Professional Background
Early career in Corporate Finance in the Swedish Car Industry and currency trading and analysis in the Luxembourg finance sector. A path change lead to a managing position for a vocational training institute in Luxembourg before heading abroad to Madrid and later Washington DC where I engaged in public outreach for the Luxembourg Embassies.
Back in Luxembourg I worked on trade missions at the Chamber of Commerce before joining the Ministry of Foreign affairs to work on the set up of the UPC.
Academics
- Bachelor in International Economy from Uppsala University, Sweden
- Master in European Economic Studies, College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium
Since July 2010, Benoît Battistelli has been President of the European Patent Office, an international organisation with 38 member states, comprising all the members of the European Union, plus a number of further countries, including Norway, Switzerland, Turkey and several Southeast European states. His mandate runs until 30 June 2018.
Mr Battistelli also chaired the Supervisory Board of the European Patent Academy from July 2005 to July 2008 and held the position of Chairman of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation from March 2009 to June 2010, after serving as the Council's Deputy Chairman from December 2006 to March 2009.
Margot Fröhlinger former Director at the European Commission in charge of Intellectual Property, joined the European Patent Office in April 2012 where she is Principal Director for Unitary Patent, European and International Legal Affairs. In this function she deals with issues such as the development of patent law at European and international levels, patent law harmonisation, the strengthening and improvement of the PCT system as well as with the implementation of the Unitary Patent and the EPO’s relation with the UPC Preparatory Committee.
Chris retired his partnership with Carpmaels & Ransford in 2010 but continues to apply his invaluable experience in biotech, chemistry and light mechanical engineering subject-matter to the firm’s work with clients. Chris’ practice was mainly before the European Patent Office, with responsibility for a large number of applications and oppositions. He has argued before numerous Opposition Divisions and Boards of Appeal, as well as the Enlarged Board of Appeal.
His Honour Judge Richard Hacon was appointed as the first full time judge of the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court with effect from 3rd December 2013.
Richard acts in cases covering all aspects of intellectual property law. Due to his science background Richard is often instructed in highly technical patent actions and these often involve biotechnology and chemical fields.
His work in trade mark and design litigation has included many of the most significant recent cases. He has acted in many reported copyright, design right, passing off and confidential information cases. He has also acted in litigation concerning commercial contracts.
Born 1945. Graduated Utrecht University, law faculty, 1969.
Admitted to the bar of The Hague, The Netherlands, November 1970.
1977 - 2001: partner in leading law-firm (presently called De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek).
1996-1998: President of the Netherlands Bar Association (Nederlandse Orde van Advocaten).
2001 – 2012: member of the judiciary (advocate-general to the Supreme Court (Hoge Raad), civil law section).
2005 – 2006: temporary professor Nijmegen University (concurrent with appointment to Supreme Court)
Dr Klaus Grabinski was appointed as judge in the Federal Court of Justice in 2009. At the Federal Court of Justice he is allocated to the 10th Civil Division, which has inter alia jurisdiction in patent dispute matters. Before, he was Presiding Judge at the District Court in Düsseldorf in one of the two Patent Litigation Divisions (2001-2009), Judge at the Court of Appeal in Düsseldorf (2000-2001), Legal Researcher at the Federal Court of Justice (1997-2000) and Judge at the District Court in Düsseldorf (1992-1997). Dr Grabinski is member of an Expert Panel that is advising the Preparatory Committee of the future Unified Patent Court on different work streams. He is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences on patent law.
In 2002, Rian Kalden became a judge at the District Court of The Hague. There she joined the Patent Chamber. From 2005 to mid 2008 she was a judge, and from January 2009 as head of the Division, where she dealt with all kinds of IP cases, but mostly patent cases. Rian Kalden was appointed judge in The Court of Appeal of The Hague in September 2013 where she now heads the Division that, among other areas, also covers all IP cases, including patent cases. She speaks at national and international conferences on Patent law and related issues. She also acts as an arbitrator in NAI (Netherlands Arbitration Institute) arbitrations.
Penny’s strong scientific background has led to her specialisation in advising clients in the life sciences sector. She represents clients before the UK patent courts, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court and has represented clients in referrals to the CJEU and EFTA Court. She has a wealth of experience in co-ordinating multi-jurisdictional patent litigation and has represented clients in European Patent Office opposition and appeal proceedings and in appeals from the UK IPO. Penny also represents clients in patent licence disputes before the UK courts and in arbitration. She is a qualified mediator and a solicitor advocate.
During his first years of career he was Manager of the budget Office at the Ministry of Justice (2003-2006). He became Manager of the Office of the operators (Feb. to Sept. 2007), Head of the management control Department (Sept. 2006 to Aug. 2011), and then Assistant to the Deputy Director of the mission of programs respons ible for the performance sector and Head of the management control (April 2009-August 2011), at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is Deputy Head of International Department at the “Ecole Nationale d’administration”, ENA, since September 2011.
Since September 2014, he is an European and International Affairs Officier at the Ministry of Justice in France.
Willem’s practice primarily consists of litigating in the field of intellectual property law. He also regularly litigates before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the European Patent Office (EPO). Willem is also involved in advising on European patent strategies and coordinating and conducting European patent proceedings. He is a member of the drafting committee of the Rules of Procedure of the UPC and of the advisory committee of the Preparatory Committee and an advisor to the Ministery of economic affairs of The Netherlands on UPC matters. He is the adviser of many innovative Dutch and foreign multinationals, including pharmaceutical and biotechnological companies.
Ansgar Ohly holds the Chair for Civil Law, Intellectual Property and Competition Law at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. He is also a permanent Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford. His main fields of academic interest are all areas of intellectual property law, with a special emphasis on European developments and in the comparison of civil law and common law systems. His recent publications include an article on the future of the UPC after Brexit (GRUR Int. 2017, 1, with R. Streinz), and a commentary on the German law of unfair competition (2016, with O. Sosnitza). He is also the co-editor of GRUR, the leading German intellectual property journal.
He practiced at the Intellectual Property Bar from 1967. He was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal in October 2003. In the Court of Appeal he regularly sat on both IP and commercial cases, and he formally retired from the Court of Appeal in May 2011 to take up his current appointment.
He often lectures, mainly on IP topics, both in the UK and abroad and is regularly consulted on IP matters by the European Commission and the UK government. He is President of the Intellectual Property Judges’ Association (the association of European IP, particularly patent, judges). He is Chairman of the Advisory Panel on the Selection and Training of Judges for the forthcoming Unitary Patent Court.
She is a business driven IP professional with focus on creating an international IP portfolio, IP scouting and acquisition and long term IP strategy. At Philips IP&S, she is head of IP for several business groups - Health Informatics, Population Health Management and Personal Health.
Over the past 10 years she had a variety of roles in Philips IP&S touching all aspects of IP including IP counseling, IP portfolio management, IP licensing, IP acquisition and IP enforcement. Throughout these assignments she has worked with all types of IP. This has strengthened her view that real value is created through clever selection of the appropriate IP type for a given business activity.
Rubén Bonet is co-founder, President and CEO of Fractus, a European technology company specialised in the global wireless and telecom industries, named in 2005 Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum. Earlier in his career he was strategy consultant at Arthur Andersen. Ruben summary of accomplishments are the spin-off of Fractus from an R&D university, the international expansion across US and Asia, strategic partnerships with large industrial corporations, a later-stage MBO and the negotiation of patent technology licensing agreements.
Rubén has been recently appointed Entrepreneur-in- Residence at IESE and SMEs Chair in IP Europe, representing European SMEs.
Born in 1966, Dr. Thomaier is Head of IP of the Bayer Group since 2010, responsible for all IP Matters – Patents, Trademarks, Licenses and all related matters - within the Bayer Group.
In 2012 he restructured the Germany based IP Community of Bayer by establishing the Bayer IP GmbH, encompassing all IP Functions in Germany, serving as the IP Management Company within Bayer, taking on the role as the Managing Director of said entity as part of his role.
He studied Chemistry in Heidelberg, Freiburg, Utrecht and Zürich, holds a PhD in Chemistry and is a trained European Patent Attorney.
Since November 2009, Mr. Debrulle is the Head of the Belgian Intellectual Property Office which depends on the Ministry of Economy.
He represents Belgium within the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation.
Mr. Debrulle is since March 2013 the Chairman of the EPO Select Commitee which is in charge of the implementation of the Unitary Patent Protection.
Rainer has more than 20 years of experience in intellectual property disputes, including civil and administrative court proceedings as well as arbitration. He has also represented clients in various fields of industry including pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, media, paper & pulp, engineering and brand intensive industries. He is frequently involved in multi-jurisdictional IP litigation. Rainer has experience from working in cross-border litigations both as lead coordinator and as lead of the national team. He has also been advising on product liability and product safety as well as regulatory compliance. Rainer’s practice also includes IP & technology driven transactions, licensing, franchising and technology transfers.
Liz is a Divisional Director at the UK Intellectual Property Office. She joined the UK civil service as a patent examiner in 1983, moving to a corporate services role in 1993 and into intellectual property policy from 1995. She was seconded twice to the EU Commission as a national expert, working first in the copyright unit and later in the industrial property unit, and she has been involved since 2000 with the various incarnations of what is now the Unified Patent Court and the Unitary Patent.
Thierry Sueur, Engineer, was Patent Attorney and then Intellectual Property Vice-President at Thomson Consumer Electronics, and Director of RCA Licensing. Thierry Sueur joined the AIR LIQUIDE Group in 1992 as Intellectual Property Director until 2014. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of CEIPI of IEEPI and President of UJUB ("Union pour la Juridiction Unifiée des Brevets"). He was also Vice-Chairman of the INPI Board of Directors from 2010 to 2013, Chairman of LES International, Chairman of the French Group of AIPPI in 2012 and President of APEB ("Association des Praticiens Européens des Brevets") in 2015. He was promoted as "Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur" in 2007.
Vittorio holds a PhD from the University of London, the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, with a doctoral thesis on the antitrust treatment of patent pools and other forms of technological cooperation. Amongst his professional achievements he has advised a UK government agency on possible antitrust liabilities related to database rights and copyright enforcement. Vittorio has repeatedly assisted in giving expert opinions on Italian law to the High Court of England and Wales. While much of his work relates to patents and antitrust cases, his trademark work has included a varied portfolio of clients, from luxury hotel chains, leading food industry players and Italian television broadcasters.
Cristiano Morganti is the Director of International Projects at Net Service Information Technology, working on e-Justice and e-Government assignments across Europe. He is responsible for the design and implementation of the UPC Case Management System.
He has 20 years of experience in ICT projects for Government, EU Agencies, Banks and Multinationals. Before joining Net Service in 2012, he has held various management positions, building expertise on change management and digitalisation in large public and private organisations, in finance and intellectual property.
Cristiano has a Laurea in International Politics from the University of Bologna and an M.Litt. in Economics from Trinity College, Dublin.
Mr. György KOZMA is currently working at the Permanent Representation of Hungary to the EU, since 2015. At the end of 2008, he is appointed to the Permanent representation of Hungary to the EU, where he becomes Head of the Legal Service, while remaining responsible for issues related to intellectual property rights.Under the Hungarian presidency, he chairs negotiations related to the Council working groups “intellectual property rights” and “better law-making”. In July 2013, he becomes Vice-president of the Office of National Economic Planning. In this new position, he was responsible for the strategic planning on European funds for the current programming period (2014-2020).
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