Opposition Matters 2024

Join the leading event for professional users wanting to keep up to date with the latest and most relevant developments in opposition proceedings.
Event details
Programme
- Thursday, 28 November 2024
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13.00 hrs - 13.10 hrs
Welcome
13.10 hrs – 13.30 hrs
Latest developments in opposition proceedings
Åsa Ribbe, Principal Director Operations, European Patent Office
Laurence Brüning-Petit, Director Patent Law and Processes, European Patent Office13.30 hrs – 14.30 hrs
Ethics in oral proceedings
Carla Roth, Partner and European Patent attorney, König . Szynka . Tilmann . Von Renesse Patentanwälte . Partnerschaft mbB
Doris Thums, Lawyer team lead Post grant and Patent law, European Patent Office
Régis Quélavoine, Director Operations, European Patent Office14.30 hrs - 14.45 hrs
Break
14.45 hrs – 15.45 hrs
Update on quality management in opposition
Roberto Vacca, Director Quality Management, European Patent Office15.45 hrs – 16.50 hrs
The place of opposition in IP strategy
Leythem Wall, Director and European patent attorney, Oxon IP B.V.
Angelique Iyer-Baldew, Director Operations, European Patent Office16.50 hrs - 17.00 hrs
Closing Day 1
- Friday, 29 November 2024
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09.00 hrs - 09.15 hrs Recap Day 1 09.15 hrs - 10.15 hrs
Sufficiency of disclosure: how to challenge and its relationship with inventive step and added subject matter.
Régis Quélavoine, Director Opposition, European Patent Office10.15 hrs – 11.00 hrs
Interpretation in opposition: behind the scenes
Tony Allen, Accredited interpreter, European Patent Office
Véronique Gamb, Team manager Operations, European Patent Office11.00 hrs - 11.15 hrs
Break
11.15 hrs – 12.00 hrs
G1/22, G2/22 on Priority
Hervé Chabus, Senior expert Operations, European Patent Office
Marko Schauwecker, Lawyer Post grant and Patent law, European Patent Office12.00 hrs – 12.40 hrs
Selection and training of opposition examiners
Angelique Iyer-Baldew, Director Operations, European Patent Office
Frédéric Bockstahl, Examiner Operations, European Patent Office12.45 hrs - 13.00 hrs
Closing of conference
Speakers and panellists
- Speakers and panellists
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Åsa Ribbe
Åsa Ribbe started at the EPO in The Hague in 1997 as a Telecom examiner in the field of Optical communication. She moved to Munich in 2003 and throughout her career as examiner, team manager and director, she has had had the opportunity to work on all parts of the patent granting procedure, from classification and search to examination and opposition. Åsa has been Principal Director of Operations in the EPO’s Patent Granting Process directorate since April 2022, a role which includes the co-ordination of opposition activities. She holds a MSc in Engineering Physics from Chalmers University of Technology.Laurence Brüning-Petit
Laurence Brüning-Petit heads the EPO’s Patent Law and Procedures directorate. She is responsible for patent law and procedure related matters under the EPC and PCT, including ensuring compliance of operations with patent law-related norms and case law as well as promoting the simplification and digitalisation of procedures.Doris Thums
Doris Thums heads the Post-Grant Processes and Patent Law department in the EPO’s Patent Law and Processes directorate. Before joining the EPO, she worked as a freelancer for the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law, in the legal department of the German Patent and Trade Mark Office and as a trade mark examiner. She is a co-author of the Benkard commentary on the European Patent Convention.Régis Quélavoine
Régis Quélavoine is Director of Opposition for the Digital, Energy and Electro-Physics technical communities at the EPO in The Hague. Régis holds a PhD in computer science, specialised in speech processing and artificial intelligence, and is a member of the EPO’s Patents and Procedures Committee.Hervé Chabus
Hervé Chabus joined the EPO in 1996 and is a senior expert in the Patent Granting Process directorate. Hervé is involved in opposition divisions as first member and chair in the field of healthcare and gives courses for chairs in opposition procedures.Marko Schauwecker
Marko Schauwecker joined the EPO in 2009 and is a patent law lawyer based in Munich. As a legal member in oppositions, he has been involved in several cases where entitlement to priority was challenged.Angélique Iyer-Baldew
Angélique Iyer-Baldew is Director in Operations for Oppositions in the area of Materials & Production unit. She holds a PhD in chemistry and has worked as European Patent attorney prior to joining the EPO.Véronique Gamb
Véronique Gamb joined the EPO in 1997 and is an examiner and team manager in the area of polymers.She has been active in opposition since 2002, passed the European Qualifying Examination in 2003 and chairs oral proceedings in the EPO’s three official languages.
She became Team Manager in 2021.
Frédéric Bockstahl
Frédéric Bockstahl joined the EPO in 2001 as a patent examiner in Applied Physics. His domain of competence ranges from sampling and measuring materials, including optical materials, especially ophthalmic lenses, to chemical analysis. Since 2007, Frédéric has been highly involved in opposition procedures as first member and chairperson on numerous cases covering technical fields ranging from mechanics to chemistry. He is also responsible for the drafting and co-ordination of the EPO’s opposition training courses. He graduated from Strasbourg University with a PhD in nuclear chemistry.Tony Allen
Tony Allen is a freelance conference interpreter based in Hanover. After completing a bachelor’s degree in modern languages at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne and a master’s degree in conference interpreting and translation studies at the University of Leeds, he moved to Germany, where he has been providing interpreting services to customers in private industry and politics since 2009. In 2017 he was accredited as an interpreter for the EPO, where he has now interpreted at approximately 400 - 500 multilingual oral proceedings in opposition and appeal.Roberto Vacca
Roberto is Director of Quality Management in the EPO’s Patent Granting Process directorate. Before moving to his present position, he managed a directorate of about 130 examiners and formalities officers in the area of Automotive Engineering. He has extensive experience as an examiner in various mechanical fields, has led technical co-operation with China for the past four years and has actively taken part in several quality projects, such as the working group on strategic quality and the pilot for Collaborative Quality Improvements. Before joining the EPO, he graduated cum laude in nuclear engineering at the Polytechnic School of Turin and worked in the aerospace industry.Leythem Wall
Leythem Wall specialises in EPO Oppositions and Appeals in the chemical, consumer products, energy, material, medical, pharmaceutical and tobacco sectors.He studied chemistry at Oxford University, holds a postgraduate certificate in IP litigation and advocacy from Nottingham Law School and a diploma in European patent litigation from the University of Strasbourg. Prior to founding Oxon IP, he was a partner in European and US Intellectual Property law firms, and before then in-house patent counsel for ExxonMobil and AkzoNobel.
Carla Roth
Carla Roth is a German and European Patent Attorney and a partner at the law firm König Szynka Tilmann von Renesse Patentanwälte Partnerschaft mbB. She specialises in the fields of molecular biology, biotechnology, biochemistry and pharmaceuticals, in particular biological therapeutics and second medical uses. A large part of her practice is devoted to opposition and appeal proceedings before the EPO.
More information
Opposition Matters is the EPO's leading event for professional users wanting to keep up to date with the latest and most relevant developments in opposition proceedings.
Speakers from several EPO departments, co-presenting alongside senior European patent attorneys, will provide insights into the best practices they have developed over years of opposition experience.
This high-level event is once again organised in close co-operation with the epi.
Who should attend?
This event is intended for patent attorneys, and particularly those who are active in opposition proceedings before the EPO.