​​Opposition Matters 2026

Moderator: tbc

Speakers

Angelique Iyer-Baldew
Angelique is a Director in Operations for oppositions covering the area of health, materials and production. She holds a PhD in chemistry and worked as a European Patent attorney before joining the EPO.

Anne Sophie Schaefer
Anne-Sophie Schaefer is Global Head of Intellectual Property for the Arkema Group, a global leader in speciality materials. She is a European Patent Attorney and former French Attorney-at-Law, with extensive experience in private practice and industry. She has led Arkema's Intellectual Property department since 2015.

Benjamin Grau
Dr Benjamin Filip Grau is a German and European Patent Attorney and Partner at Fleuchaus & Gallo (Munich). He has represented clients before the European Patent Office since 2015. He is a member of the epi Online Communications Committee and an epi delegate in EPO working groups.

Britta Kley
Ms Kley holds a Doctor of Laws from the University of Trier. She joined the EPO in 2004 after working in private practice and has worked in Patent Law and Processes since 2012, specialising in legal matters relating to search, examination and opposition procedures.

Chris Mercer
Chris Mercer is a European Patent Attorney in private practice with extensive experience in opposition and appeal proceedings before the EPO. He chairs epi’s European Patent Practice Committee and is actively involved in training candidates for the European Qualifying Examination.

Christoph Ernst
Christoph Ernst is the Vice-President Legal and International Affairs of the European Patent Office. He is responsible for international cooperation, patent information, patent knowledge and legal affairs. Before joining the EPO, he held senior leadership positions at the German Federal Ministry of Justice.

Emma Ó Donnabháin
Emma Ó Donnabháin is Principal Director for Quality and Practice Harmonisation at the European Patent Office. During more than 28 years at the EPO, she has held leadership and technical roles in telecommunications, information and communication technologies, quality management and patent examination.

Eugenio Archontopoulos
Eugenio Archontopoulos is Team Manager at the European Patent Office, leading a team specialising in artificial intelligence and advanced computing technologies. He has contributed to modernising the patent grant process and has extensive experience in computer-implemented inventions and patent economics.

Felicita Banzhaf
Felicita Banzhaf is a German and European Patent Attorney and founder of BANZHAF IP. With a background in mechanical engineering, she advises clients on European patent matters, focusing on examination, opposition and appeal proceedings before the European Patent Office across a broad range of technologies.

Helena Domingues
Helena joined the EPO in October 2000 after completing a PhD and post-doctoral work in structural biology and protein engineering. She began her career in pharmacy and has worked in biotechnology since 2004. For the past 15 years, she has specialised in therapeutic antibodies, vaccines and opposition work.

Ingeborg Simonsson
Ingeborg Simonsson is a Judge at the UPC Court of Appeal and a Member of the UPC Presidium. She holds a degree as Doctor of European law and became a judge in Sweden in 2008. She has extensive experience in patent law and judicial training across Europe.

Jessica Kroeze
Jessica Kroeze is a Partner at HGF in The Hague. She is a Dutch and European Patent Attorney whose practice covers materials science, chemistry and related technologies. Prior to joining the patent profession, she worked in research and academia and later  managed intellectual property portfolios in industry.

Julia Gwilt
Julia Gwilt has worked in private practice for more than 25 years, specialising in software inventions and emerging fields including bioinformatics and artificial intelligence. She qualified as a European Patent Attorney in 2001 and chairs the Professional Education Committee of the Institute of Professional Representatives (epi).

Karen Engelen
Karen holds a PhD in chemical engineering and joined the EPO as an examiner in 2003. She has worked as an opposition examiner since 2012 and is also an instructor in the European Patent Academy, delivering training on opposition practice and inventive step.

Katarzyna Walert
Dr Katarzyna Walert LL.M. IP joined the EPO in 2013 as a lawyer in Patent Law and Processes. She specialises in legal aspects of examination and post-grant proceedings, particularly opposition. Before joining the EPO, she practised as a lawyer in Poland, specialising in intellectual property and commercial law.

Laura Hewitt
Laura Hewitt joined the European Patent Office in 2000 as an examiner. She has extensive experience in search, examination and opposition, and has chaired opposition divisions for around 15 years. She is now Principal Director of Opposition and Central Support.

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.

Mathieu de Rooij
Mathieu de Rooij joined Bardehle Pagenberg after a career as an EPO Examiner and as a partner in private practice in Spain. His practice focuses on oppositions and appeal proceedings before the European Patent Office as well as patent drafting and patent prosecution.

Peter Thomsen
Peter R. Thomsen is President of epi and serves as an observer at the EPC Administrative Council and the UPC Administrative Committee. A European and Swiss Patent Attorney and UPC representative, he has more than 20 years’ experience in the healthcare industry, focusing on intellectual property strategy and policy.

Régis Quélavoine
Régis Quélavoine, is a Director in Opposition at the European Patent Office in The Hague. He is responsible for technical communities covering digital, energy, mechanics, mobility and space technologies. He holds a PhD in computer science specialising in speech processing and artificial intelligence.

Robert Pötzsch
Robert Pötzsch is an examiner in Materials and Production at the EPO in The Hague. He joined the EPO in 2013 after completing a PhD in polymer research. He works in search, examination and opposition across a range of chemistry and materials technologies

Sergio Arrojo
Sergio Arrojo has been a Technical Member of the Boards of Appeal at the European Patent Office since 2018. Previously an EPO examiner, he has served on the European Qualifying Examination drafting committee and regularly speaks at legal conferences. He holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering.

Steve Rowan
Stephen Rowan joined the EPO in 2019 as Vice-President, Patent Granting Process. He is responsible for the entire patent granting process and leads the EPO’s Diversity and Inclusion activities. Before joining the EPO, he held several senior leadership roles in the UK Intellectual Property Office.

Susan Keston
Dr Susan Keston is a European Patent Attorney and Partner at HGF specialising in opposition and appeal proceedings, particularly for standard-essential patents in telecommunications and digital video coding. She regularly advises international clients on strategic opposition and post-grant proceedings.

Valentina Morra
Valentina Morra is an examiner at the EPO in The Hague. She joined the EPO in 2005 and works in metallurgy. She chairs examination and opposition proceedings, passed the European Qualifying Examination in 2016 and completed the CEIPI Diploma on Patent Litigation in Europe in 2018.