Speakers

Adrian Chew

Partner

Bristows

Agathe Michel-De-Cazotte

Partner

Carpmaels & Ransford

Ana Lopez Lozano

Lead Patent Counsel

Zentiva

Andreas Robinson

Senior Counsel Intellectual Property & Litigation

Amgen

Axel Berger

Partner

Bardehle

Bianca Vos

Partner

Hoffmann Eitle

Brian Coggio

Counsel

Fish & Richardson

Charlotte Weekes

Partner

Pinsent Masons

Christina Thomson

Managing Associate

Simmons & Simmons

Christoph Rehfuess

Head of IP

Sotio

Corinna Sundermann

Senior Vice President Intellectual Property

Fresenius Kabi

Dolores Cassidy

Head of Patent/SPC Examination

Intellectual Property Office of Ireland

Dolores Cassidy, B.Sc. Ph.D., graduated from University College Dublin with a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry.  In 1998 she joined the Intellectual Property Office of Ireland as a Patent Examiner, with particular responsibility for the examination of Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs).  In 2021 she was promoted to the position of Head of Patent/SPC Examination at the Irish Office.

Eduardo Hallak

Partner

Licks Attorney

Eduardo Hallak is one of the founding partners at Licks Attorneys and one of our leaders at the Sao Paulo office. For more than a decade, he has been working as a litigator before state and federal courts in Brazil in several complex disputes and leading cases involving Patent law, competition, and regulatory compliance, most of them pursuing the interests of clients in the area of life sciences. He also has extensive practice in trademark litigation as well as technology transfer contracts, working together with multinational clients to establish strong brand protection and licensing programs in the country. Mr. Hallak also currently teaches IP litigation in the Post-Graduation course at the prestigious Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUCRJ), has taught Civil Procedure at the at the Brazilian Association of IP Agents (ABAPI), and is often invited to lecture on procedural and strategic aspects of IP litigation, in addition to being a member of the Special Commission on Mediation of the Rio de Janeiro Chapter of the Brazilian Bar Association (OABRJ) and the Enforcement Committee of INTA.

Eva Ehlich

Partner

Maiwald

Florian Bechtel

Senior Counsel- Digital & Device IP

Sanofi

Gemma Barrett

Partner

A & O Shearman

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.

Ha Kung Wong

Partner, Advisory Board Member

Venable, Centre for Biosimilars

Ha Kung Wong has over 20 years of experience practicing general intellectual property law with an emphasis on complex patent and trade secret litigation as well as IP transactions and contract negotiations for mergers, acquisitions, and collaborations in pharmaceuticals, biologics, and chemistry. Cases Mr. Wong has litigated include those related to proton pump inhibitors, allergy eye drops, anti-epileptic drugs, anti-tussive, injectable microspheres, RNAi products, and other pharmaceuticals. Mr. Wong also has extensive experience with Inter Partes Review, Post Grant Review, intellectual property counseling, pharmaceutical regulatory counseling, pre-suit investigations, licensing, and due diligence.

Mr. Wong has his BS with high distinction in Chemistry and his BS in Biochemistry from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and his JD, cum laude, from the University of Notre Dame. Mr. Wong is currently an elected member of the Venable Board, is an Advisory Board Member for the Center for Biosimilars, is Treasurer, Executive Committee member, and Board Trustee for the Foundation for Advancement of Diversity in IP Law (FADIPL) and serves as faculty for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy (NITA) and Lawline.

Isabelle Gundel

Senior Patent Attorney

Haleon

James Horgan

Chief IP Counsel

MSD

Judith Krens

Partner

Pinsent Masons

Karin Pramberger

Intellectual Property Director

Polpharma Group

Karin has been Intellectual Property Director at the Polpharma Group since April 2018. She is responsible for all patent and trade mark related activities. Prior to joining the Polpharma Group, Karin was Head of IP of Medichem, Spain, and worked in various positions within the patent department of Teva, Barr and Pliva.  She spent 7 years in a law firm in Vienna, Austria, where she became European and Austrian patent and trade mark attorney. She studied Biotechnology in Vienna, Austria, and at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chemie de Paris, France. In 2017 she graduated with an LLB from the University of London. Since 2005 she has been a tutor at CEIPI, University of Strasbourg, for the pre-exam and the C-part of the European Qualifying Exam. 

Katie Rooth

Lead IP Litigation Counsel

Sandoz

Kit Carter

Head of IP Litigation

Sandoz

Laila Beynon

AD- Dispute Resolution

Regeneron

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. 

Manja Epping

Partner

Taylor Wessing

Margaret O'Gara

Director of IP

Nanobiotix

Margaret is a French and European patent attorney currently heading IP at a late development stage biotech in Paris, called Nanobiotix.

She started her professional career as a researcher in the pharma industry in the UK and France, before moving into patents in 2004.

Since then she has worked both in-house and in IP firms and spent nearly ten years with Santarelli before taking the IP position at Nanobiotix early 2020. Margaret has considerable experience in all aspects of European patent prosecution, and post grant proceedings, as well as strategies for filing new applications . She is interested in data exclusivity and prolonging the protection of innovative products.

Marius-Benjamin Schneider

Head of Legal

Insempra

Martin Schmidt

Life Science Technical Judge

UPC

Michal Porubsky

Senior Litigation Counsel

Novo Nordisk

Nicholas Mitrokostas

Partner

A & O Shearman

Nick is the Managing Partner of the Boston office and an experienced Life Sciences trial attorney who focuses on representing innovator companies in intellectual property, trade secret, licensing and antitrust disputes. A litigator known for his trial skills, Nick has been lead counsel and gone to trial in dozens of ANDA and BPCIA litigations and has extensive experience representing clients in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries in federal and state courts as well as before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).  Nick also has expertise in counseling emerging and small and mid-cap Life Sciences companies in late stage drug development on issues pertaining to patent and regulatory exclusivities including patent term extension (PTE), patent listing requirements, and pre-commercial and launch assessments and litigation risks. 

Patrick Heckeler

Partner

Bardehle

Pedro Roman

IP Counsel

Insud Pharma

Roberto Romandini

Legal Member of the Board of Appeal

EPO

Roberto Romandini obtained his law degree from the University of Pisa and his LL.M. degree from the University of Munich, where he specialized in patent law. He completed his Ph.D. thesis on the patentability of human stem cells at the Max Planck Institute in Munich before practicing IP law at a leading IP law firm in Milan for 5 years. From 2013 he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in Munich.  Since 2019 he has been a legal member at the Boards of Appeal at the EPO. 

Sabine Klepsch

Honourable Judge

UPC Local Division Hamburg

Sherry Yao

Partner

King & Wood Mallesons

Stefanie Kies

Senior Director Intellectual Property

Polpharma Biologics

Suzanne Renes

European Patent Attorney

Sanofi

Suzanne graduated Cum Laude from Amsterdam University College in 2015 with a BSc in Biomedical Sciences. In 2016 she graduated from University College London with an MSc in Pharmaceutical Formulation and Entrepreneurship. She is a qualified Dutch and European Patent Attorney that started her career in the Pharma team at NLO in 2018. Since January 2022 she has been employed in the Ablynx team of Sanofi in Ghent, where she has been working as a patent attorney specializing in immunoglobulin single variable domains (camelid-derived VHH). In her free time, she enjoys learning new languages, playing badminton and dancing salsa.

Tobias Wuttke

Partner

Bardehle Pagenberg