​​Litigation Matters UP/UPC 2024

Raquel Xalabarder
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.

Ulrike Voß
Ulrike Voß is Presiding Judge Central Division Section Munich and Presiding Judge (for panel 1) Local Division Munich

Ulrike Voß studied law in Trier, where she also completed her legal traineeship, which included periods in Maastricht and Luxembourg.

She entered the judicial service of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1998. She initially worked in various civil and criminal chambers and, from 2004, in the patent litigation chambers of the Düsseldorf Regional Court. In 2008 Ulrike Voß was appointed Presiding Judge at the Düsseldorf Regional Court. There, she headed the 4b. Civil Chamber. From January 2014 to the end of May 2024, Ulrike Voß was Presiding Judge of the 15th Civil Senate of the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court, which deals with patent law.

In June 2023, Ulrike Voß was appointed as a judge at the UPC. She is the Presiding Judge of the Central Division Section Munich and, since June 2024, also the Presiding Judge of Panel 2 of the Local Division Munich.

Michael Fröhlich
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.

Raphaëlle Dequiré-Portier Partner
Raphaëlle Dequiré-Portier is a partner in Gide Loyrette Nouel's Intellectual Property, Telecoms, Media & Technology Department.
Her practice focuses mainly on advising and assisting clients in disputes with regard to patents and trademark law. She has gained wide experience in domestic and pan-European disputes, particularly in the field of patent infringements and the validity of patents.

Over the years, she has gained significant experience in domestic and pan-European patent litigation (patent infringements and validity disputes), more specifically in Life Sciences (drugs cases, particularly with regard to supplementary protection certificates, as well as medical devices), on technologies and mechanics.
Raphaëlle is a member of several professional associations: the APRAM (French Association for Trademarks and Models Lawyers), the INTA (International Trademark Association) and the AIPPI (International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property). She is the treasurer and member of the board of EPLAW.

Gabriele Mohsler
Gabriele Mohsler is Head of Patent Creation Management within Ericsson. Worldwide, she is responsible for all patent creations and portfolio build-ups and is in charge of a number of patent units comprising more than 200 people. She has held several management positions and was responsible for European litigation within Ericsson for a number of years.

Gabriele Mohsler studied electrical engineering at the Rheinisch Westfälische Technische Hochschule in Aachen (RWTH) and started her career as a patent attorney trainee within Alcatel. After passing the European Qualifying Exam, she started working at Ericsson in Germany in 1997. While there, she took the German attorney exam and started building up the patent department in Germany, which is now one of the key IPR departments within Ericsson.

Gabriele Mohsler is president of LES Germany and is an elected member of the board at The German Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property Law (GRUR). She is also a Curator of “Women in IP”.

With over 60,000 granted patents, Ericsson has emerged as a company holding one of the strongest radio communication patent portfolios in the industry covering 3G, 4G and 5G cellular standards.

Heli Pihlajamaa
Heli studied law at Helsinki University and the Max Planck Institute in Munich and worked in both the private and public sectors before joining the EPO.

Heli first worked as a lawyer in Principal Directorate Patent Law and Procedures before becoming its director in 2011. She is responsible for supporting the EPO policy by developing, strengthening and promoting the EPC, which includes making proposals for legal changes, compliance of operations with patent law related norms and case law. She also advises EPO higher management on policy issues and legal amendments.

In 2020, Heli was heavily involved in the changes implemented in the patent grant procedure for the European patent system due to the implications of COVID-19.

Ingo Beckedorf
Ingo Beckedorf, Dr. jur., M.L.E. is the Chair of the Legal Board of Appeal and Deputy of the President of the Boards of Appeal, Deputy Chair of the Enlarged Board of Appeal and of the Disciplinary Board of Appeal, Head of Legal Services of the Boards of Appeal, and former Chair of the Technical Board of Appeal: Mechanics.

He holds German state diplomas in law, a master’s in European laws, and a PhD in European law. He is a former German judge at the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court (Court of Appeal), legal counsel to the Court’s president and to the Constitutional Court Hamburg, as well as a former attaché de presse and deputy head of the European Parliament Office in Germany.

He is an author of numerous books and articles on EU law, competition law and patent law, and co-editor of Benkard, Europäisches Patentübereinkommen (European Patent Convention), 4th edition, 2023, C.H. Beck München. He is also a lecturer and conference speaker on German and EU law, particularly patent law.

Richard Meade
Richard Meade was appointed to the UK High Court by the Judicial Appointments Committee in 2020.

After graduating from Oxford University, Meade began his career in IT projects, before being called to the Bar in 1991. Meade joined specialist IP barrister set 8 New Square, where under the tutorage of previous Supreme Court judge David Kitchin he came to specialise in commercial work and intellectual property law. In 2008, Meade became a Queen’s Counsel (now King’s Counsel) and in 2009, the judiciary appointed Richard Meade as a Recorder. In 2011 Meade became a deputy High Court judge until his elevation to full-time UK High Court judge on 7 September 2020.

He is also Judge in Charge of the Patents Court and Intellectual Property.

Giovanni Galimberti
After studying law at the University of Milan, Giovanni was admitted to the Ordine Degli Avvocati di Milano (Milan Bar Association).

As well as being one of the founding partners of Bird & Bird’s Italian operations, Giovanni is now Managing Partner and co-heads its Italian Intellectual Property department as well as the International Patents Group. Giovanni has significant experience in both contentious and non-contentious IP matters including patents, trademarks, design, trade secrets, copyright and unfair competition in different sectors such as the life sciences, electronics, automotive mechanics, and food and beverage. His major forte is patent litigation, having handled and coordinated numerous pan-European litigation cases for national and international clients, particularly in the life sciences and healthcare and tech and comms sectors.

In trademark matters, Giovanni assisted several Fortune 500 companies in the food sector and a number of consortia in disputes relating to infringement of their well-known trademarks, geographical indications and appellations of origin. In recent years, Giovanni has contributed to Italian and European legal magazines in the field of patent and trademark law.

Giovanni sits on the board of EPLAW (European Patent Lawyers) as vice-president and president elect.

Alex Wilson
Patent litigator and UPC Representative specialised in multi-jurisdictional disputes I European Patent Lawyers Association Board I CEDR mediator I London & Dublin Alex guides clients from a wide range of industries on strategies for exploiting and enforcing of intellectual property rights in national and UPC courts across Europe as well other major markets. He has an international practice, particularly in matters of a multi-jurisdictional character, including arbitration. He is a Representative before the UPC. Alex 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. Alex’s fluency in French and German allowed him to spend periods working in leading law firms in Paris and Düsseldorf. He regularly coordinates and supports proceedings before a range of national patent courts. He has also practised as a solicitor in Australia and as an examiner at the European Patent Office for a number of years.

He is co-editor of an upcoming international commentary on the Unified Patent Court and has been actively involved in teaching legal and technical Judges for the Unified Patent Court. He has been a partner at Powell Gilbert since its founding in 2007.

Philippe Campolini
Philippe is a Partner at the law firm Stibbe. He assists his clients in all IP areas, focusing strongly on patent law, trade secrets law, and copyright. A substantive part of his practice is IP litigation. Philippe is passionate about scientific and technological innovations and has a wealth of experience in high-end and complex patent litigations as well as innovation-driven transactional work (technology transfer, licenses, joint research agreements, etc.). This is reflected in the matters he handles for Belgian and international clients from various sectors, notably the life sciences and medical device industries. As a native French and German speaker, Philippe is also very well connected with the German market.

Philippe graduated in law from the Université catholique de Louvain in 2006. He obtained a Master of Laws (LL.M.) focusing on IP and competition law from the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in 2007. Philippe has been an associate researcher at the Unit for Economic Law of the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) since 2013. He is often invited to speak at conferences featuring IP and trade secrets law and has authored many publications on these subjects, including on the UPC (in particular P. CAMPOLINI, « The international jurisdiction of the Unified Patent Court and related issues addressed by Regulation (EU) No 542/2014: much ado about nothing or new playground for the CJEU? », in The Unified Patent Court – Problems, Possible Improvements and Alternatives, Milan, Ledizioni, 2023).

Philippe is the President of the French-speaking section of the Belgian Patent Attorney Accreditation Commission, as well as the secretary of the European Patent Lawyers Association (EPLAW). He is also a board member of the Belgian commercial law review Revue de droit commercial (RDC), the Belgian copyright law review Auteurs & Media (A&M) and the Belgian Copyright Association (BVA-ABA).

Philippe is also a third-party decider acknowledged by CEPANI for the resolution of disputes relating to .be domain names.

Leythem Wall
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, an 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.

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

Darrin Shaya
Darrin is European Patents Director for Stanley Black & Decker, a global tool manufacturer. He is a UK and European Patent Attorney and holds a United Kingdom Higher Courts Litigation Certificate, having been in the first cohort to obtain UK litigation rights for Patent Attorneys. During his 25 years at Stanley, he has been involved in many patent court actions around the world, including, unusually, one case litigating a patent he drafted.

James Horgan
James is a fully qualified as a Chartered Patent Attorney, European Patent Attorney and European Patent Litigator and holds an LLM in Intellectual Property Litigation from Nottingham Trent University. Having extensive experience drafting and prosecuting applications at the European Patent Office in the fields of chemistry and biotechnology, James also conducts hearings before the EPO at first instance and on appeal. Supplementary Protection Certificates are a particular interest to him. James managed a team of patent attorneys and support staff providing full service support to a research centre and obtaining European patents for the wider company for ten years. This included assessments of how rights can be used and threats that might arise, as well as broad due diligence matters. He regularly provides IP input into business decisions, agreements and negotiations. James has been involved in court proceedings through the entirety of his time at MSD. This has extended to over 20 jurisdictions including 10 Supreme Courts. This has taken him to the CJEU four times, the EFTA Court, a hearing at the Dutch Supreme Court (the leading case on indirect infringement and second medical use claims), the FSC in Malaysia (claim amendments allowed after litigation, and all claims must be assessed), the Irish Supreme Court (leading case on preliminary injunctions) and others.

James is involved in IP policy matters both across industry and in relation to pharmaceuticals. This has been done through the Patents Working Group of Business Europe (2013-22), the IP Working Group of EFPIA, IP Federation, ABPI, IFPMA and other organisations. James is familiar working with government officials and, occasionally, politicians, to explain and support a strong and balanced IP system as beneficial to the economy and wider society. James was particularly involved in the legislative process leading to the SPC Manufacturing Waiver. He also provides input into the IP elements of Free Trade Agreements in the UK.

Clemens-August Heusch
Vice president at Nokia
Clemens-August Heusch heads the global litigation and disputes team. He is responsible for litigation, arbitration and mediation globally with a strong focus on multinational IP litigation and licensing (FRAND) arbitrations. Since 2008 Nokia has been involved in more than 200 patent cases worldwide against companies such as Apple, HTC, Blackberry, InterDigital, Qualcomm, Daimler, Intellectual Ventures, IPCom, KPN, Daimler, Lenovo and others. Those patent cases related to implementation patents as well as to SEPs relating to GSM, UMTS, LTE, H.264, WiFi, NFC and others.

Before joining Nokia, Dr Heusch was an attorney-at-law at the international law firm Bird & Bird LLP (2004 to 2008) in Dusseldorf. He studied law at the Universities of Freiburg and Bonn, and holds an LLM from the University of Maastricht and a doctorate from the University of Cologne. During his traineeship, he worked (among others) in the competition law team of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Cologne and Brussels. Dr Heusch is a registered lawyer at the Cologne Bar and a certified IP lawyer. Fluent in German, English and French, he regularly presents and writes on a range of legal topics. He is a member of the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI) and was appointed to the AIPPI Standing Committee on Standards and Patents. He is also a member of the board of the German AIPPI group, the German Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property and the Licensing Executives Society.

Peter Blok
Judge I UPC
Peter Blok is a judge in the UPC Court of Appeal and a professor at the Utrecht University, where he holds the Patent Law chair. He is a deputy judge in the Commercial Law Chamber of the Court of Appeal in The Hague. He specialises in intellectual property law and patent law in particular. From 2015 to 2023, Peter Blok was a judge at the Court of Appeal of The Hague, and from 2007 to 2015, he was a judge in the Intellectual Property Chamber of the District Court of The Hague. Before that he was an attorney-at-law in Rotterdam and Amsterdam. In 2002, Peter Blok finished and defended a PhD thesis on privacy and data protection law at Tilburg University. Part of his research was done at the Georgetown University Law Center, Washington D.C. Peter Blok also studied law and philosophy at Leiden University.

Alexander Ramsay
Registrar I UPC
As Deputy Director at the Swedish Ministry of Justice, Alexander Ramsay was involved in the negotiations regarding the enhancement of the European patent system between 2008 and 2013.. In 2013, he was elected the Vice- Chairman of the Preparatory Committee of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) and in 2015, he was elected Chairman of the Committee, a position he held until February 2022 when he was elected as the first Chairman of the Administrative Committee of the UPC.

He left the Ministry of Justice in 2016 and, in parallel with his commitment to the UPC Committees, served as a judge at the Swedish Patent and Market Court until January 2023.

In January 2023 he was appointed the first Registrar of the UPC.

Peter Tochtermann
Judge I UPC
Dr Judge Tochtermann has spent three years as a judge and public prosecutor in Baden-Württemberg. After moving to the patent chamber of the Mannheim Regional Court in 2010, he spent three years between 2012 and 2015 working as a clerk at the German Federal Court of Justice. In 2015, Judge Tochtermann returned to the Mannheim District Court as deputy presiding judge and sat on the bench at the Higher Regional Court in Karlsruhe, and in September 2018, was appointed presiding judge in the patent chamber at the Mannheim District Court. Judge Tochtermann is a Lecturer on Patent Law at the University of Heidelberg.

He is the presiding judge of the UPC’s Court of First Instance – Mannheim Local Division and a Member of the Presidium.

Koen Bijvank
Partner I Brinkhof N.V.
Koen Bijvank is a patent litigator, qualified as both 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. Koen Bijvank also works as a tutor for CEIPI in Strasbourg, France, where he trains 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.

Tobias Wuttke
Partner I Bardehle Pagenberg
Dr Tobias Wuttke is a partner and attorney-at-law with Bardehle Pagenberg, where he specialises in national and cross-border patent litigation. Influential rankings confirm his reputation as one of Germany’s leading patent litigators. Tobias Wuttke’s expertise stems from hundreds of patent infringement and validity proceedings. He advises blue chip companies acting on a global level, as well as innovative SMEs and start-ups in the areas of telecommunications (SEPs in particular), medical technology, automotive and life sciences. Tobias Wuttke focuses on the economic perspective of the patent disputes he undertakes. His primary goal is to achieve the optimal commercial result for his clients. He considers patent litigation to be inextricably linked to risk management.

Tobias Wuttke regularly gives presentations on topical issues regarding patent law at universities, offices, and associations. As an author, he actively promotes the distribution and development of patent law.