Speakers

Andrew Hutchinson

Beatriz Diaz de Escauriaza

Cecile Teles

Cecile is Head Patent Attorney at Zentiva. She has over a decade of experience in the pharmaceutical industry.

Cecile is uniquely experienced and knowledgeable in the pharma space as she has experience in-house at an elite innovator company (Sanofi), biologics (Merck Serono), and extensive generic experience she gained as Zentiva.

Cecile is an enthusiastic manager of her team and was a key member of the IP team in leading the transformation of Zentiva into an independent and competitive generic company after divestment from Sanofi.

Cecile is a qualified European Patent Attorney. She also holds a certificate from CEIPI in patent litigation and most recently completed her diploma as a Master of Laws in France.

Christopher Sharp

Conrad Eckhardt

Conrad practices in the IP field for more than 20 years and gained experience across various industries. Having started with Consumer Products at Procter & Gamble he moved on to Pharmaceuticals at Boehringer Ingelheim and is now active in the medical device field, first as Chief IP Counsel at Leica Biosystems and currently as Chief IP Counsel at Biotronik. Conrad is a European Patent Attorney and a European Patent Litigator and has patent litigation experience in Germany, the USA and China.

Eleanor Root

Filip De Corte

Filip De Corte is Head of Intellectual Property at Syngenta Crop Protection, leading patent attorneys based in Switzerland, the UK, the US, The Netherlands and China. Filip joined Syngenta on October 1, 2013. Until then, he held the position of Chief IP Counsel Europe at Cargill (2008 – 2013). Before joining Cargill in 2008, he worked in the Johnson & Johnson patent department, working in Beerse with Janssen Pharmaceutica (1991-2004), New Brunswick (2004-2007), and Brussels (2007-2008). Filip has a Ph.D. in organic chemistry, he is a qualified European Patent Attorney and passed the US patent bar exam. He has the qualification of European Patent Litigation from the University of Strasbourg. He also has an MBA of the Vlerick School of Management.  Filip taught patent law in Antwerp under the auspices of CEIPI (Université de Strasbourg) as well as at the University of Leuven in the IPR management course and is a lecturer in the CEIPI patent litigation course.

Frank Landolt

Frank Landolt is Chief Counsel, Intellectual Property and Legal at Confo Therapeutics, a privately held biopharmaceutical start-up based in Ghent, Belgium specializing in GPCR-targeted therapeutics.

After studying chemistry and law at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, Frank worked for almost ten years on pharmaceutical and biotechological patents and licensing in private practice in the Netherlands, where his clients included major pharmaceutical companies as well as some of the top biotech firms and research institutions in the Netherlands. 

Prior to joining Confo in 2018, Frank worked for fifteen years in Ablynx N.V. (now a wholly owned Sanofi company), where he was a member of the management team and headed an integrated IP and legal group of four lawyers and five patent professionals. At Ablynx, Frank was involved in negotiating Ablynx’s strategic partnerships and licensing deals with AbbVie, Boehringer-Ingelheim, MSD, Merck-Serono, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi and Wyeth. 

From 2000 to 2004, Frank was director of IP and legal counsel at Devgen N.V. (now part of Syngenta), another Ghent-based biotechnology company, where he was involved in negotiating Devgen’s strategic collaborations with Sumitomo, Monsanto and DuPont Pioneer.

Frank is a Dutch and European patent attorney, and also holds a degree in business law from the University of Antwerp. He is a member of the Dutch association of patent attorneys (where he is a tutor for the professional qualification course), EPI and LES Benelux (where he is involved in the LES Licensing Course). He is a regular speaker on a range of topics relating to IP and licensing in the (bio)pharmaceutical sector. Frank was named as one of Managing IP’s ‘Corporate IP stars’ for four years in a row (2015-2018).

Gianluca Vassallo

Heike Wollgast

James Horgan

Juliane Buchinski

Katie Coltart

Laila Beynon

Laila Beynon is Director, Dispute Resolution at Regeneron, responsible for the strategic co-ordination of ex-US patent litigation. She has a PhD in Biochemistry/Molecular Biology, 10 years’ private practice experience in life sciences patent litigation at Herbert Smith Freehills LLP, and prior to her role at Regeneron headed up the Patent Litigation team at BAT. 

Mathias Zigann, Honourable Judge, UPC- Munich

Michael Swita

Natalia Wright

Raquel Frisardi

Ronny Thomas

Sean Alexander

Sean Alexander is a qualified European Patent Attorney as well as a Canadian and U.S. Patent Agent. He has worked in the IP field for many years and is currently the Head of IP Strategy (H&N) for Chr. Hansen in Denmark. Prior to joining Chr. Hansen, Sean headed the IP team at Elanco Inc. based in the Netherlands and was a Partner with Gowling WLG in Canada. Sean has been recognized as one of the world's leading IP strategists by IAM Magazine and is regularly praised for his pragmatic and commercially aware approach to IP.

Shohta Ueno

Stefanie Kies

Tess Waldron

Toni Santamaria

Toni has been leading the Intellectual Property team at Adalvo since 2021. He has more than 20 years of experience in different pharmaceutical companies where he has been involved in developing and implementing complex patent and data exclusivity litigation strategies for several generics and added value products, including leading parallel litigation cases in multiple European countries.   He also has experience in patent and trademark prosecution.

Toni qualified as European Patent Attorney in 2010 and holds a PhD in Organic Chemistry.

Arvid van Oorschot

Arvid is an IP-lawyer with over 20 years’ experience and partner of Vondst advocaten.

His main area of expertise is patent litigation. He works in various technical fields including MedTech, pharma and mechanical engineering.  He works for instance on cases on antibodies and medical devices. He has a special interest in AI and legal tech.

He publishes and lectures regularly on the (international-) enforcement of IP rights and related issues.

Arvid is listed in various authoritative editorials including Chambers Europe and Global, Juve and IAM Patent 1000.  

He is an active member of various professional associations including EPLAW and AIPPI.

Arvid studied at the Free University of Amsterdam and Northwestern Law School in Chicago. He was admitted to the bar in 2004.

Bolko Ehlgen

Catherine Drew

Daan De Lange

Douglas E. McCann, Principal, Fish & Richardson

Ewan Nettleton

Gemma Barrett

Gemma is an experienced and trusted advisor for some of the world’s leading life sciences and chemical companies. Her background in biochemistry means she specialises in complex technical disputes in the life sciences sector.  She has more than fifteen years’ experience advising clients in patent litigation matters before the English Courts including securing preliminary injunctions. She is also experienced in advising on global cross-border litigation, and coordinating worldwide litigation, working closely with multi-disciplinary teams in the defence and enforcement of patent portfolios. She has developed innovative and successful strategies, often combining patent and regulatory law, to assist pharmaceutical companies in the enforcement of their rights.

Heike Röder-Hitschke

Jenny Davies

Jenny Davies is a life sciences and patent specialist with a Masters in Biochemistry from Oxford. She provides strategic advice to help clients protect and exploit their R&D investment in the life sciences sector, medical device sector and the chemical industry. Her work regularly entails negotiating agreements to support her clients' research, development, manufacture and commercialisation, and protect their markets through the enforcement of patents.

Jenny delivers business-focused solutions across her unique practice area spanning patents and dispute resolution, transactions ranging from strategic licensing to highly complex collaborations and regulatory matters. She advises clients in all aspects of patent enforcement, from technical analysis and global strategy to leading UK litigation and EPO oppositions.

Given the commercial and practical value of the assets Jenny protects, her approach combines precision and detail with a commercial mindset and sector-led solutions. Clients praise her "endless determination", "formidable intellect" and are "deeply impressed" with her "unusual capacity to think creatively".

Her work highlights include leading ground-breaking patent litigation up to the UK Court of Appeal to achieve a novel form of "Arrow declaration" for Fujifilm Kyowa Kirin and advising AstraZeneca across a range of high value and complex transactions: its collaboration with the University of Oxford (COVID-19 vaccine); two $6 billion oncology collaborations with Daiichi Sankyo; an $8.5 billion oncology deal with Merck; and a $300 million oncology deal with Genzyme (Caprelsa).

Jenny is a member of the BioIndustry Association's IP Advisory Committee, and SPC and exclusivities committee, and a regular speaker on patent litigation and strategy.

Kassie Helm

Manuel Neetz

Marco Stief

Martina Tyreus Hufnal

Özge Atılgan Karakulak

Pierre-Emmanuel Meynard

Robert Cerwinski

Rob Cerwinski, managing partner, is a seasoned patent litigator and IP strategist with 20+ years of experience at premier U.S. law firms helping international clients launch biopharma products into the highly-competitive U.S. market. Mr. Cerwinski specializes in helping companies devise cost-effective strategies to navigate the complex and intertwined legal, regulatory and financial hurdles that can delay or prevent product launch. His successes in pre-litigation strategy and in the courtroom have driven the launch of 20+ biopharma products in the U.S. and Europe. Mr. Cerwinski holds a Master of Science Degree in molecular biology and has a deep understanding of the science, business and regulation of biopharma product development, manufacture and marketing. Mr. Cerwinski co-founded the industry-leading biosimilars practice at Goodwin Procter LLP and is a recognized global authority on biosimilars. He is Senior Editor of the leading legal treatise in the field, Guide to Biosimilars Litigation and Regulation in the U.S. (published by Thomson-Reuters) and founded Goodwin’s award-winning biosimilars blog, Big Molecule Watch and its companion blog, Big Molecule Watch China. Mr. Cerwinski was named an IAM Global Leader in Intellectual Property Law in 2021 and is ranked in the Gold Tier of the IAM Patent 1000. 

Siddharth Kusumakar