously the Thomas Edison Fellow (2017-18). In the fall of 2012, Dr Pai visited the School of Law, University of Washington as the Asian Law Centre short-term Visiting Scholar. Dr Pai served as short-term consultant for the World Trade Organisation as a regional expert for Regional Trade Policy Courses (RTPC) and a Tutor with the WIPO Academy Distance Learning Programme. He is on the Editorial Board of the WIPO-WTO Teachers Colloquium Annual Research Papers. Dr Pai has been a speaker on intellectual property issues on different occasions in India and abroad.
Urška Petrovčič
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is a Senior Director within Qualcomm’s government affairs team, where her work focuses on innovation policy, IP, and antitrust. She is also a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, where she co-founded the Forum for Intellectual Property―a center that promotes legal and economic research on the importance of reliable and effective IP rights for innovation economies. Before joining Qualcomm, Dr. Petrovčič was Vice President at the economic consulting company Criterion Economics. For several years, she also acted as a non-governmental advisor to the European Commission at the International Competition Network. Her publications include a book, Competition Law and Standard Essential Patents: A Transatlantic Perspective (Wolters Kluwer 2014), and articles in the Common Market Law Review, Berkeley Technology Law Journal, and other journals.
Robert Pocknell
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Robert Pocknell is the CEO of N&M, a consultancy that has advised has small, medium and multinational companies on issues relating to standards essential patents (SEPs) for more than 25 years. N&M advised ETSI on the creation and implementation of the 1994 ETSI IPR Policy. Robert is a UK solicitor advising SMEs on SEP matters, and he has also founded a company, SME Licensing, focused on finding a solution for SEP holders and SMEs to license SEPs, with a view to proliferating use of standards and enabling SMEs to innovate without fear of litigation and discrimination.
Paweł Podrecki
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Attorney-at-Law, Senior Partner and co-founder of Traple Konarski Podrecki and Partners.
Paweł Podrecki is an experienced legal practitioner specializing in intellectual property law, competition law, new technologies law, and civil and litigation law. He is a professor at the Institute of Law Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences (INP PAN) and serves as the head of the Private Law Center and New Technologies Law Center at INP PAN. He has authored numerous publications on intellectual property law, competition law, and EU law.
Collette Rawnsley
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Vice President and Head of IP Policy & Advocacy, Nokia Technologies. Collette is responsible for driving Nokia’s regulatory strategy and engaging with decision and policymakers globally to promote and protect the value of Nokia’s intellectual property. She has extensive experience of providing strategic advice and guidance on regulatory and policy matters in the EU, Asia and the US, especially concerning IP licensing in the technology and media sectors, standard essential patents, FRAND disputes, and patent pools. Before joining Nokia in 2021, Collette spent 15 years in private practice in London and Brussels and was involved in some of the leading cases concerning the intersection of IP and competition law. Previously, Collette was Senior Référendaire at the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal.
Yoshinobu Sato
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Joined the Japan Patent Office (JPO) in 2010 and engaged in patent examination in the field of mechanical engineering. During that time, involved in the patent strategy planning in the Policy Planning and Research Division, and learned at LL.M. Program of MIPLC (Munich Intellectual Property Law Center). Promoted to administrative judge in the Trial and Appeal Division in 2024. Currently, since January 2025, working at JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization) in Düsseldorf as an IP attaché for the European region, seconded from the JPO.
Ruben Schellingerhout
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Legal Officer, European Commission – DG Trade
Ruben is a legal expert in the European Commission’s Trade Department. He is specialised in intellectual property rights from a trade and competition law perspective. Since 2004 he works in the European Commission where he held positions in the Departments for Enterprise, Competition and Trade. In DG Competition he worked on the 2009 Rambus patent ambush case and the EU’s horizontal guidelines on standard setting. From 2016 to 2020 he worked in the European Union Delegation to the People’s Republic of China, also on IPR. Since September 2020 he is a legal officer in the legal unit of the Trade Department working among others on the WTO dispute settlement case China: Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights („anti-suit injunctions”). Ruben holds a Masters degree in Public Administration from Leiden University and a Master of Laws from the University of Amsterdam.
Uta Schneider
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Uta Schneider is responsible for the development and execution of European government relations and public policy strategy, working with legislators, elected officials, governmental and other agencies as well as trade organizations and industry groups. Prior to Marconi, Uta led the Brussels Office of TERMA Group, a Danish company working in the defense, space, aerospace and security sectors, where she was responsible for promoting TERMA’s interests with the European Commission, NATO and governments across Europe. Before TERMA, Uta spent over 5½ years working in Brussels in public policy roles for Diehl Group, a global engineering company. Uta has a master’s degree in Political Science and Government from the University of Bonn in Germany and speaks German, English and French. A German citizen, Uta has spent most of her life living abroad in England, Switzerland, China and France. She lives with her family in Brussels, Belgium, and in her spare time enjoys gardening, travelling and knitting.
Rafał Sikorski
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PhD (Adam Mickiewicz University), LLM (Central European University), is a professor of law at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Poland). His major research areas include patent remedies, the nexus between IP and competition law, standard essential patents, as well as various forms of private ordering in IP and particularly patent law. He has published on patent pools, access to standard essential patents, patent remedies, conflicts-of-law rules for IP contracts and IP infringement as well as copyright law. Results of his research appeared in books published by, for example, Edward Elgar, Cambridge University Press, Wolters Kluwer and C. H. Beck. At the Law Faculty of Adam Mickiewicz University, he teaches various courses on IP, civil law, private international law and European Union law. Rafal Sikorski is also an attorney-at-law at one of the leading Polish law firms where he advises clients in matters related to licensing and protection of IP.
Prathiba M. Singh
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Prathiba M. Singh was elevated as a permanent judge of the High Court of Delhi on 15th May 2017. Before being elevated to the Bench, she was a leading Intellectual Property lawyer in India. She had the distinction of handling landmark matters in all areas of IPR laws including patents, trademarks, designs, copyright, plant varieties, internet laws, etc.
She was appointed as Amicus Curiae by the High Court of Delhi to streamline the working of the Copyright Office. She was also appointed on a High-Level Committee for streamlining of Patent examinations. She was invited as an expert to present views to Parliamentary Committees considering amendments to the Patents Act in 2002, Copyright Amendment Act, 2012, Geographical Indications Act, etc. She was also a member of the CII National Steering Committee on IPRs. Justice Singh was designated as a Senior Advocate by the Delhi High Court in December 2013. Justice Singh was the Chairperson of the Committee that recommended the constitution of the ‘Intellectual Property Division’ in the Delhi High Court, post the abolition of the IPAB. The Committee also drafted the „Delhi High Court Intellectual Property Rights Division Rules, 2022” which were notified on 24th February, 2022. Justice Singh was also the Chairperson of the `Patent Committee’ of the Delhi High Court which drafted the „High Court of Delhi Rules Governing Patent Suits, 2022”. Recognising her contribution to the development of IP law, Managing IP, a leading global publication, has rated Justice Singh amongst the ‘50 Most Influential People in IP’ for two consecutive years, i.e., 2021, and 2022. In the year 2022, Justice Singh became the first Indian judge to be elected as an Honorary Fellow of Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge.
Peter R. Slowinski
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is an Assistant and Project Lead at the Faculty for Law and Administration of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan. He is also Affiliated Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in Munich and Associate Researcher at the Weizenbaum Institute in Berlin. In addition to his law degrees in Germany, Peter obtained a Master in the Science of Law (J.S.M.) from Stanford Law School where he was a fellow in the Stanford Program in International Legal Studies (SPILS). He is a regular lecturer at the Munich Intellectual Property Law Center (MIPLC), Kyiv Economic University, Stanford Law School and the Center for International Intellectual Property Law (CEIPI) at Strasbourg University. Until 2016, Peter worked as a patent litigator for a US law firm in Munich. His research focus is on SEPs, the UPC and the intersection of IP and AI. He is the principle investigator in a project on AI and the law funded by the Polish National Research Centre.
Valerio Sterzi
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is a Full Professor of Economics at the Bordeaux School of Economics (BSE), University of Bordeaux. Since 2022, he has been a board member of the European Policy for Intellectual Property (EPIP) association. He has published extensively on innovation and intellectual property and is a frequent speaker at international conferences and policy forums on these subjects. In addition to his academic career, Valerio has worked as a consultant for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and served as Delegated Director at Via Inno, a university spin-off and center of expertise in patent intelligence at the University of Bordeaux.
Martin Stierle
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is an Associate Professor in Intellectual Property Law at the Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance at the University of Luxembourg. His main field of academic interest is the intersection of law and technology with a specific focus on patents and their enforcement. His current works include projects on sustainability, court transparency, economic sanctions and personalised medicine. Before joining the University of Luxembourg, Martin Stierle was working at the Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) of Munich, the DFG Graduate School “Intellectual Property and the Public Domain”, and the University of California, Berkeley. He was trained in Germany and the US, is a member of the New York State Bar, and holds a PhD from the LMU Munich. His doctoral thesis explores the phenomenon of non-practice patents and the access to injunctions.
Peter Tochtermann
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is the presiding judge at the Mannheim Local Division of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) and a member of its presidium. He studied Law and Chemistry at the University of Heidelberg from which he graduated in 2001. He was a Visiting Scholar sponsored by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation at both the Dispute Resolution Institute, Hamline University, St. Paul (MN), USA as well as the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, Cambridge (MA), USA (2005/2006), where he worked on his comparative Ph.D. on “The Independence and Impartiality of the Mediator” (University of Heidelberg, summa cum laude, 2008). He is a Professor at the University of Heidelberg and publishes extensively with a particular focus on Patent Law. Peter served as a judge in the Federal State of Baden-Württemberg since 2007. Since 2010 he handled hundreds of Patent Cases at the Regional Court Mannheim, clerked with the Patent Senate of the Federal Supreme Court of Germany (2012-2015) and – after being seconded to the Patent Senate of the Higher Regional Court Karlsruhe – has been the Presiding Judge of the 7th Civil Chamber of the Regional Court Mannheim since 9/2018, which regularly deals with large-scale patent infringement proceedings especially on SEPs in the telecommunication sector.
Yanfang Wang
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joined the Intellectual Property School of East China University of Political Science and Law as a high-level talent in September 2021. Prior to that, she had worked for 25 years in the Intellectual Property Division of the Supreme People’s Court of China from July 1996 to August 2021, in the positions of clerk, Assistant Judge, Judge, Presiding Judge and Senior Judge Second Grade. Her main research areas are trademark law, copyright law, and competition law. Her other concurrent posts include: researcher of Intellectual Property Judicial Protection Research Center of Supreme People’s Court; member of the Expert Pool of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate of China; member of the Expert Pool for Response to Overseas Intellectual Property Dispute of China National Intellectual Property Administration; expert panelist for the Judicial Training course of WIPO.
Pippa Wheeler
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is Senior Litigation Counsel at HP located in Germany. She manages significant litigation throughout Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands, the UK and Ireland and Scandinavia, as well as coordinating multijurisdictional litigation. A large portion of her work over the past 25 years involves patent litigation at national courts and now at the UPC, as well as copyright levies. In addition, she is involved in defining HP’s lobbying efforts to improve the legal framework for a variety of areas including IP. She was called to the Bar of England and Wales and has also a Diploma in EU Competition Law from Kings College London. She speaks English and German.
Wolrad Prinz zu Waldeck und Pyrmont
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is a seasoned patent litigator based in Freshfields’ Düsseldorf and Munich offices specialising in the intersection of competition and patent law. He helps clients defend against patent assertions to maintain business continuity as well as defending their intellectual property against infringement. He has been involved in multiple SEP proceedings relating to telecommunication, audio and video coding technologies. Wolrad’s practice spans several sectors, from technology and telecommunication to biotech and pharma, where he represents national and international clients in court proceedings, both before German courts and the UPC. Since the inception of the Unified Patent Court, Wolrad is representing clients in complex proceedings before various divisions as well as the Court of Appeal. Before joining Freshfields, Wolrad worked at the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law and the Munich Intellectual Property Law Center. During his LLM studies in Washington DC, Wolrad worked as judicial intern to the Hon Randall R Rader at the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Żaneta Zemła-Pacud
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is Deputy President of the Patent Office of the Republic of Poland from 2024. Graduate of European Studies and Law at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. Doctor of Laws, legal adviser and assistant professor at the Institute of Legal Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences. She has been involved in intellectual property law for many years. She has led and participated in numerous national and international research projects on biotechnological inventions, artificial intelligence in patent litigation and intellectual property in the health sector. She is involved in the work of the international research team of the „Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic” project within the British Academy. Author of the monograph „Patent Protection of Medicinal Products” and numerous publications in the field of industrial property law and Life Science innovations, including co-author of the Commentary to the Act – Industrial Property Law.