PMAC Arbitration Day

Aleš Zalar
Aleš Zalar is Director of the Patent Mediation and Arbitration Centre of the Unified Patent Court. A former Slovenian Minister of Justice, judge and court president, he has extensive international experience as a mediator, arbitrator and adviser on dispute-system design, judicial reform and the rule of law.

Sven Stürmann
Sven Stürmann is President of the Boards of Appeal at EUIPO and an internationally accredited mediator. At EUIPO since 2004, he has held senior legal and managerial roles, including Chairperson of the Second Board of Appeal. He helped establish the Office's Mediation Centre and previously practiced as a lawyer and mediator in Berlin.

Ana Margarida Bandeira
Ana Margarida Bandeira is President of the Directive Council of the Portuguese Institute of Industrial Property. With more than 35 years of experience, she began her career as a patent examiner and subsequently held several management and leadership positions within the Patents, Trademarks and Design Units. She represents Portugal in European and international intellectual property organizations.

Karin Žvokelj
Karin Žvokelj is the Director of the Slovenian Intellectual Property Office, where she focuses on the role of intellectual property in strengthening Slovenia's entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem. With a background in international economics and extensive experience in policy, entrepreneurship, project management, and leadership, she works to emphasize the value of IP and balance stakeholder interests. Her mission is to bridge creativity and commerce, empowering ideas to become impactful realities.

Nazareth Romero
Nazareth Romero is a lawyer, international arbitrator, mediator and professor, as well as a Partner at Ovoli Romero Abogados, where she leads the Arbitration Department. With more than 30 years of experience, she advises on complex domestic and international disputes involving intellectual property, trade, investment and energy.

Yvonne Podbielski
Yvonne Podbielski is a legally qualified member of the European Patent Office Boards of Appeal with more than 20 years' experience at the EPO. Qualified as a solicitor and holding a doctorate degree from the University of Cambridge, she previously practiced commercial litigation in London and led the Boards' Legal Research Service. She now serves on several technical Boards of Appeal as well as on the Legal, the Disciplinary and the Enlarged Board of Appeal.

Sir Robin Jacob
Sir Robin Jacob is the Sir Hugh Laddie Professor of Intellectual Property Law at University College London and a former Lord Justice of Appeal. A leading intellectual property jurist with more than 50 years of experience, he acts as an arbitrator, mediator and expert witness in British and European patent law.

The Rt Hon. Lord Justice Richard Arnold
Lord Justice Richard Arnold is a judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales specializing in intellectual property law. Formerly Judge in Charge of the Patents Court, he has also served on the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office and authored leading works on intellectual property.

Lars Meinhardt
Lars Meinhardt is Presiding Judge of the Sixth Civil Senate at the Higher Regional Court of Munich. He specializes in patent, trademark, copyright, competition and antitrust law, including fair licensing disputes. A former prosecutor and European Union national expert, he regularly speaks and publishes on intellectual property law.

Emmanuel Gougé
Emmanuel Gougé is a legally qualified judge on Panel One of the Unified Patent Court of Appeal. Formerly a patent litigator, he has extensive experience in cross-border European disputes and is qualified in France and England and Wales. Since 2020, he has directed the Diploma on Patent Litigation in Europe at CEIPI.

Simon Dack
Simon Dack has more than 35 years of patent experience, including 23 years as a litigator representing leading pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical-device companies. He now advises law firms on patent trials, including mock trials for Unified Patent Court cases, and is a member of the PMAC Expert Committee, helping draft its new regulatory framework.

Matthias Zigann
Matthias Zigann is Presiding Judge of the Munich Local Division of the Unified Patent Court. An experienced patent judge, he previously led patent and intellectual property chambers at Munich's Regional and Higher Regional Courts. He is also a published author and frequent speaker on patent law.

Aleksandra Kuźnicka-Cholewa
Aleksandra Kuźnicka-Cholewa is Intellectual Property Counsel at CMS Poland and an Assistant Professor at the Polish Academy of Sciences. An internationally recognized expert in standard-essential patents, licensing and enforcement, she advises companies and policymakers and serves as a neutral in patent disputes.

Thierry Calame
Thierry Calame is a Partner at Lenz and Staehelin and a leading intellectual property specialist. With degrees in chemistry and law, he acts as counsel and arbitrator in complex patent and intellectual property disputes. He is also a permanent lecturer at the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property.

Tom Oliver
Tom Oliver is a partner at Powell Gilbert, specialising in complex IP litigation, licensing disputes and strategic counselling. With a background in chemistry and biochemistry, he advises across the life sciences and other technology sectors. He has extensive experience co-ordinating multi-jurisdictional patent strategies, handling FRAND and contractual IP disputes, IP-related arbitrations, and proceedings before the English courts and the UPC.

Richard Buttrick
Richard Buttrick is an independent licensing expert with extensive industry experience. He played a central role in the creation of ETSI's IPR Policy in the early 1990s, while at British Telecom, and later had IP licensing roles at BTG and Philips, including heading up IP licensing for Philips. More recently he has been an expert witness on FRAND licensing in litigation and arbitration worldwide.

Vítor Palmela Fidalgo
Vítor Palmela Fidalgo is a Partner at Inventa, a lawyer admitted to the Portuguese Bar, and a lecturer and researcher at the University of Lisbon School of Law. He has published academic works internationally and acts as an arbitrator specializing in intellectual property, technology law, private law, and civil disputes.

Yanfang Wang
Yanfang Wang is a Professor of Intellectual Property Law and Doctoral Supervisor at East China University of Political Science and Law, and a former Presiding Judge at China's Supreme People's Court. She is an arbitrator and mediator specializing in patents, licensing, trademarks, competition and copyright law.

Dário Moura Vicente
Dário Moura Vicente is a Full Professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon and has practised law since 1987. An experienced international arbitrator, counsel and expert, he has published extensively on private international law, comparative law, arbitration and intellectual property.

Jacques Raynard
Jacques Raynard is Professor of Private Law at the University of Montpellier and Professor at the University of Strasbourg. He specializes in intellectual property, business law, patents, technology-transfer agreements and arbitration, and holds an honorary doctorate from Heidelberg University.

Antje Baumann
Antje Baumann is an arbitration practitioner with over 23 years of experience in advising clients in complex, high-value commercial disputes. She is primarily serving as an arbitrator in international proceedings, encompassing a broad spectrum of legal systems and subject matters.

Cândida Ribeiro Caffé
Cândida Ribeiro Caffé is a Partner at Dannemann Siemsen with 27 years of experience in intellectual property transactions, patent licensing, technology transfer, trademarks and industrial designs. She is also a postgraduate professor and holds leadership roles in Brazilian intellectual property associations.

Penny Gilbert
Penny Gilbert is a Founding Partner at Powell Gilbert, with a doctorate in molecular biology and extensive experience in life-sciences patent litigation. She represents clients before the United Kingdom's patent courts and in European proceedings, and advises on licensing, pharmaceutical strategy and due diligence.

Joana Piriquito Santos
Joana Piriquito Santos is a Founding and Managing Partner at NLP Law, as well as a lawyer, pharmacist and Portuguese Patent and Trademark Attorney. Working in intellectual property since 2010, she has served as a patent examiner and now represents international pharmaceutical and technology companies before the Portuguese courts and the Unified Patent Court. She also advises clients on technology transfer matters and transactions.

Steven Baldwin
Steven Baldwin is a Partner in the Intellectual Property Litigation Team at Kirkland and Ellis in London. He specializes in complex cross-border patent disputes involving telecommunications, fair licensing and life sciences, and frequently coordinates global litigation strategies across multiple jurisdictions.

Shaohui Yuan
Shaohui Yuan is Vice President of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Patent and Trademark Law Office. A patent attorney since 2001, he specializes in patent prosecution, litigation, licensing and portfolio strategy, and acts in intellectual property negotiations, mediation and arbitration.