Litigation Matters 2023

Raquel Xalabarder
Director of the European Patent Academy
European Patent Office

Raquel Xalabarder earned a law degree (JD) from the University of Barcelona in 1988, a Master of Laws (LLM) from Columbia University Law School, New York, in 1993 and a Doctor in Law (JSD) from the University of Barcelona in 1997.  

She was a Visiting Scholar (Fulbright Scholar) at Columbia University Law School, New York, in 2000-2001, held an Honorarvertrag at the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property and Competition Law, Munich, in 2008 and has acted as a tutor of IP courses for the WIPO Academy since 2000. She is also a Member of the European Copyright Society (ECS), the Association Littéraire et Artistique Internationale (ALAI) and its Spanish group ALADDA.  

She has recently started working as Director of the European Patent Academy. She joins the European Patent Office from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, where she was Professor of Intellectual Property and Dean of the Faculty of Law and Political Science.

Mihály Zoltán Ficsor
Principal Director of Legal Affairs
European Patent Office

Mihály Ficsor, former member of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation and Chairperson of the Committee on Patent Law, is now Principal Director of Legal Affairs in the European Patent Office's Directorate-General Legal and International Affairs.

Prior to joining the EPO in 2020, Mihály Ficsor served as Vice-President of the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office (HIPO) until 2016 and at the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) in charge of European Cooperation and later as Head of Cabinet (2017 to 2020).

Michael Fröhlich
Director of Patent Developments and IP Lab
European Patent Office

Michael Fröhlich is Director of Patent Developments and IP Lab at the European Patent Office. He is a fully qualified German lawyer with a postgraduate degree and a PhD in intellectual property.

For 25 years he has served in increasingly responsible positions in IP, and now leads a team of lawyers and paralegals responsible for developing policy orientations and solutions to shape the international and European legal framework governing patents and related areas of law and practice. This includes developing legal policy in relation to the Unitary Patent, new emerging technologies and patent law trends, encouraging work sharing and harmonising patent law and practices.

Prior to joining the EPO Michael was Senior Director, EU IP & Strategy at BlackBerry, where he was responsible for the company's IP affairs in Europe and managed a range of global strategic matters relating to standard-setting initiatives, patent licensing and litigation. Before that he was Senior Legal Counsel at Nokia and helped define the company's patent and standards position. He was also Head of Legal Affairs at the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), shaping its IPR policy. Before ETSI he practised law at Preu Bohlig & Partner in the fields of contentious and pre-contentious IP matters, with a particular focus on patent litigation. He also has professional experience in Brazil, where he worked for Dannemann Siemsen Advogados. 

He served for many years as Chairman of the AIPPI Committee on Standards and Patents, and as the Vice-Chairman of both the GSMA IPR Working Group and the LES Publication Committee.

Guno Tjon
European and Dutch Patent Attorney
Unilever

Guno Tjon obtained his PhD in neuropharmacology in Amsterdam. As an Agreement and Patent Director at Unilever he has supported a range of product categories. He has also successfully enforced patents in a number of countries. He is a member of the Board for the SBO, the body responsible for the Dutch qualifying examination, and also tutors for the examination. In addition, he is an EPLIT Board member and has tutored and spoken on UPC matters in various fora.

Micaela Modiano
Co-Managing Partner and European and Italian Patent Attorney
Modiano & Partners

Micaela Modiano is a co-managing partner of her firm, and also the head of the chemistry and life sciences department and the European patent department.

She assists clients with drafting, filing and prosecuting patent applications and managing patent portfolios. Her practice also includes freedom-to-operate and prior-art searches, freedom-to-operate and validity opinions, out-of-court activities and litigation before national courts, oppositions and appeals at the European Patent Office, due diligence, and strategic IP planning for both research-driven companies and non-patent owners.

She also assists clients with licensing, distribution, confidentiality and settlement agreements in general. She has extensive experience in supplementary protection certificates, both in terms of filing strategy and prosecution, assessment, advice and litigation.

She is frequently involved in pan-European and international litigation on behalf of foreign clients, and often assists clients with patent litigation in the US, including helping with discovery and depositions. She has experience in European competition law, national unfair competition law, and regulatory and administrative law in pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals.

She assists clients in organic and inorganic chemistry, pharmaceutical chemistry, nutraceuticals, biochemistry, biotechnology, vaccine technology, immunotherapy, gene technology, polymer chemistry, agrochemicals, industrial chemistry, environmental chemistry, nanotechnology and medical devices.

Her clients range from large multinational corporations to small and medium-sized enterprises and individual inventors, as well as research institutions, universities, technology transfer offices, venture capital firms and angel investors, both foreign and domestic, with a particular focus on foreign clients. She obtained her postgraduate diploma with a thesis entitled "Differences between oral hearings under UK practice and under UPC [Unified Patent Court] rules".

She obtained her undergraduate degree in chemistry at Harvard University, followed by a master's degree in intellectual property law at the University of London. Her postgraduate studies in European patent litigation were completed at the University of Strasbourg.

She is a European patent attorney, a European patent litigator, a European trademark attorney, an Italian patent attorney and an Italian trademark attorney.

Bettina Hermann
Partner and European and German Patent Attorney
V.O. Patents & Trademarks

Bettina Hermann started her career in IP in 2001 at a specialist German boutique. She studied biology at the Technical University Munich, with an emphasis on microbiology, genetics, biochemistry and clinical chemistry. She received her PhD in biology from the same university and did practical work at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich before becoming a postdoc at the Institute of Genetics, Molecular and Cellular Biology (IGBMC) in Strasbourg.

She has worked as a patent and trademark attorney at V.O. Patents & Trademarks since 2008 and has been a certified European Litigator (CEIPI) since 2010. She has experience advising small and mid-sized biotech companies, in particular in cancer therapies, and providing patentability, validity and freedom-to-operate analyses for investors. She also represents clients in opposition proceedings before the German Patent and Trademark Office and the European Patent Office and in nullity proceedings before the German Federal Patent Court, as well as in infringement proceedings before German regional courts.

She has been recognised for her work on numerous occasions. IAM Patent 1000, 2021 said: "For dynamic emerging and established biotechnology companies, Bettina Hermann is just the ticket with her highly cultivated drafting skills and strategic wisdom. She stays the course in lengthy examination proceedings and emerges with ironclad protections for her clients' cornerstone innovations". IAM Patent 1000, 2019 wrote: "Bettina Hermann, who works out of V.O., 'provides excellent and timely advice, always with a kind and helpful manner' in her preferred fields of microbiology, genetics and chemistry". IAM Patent 1000, 2018 noted: "Biotechnology authority Bettina Hermann at V.O. is assiduous in her drafting of applications; nothing escapes her gimlet eye". She was recognised as an IP Star by Managing Intellectual Property in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 and as a Recommended Individual by IAM Patent 1000 in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

Triona Walshe
Senior Director and European and Irish Patent Attorney
Bausch + Lomb

Triona Walshe studied physics and chemistry at the Dublin Institute of Technology and Trinity College Dublin and entered the patent profession in 2001. For over 20 years she has worked in both private practice and in-house, predominantly in the chemistry, medical, pharmaceutical and mechanical engineering fields. She is the representative of the Irish Association of Patent and Trademark Attorneys on the European Patent Institute (epi) Litigation Committee and currently serves as this Committee's secretary. She has acted as a delegate representing the epi as an observer at meetings of the UPC Administrative Committee and separately also at meetings of the UPC IT team.

Cordula Schumacher
Partner and Patent Litigator
ARNOLD RUESS

Cordula Schumacher is a partner at ARNOLD RUESS, a boutique IP firm in Düsseldorf, Germany. Her key area of specialisation is patent litigation. She has been involved in a number of high-profile cases, such as the FRND decisions by the German Federal Court of Justice in Sisvel v Haier and the first anti-anti-suit injunctions in Germany.

The JUVE Handbook of German Commercial Law Firms lists her as one of the country's 13 "Leading Partners under 50" in patent law.

Legal 500 praises her as an "excellent communicator" and "vigorous specialist", calling her a "top patent litigator" whose performance amazes clients. As a "strategic thinker identifying the key issues" who is "accessible, [and an] expert in her field", she offers a "prompt and reliable service". She is consistently praised by listings as an expert in her field, with IAM Patent 1000 saying she is "an impressive lawyer with a sharp mind and excellent technical understanding" and Leaders League highly recommending her. Chambers notes: "She is extremely dynamic, very reliable and able to find new, creative solutions."

She pursued her law and supplementary business studies at the Universities of Bayreuth, Cologne, Hawaii Pacific (USA) and Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. She holds a master's degree in intellectual property law from the Heinrich Heine University of Düsseldorf, speaks German, English, French and Spanish and is currently president elect of the European Patent Lawyers Association (EPLAW).

Koen Bijvank
Partner and European and Dutch Patent Attorney
Brinkhof N.V 

Koen Bijvank is a patent litigator, qualified both as an attorney at law ("advocaat") and a Dutch and European patent attorney. He holds a master's degree in organic chemistry and specialises in chemistry, life sciences and pharma. He is a partner at Brinkhof in Amsterdam. His practice is contentious, i.e. opposition and litigation work.

He also works as a tutor for CEIPI in Strasbourg, training candidates for the legal part of the examination to qualify as a European patent attorney. In addition, he is the immediate past President of the Dutch group of AIPPI, past President and co-founder of EPLIT and an editor of the IP journal Berichten Industriële Eigendom.

Klaus Haft
Partner and Patent Litigator
HOYNG ROKH MONEGIER

Klaus Haft is a German qualified attorney ("Rechtsanwalt") and holds a master's degree in physics. He is a trial lawyer in intellectual property law with a particular emphasis on patent litigation. In addition, he advises on licensing agreements, research and development agreements, the law on employee inventions and issues relating to the protection of trade secrets. Based on his physics background and in-depth understanding of complex technology he boasts a strong track record in litigating high-tech patents and patents on medical devices. He acts for clients before the UPC and national German courts, collaborates on opposition proceedings, and plans and co-ordinates multinational litigation cases.

He studied in Würzburg and Munich and wrote his diploma thesis at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva. Parallel to his studies, he worked as a freelancer in at a Munich-based patent attorney firm for more than ten years.

He was a member of the Board of the European Patent Lawyers Association (EPLAW) for seven years, the last two as its President, and currently serves as a member of the advisory board. In addition, he is President Elect of the Licensing Executives Society (LES) Germany and a member of the Executive Board of the Munich IP Dispute Resolution Forum. He regularly publishes on intellectual property law matters and gives presentations at events on patent law.

Giovanni Francesco Casucci
Partner and Patent Litigator
EY Studio Legale Tributario
Politecnico di Milano University

Giovanni Casucci is a partner in the IP department at EY Studio Legale Tributario. Prior to joining EY he worked as a partner and headed the intellectual property and technology group at Dentons Europe.

He has been an IP litigator in Italy since 1992. From 1999 to 2005, he was director of a master's programme in IP management at Politecnico di Milano University. He has been an external faculty member for IP issues at that institution since 2001. Since 2010 he has been co-director of courses for the patent and trade mark attorney examinations and for continuing education for IP professionals. Since 2017 he has been co-director for the international course in European patent litigation at Politecnico di Milano University.

From 2007 to 2011 he was an external IP expert at the programme IPR2 – Beijing. Since 2013, he has been an external IP expert at the programme IPR SME HELPDESK – Beijing.

He is the author of several publications on IP rights and active on various training courses on IP management and litigation. He is also a member of EPLAW, LES, AIPPI and ECTA and Secretary General of the Camera degli Avvocati Industrialisti (the Italian IP Litigators Chamber).

Alex Wilson
Partner and Patent Litigator
Powell Gilbert

Alex Wilson guides clients from a wide range of industries on strategies for exploiting and enforcing intellectual property rights in national and UPC courts across Europe and other major markets. He has an international practice, particularly in matters of a multi-jurisdictional nature, including arbitration. He is a representative before the UPC. He has experience of dispute resolution across the full range of IP rights. His scientific background has put him in a good position to handle highly technical and standards-related patent cases. He has acted in matters relating to technologies as diverse as pharmaceuticals, semi-conductors, graphics processing, medical devices, biotechnology, explosives, oil and gas, paints and mobile phones.

His fluency in French and German allowed him to spend periods working in leading law firms in Paris and Düsseldorf. He regularly co-ordinates and supports proceedings before a range of national patent courts. He has also practised as a solicitor in Australia and was an examiner at the European Patent Office for a number of years.

He is co-editor of an upcoming international commentary on the UPC and has been actively involved in teaching legal and technical judges for that court.

He has been a partner at Powell Gilbert since the firm was founded in 2007. He is a Board member of the European Patent Lawyers Association (EPLAW) and a CEDR mediator.

Leythem Wall
Director and European and UK Patent Attorney
Oxon IP

Leythem Wall is a European and UK patent attorney and litigator specialising in the chemical, consumer products, energy, material, mechanical, medical, pharmaceutical and tobacco sectors. Prior to founding Oxon IP he was a partner in major European and US intellectual property law firms, and before that in-house patent counsel for some of the world's largest European and US multinationals. He regularly represents clients in opposition and appeal proceedings before the European Patent Office as lead counsel. He is immediate past President of the European Patent Litigators Association (EPLIT) and a member of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) Litigation Committee.

Bernard Ledeboer
Partner and European and Dutch Patent Attorney
V.O. Patents & Trademarks
Technically Qualified Judge, UPC

Bernard Ledeboer was appointed to the UPC in June 2023. His technical focus is on mechanical engineering.

He has been active in patents since 1996. In addition to his work for the UPC, he is engaged in private patent practice in The Hague as a partner at V.O. Patents & Trademarks. As a Dutch and European patent attorney he has wide experience in all kinds of patent matters, including litigation cases before the patent court in The Hague and opposition and appeal cases before the European Patent Office. He is a Board member of the European Patent Litigators Association (EPLIT).

He holds an MSc in mechanical engineering from TU Delft and an LLM in intellectual property litigation from Nottingham Law School.

Elisabetta Papa
Partner and European and Italian Patent Attorney
Società Italiana Brevetti
Technically Qualified Judge, UPC

Elisabetta Papa began practising in 1999 and has drafted and prosecuted patent applications for, and provided advice to, major research organisations, universities and multinational companies and Italian and foreign medium-sized companies.

She focuses in particular on biomechanics and biomedical patents.

She is enrolled on the register of court-appointed experts on industrial property of the Court of Rome and is a technically qualified judge at the UPC.

She teaches European patent practice and strategies in courses leading up to the European patent attorney qualification examinations organised by the Centre for International Intellectual Property Studies (CEIPI) at Robert Schuman University, Strasbourg.

An experienced speaker and moderator at international intellectual property events, she is a court expert in patent litigation, an Italian and European patent attorney and a Community design attorney. She is also qualified to represent clients before the UPC.

She holds a master's degree in mechanical engineering from La Sapienza University of Rome and a PhD in bioengineering from the University of Bologna. She obtained a European Patent Litigation Certificate – Diploma in Patent Litigation in Europe from CEIPI.

She has recently been recognised in: Intellectual Asset Management Global Leaders 2020-2023; Expert Guides Women in Business Law 2020-2022; Leaders League IP Attorneys 2021-2023; Best Lawyers® Italy 2023-2024.

Peter Tochtermann
Judge
UPC Court of First Instance (Mannheim Local Division) 

Peter Tochtermann spent three years as a judge and public prosecutor in Baden-Württemberg before moving to the patent chamber of the Regional Court of Mannheim in 2010. From 2012 he then spent three years at the German Federal Court of Justice working as a clerk.

In 2015 he returned to the Mannheim District Court as deputy presiding judge and sat on the bench at the Higher Regional Court in Karlsruhe. In September 2018 he was appointed presiding judge in the patent chamber at the Mannheim District Court.

He is a lecturer in patent law at the University of Heidelberg, the presiding judge of the UPC's Court of First Instance – Mannheim Local Division and a Member of the Presidium.

Mélanie Bessaud
Judge
UPC Court of First Instance (Munich Central Division)

Mélanie Bessaud was appointed a French judge in 2005 and spent five years as a civil judge in intellectual and industrial property matters, dealing with patents, trade marks, industrial designs, models and unfair competition at the Paris Court of First Instance, which has exclusive jurisdiction over patents. Issues she handled included infringement procedures, revocation for various reasons, case management, provisional measures or damages and ex parte procedures.

Since 2020 she has been an arbitrator at the commercial chamber of the Court of Cassation, where she deals with patents and supplementary protection certificates. She has also been a lecturer in intellectual property.

She was recently appointed UPC judge at the Munich Central Division.

András Kupecz
Judge
PC Court of First Instance (Munich Central Division)

András Kupecz holds an LLM in private law from Amsterdam University and an MSc from Utrecht University with a focus on molecular biology. He was active for many years as a European patent litigator, being dually qualified as a lawyer and a European patent attorney, before taking up his duties as a legally qualified judge at the Munich Central Division of the UPC.

Tobias Pichlmaier
Judge
UPC Court of First Instance (Munich Local Division)

Tobias Pichlmaier is presiding judge at the Higher Regional Court in Munich.

In 2000 he started working as a judge at the District Court in Munich (Chamber for Patent Litigation). From 2001 to 2004 he worked in the Copyright Department of the Federal Ministry of Justice in Berlin. In 2004 he served as a public prosecutor in Munich. After another period spent working as a judge at the District Court in Munich from 2005 to 2012 (dealing with intellectual property rights, especially patent litigation), he served as a judge at the Higher Regional Court in Munich from 2012 to 2016. From 2016 to 2022 he was presiding judge of a patent litigation chamber at the District Court in Munich. From February 2022 he led the chamber for antitrust law. Since June 2023 he has been presiding judge at the Higher Regional Court in Munich. In addition he is a legally qualified judge at the Local Division of the UPC in Munich.

He is the author of various publications on patent law, copyright law and law of trade secrets and lectures in Germany and abroad.

Rian Kalden
Presiding Judge of the second panel
UPC Court of Appeal

Rian Kalden graduated from Leiden University and earned a master's degree covering intellectual and industrial property law at the London School of Economics. She started her career by joining the Amsterdam bar with the law firm Stibbe, where she practised for almost 11 years, first in the intellectual property department and then turning to company law, with a focus on mergers and acquisitions.

In 2002 she was appointed a judge at the District Court of The Hague, joining the Patent Chamber. After a short period in the criminal division at the District Court of Haarlem, where she was appointed vice president in 2007, she returned to the Intellectual Property Division of the District Court of The Hague in mid-2008 and was made head of the Division in 2009, dealing with all kinds of IP cases, mainly involving patents.

In September 2013 she was appointed a judge at the Court of Appeal of The Hague. For five years she headed the division that covers all IP cases and as a senior judge she primarily dealt with patent cases until she left in September 2023 to become a full-time UPC judge.

In July 2018 she was appointed a judge at the Benelux Court of Justice, where appeals from decisions of the Benelux trade mark offices are heard. In 2023 she resigned in view of her appointment as a legally qualified judge at the Court of Appeal of the UPC as from June 2023, where she is Presiding Judge of the second panel. She is also a member of the Presidium of the UPC. She regularly speaks at national and international conferences on patent law and related issues.

Willem Hoyng
Partner and Patent Litigator
HOYNG ROKH MONEGIER

Willem Hoyng holds an LLM from Leiden University and obtained his PhD from Tilburg University, where he was appointed Professor of IP Law in 1988. He has been practising IP law since 1973 and has been admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of The Netherlands. He has represented clients before all levels of the national courts of the Netherlands. He has regularly litigated before the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Patent Office and has advised on patent litigation strategy for both Dutch and foreign multinationals. He chairs the Advisory Committee of the UPC, participated in drafting the Rules of Proceedings for the UPC, and advises the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs on UPC matters.