Programme

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Moderator: Marco Bravo, EPO

Tuesday, 18 May 2021
Opening session
09.30 - 10.00 hrs	Welcome by António Campinos, President of the European Patent Office Jean-Eric Paquet, Director-General for Research and Innovation European Commission
Setting the stage
10.00 - 10.05 hrs	Introduction to the PATLIB network
10.05 - 10.15 hrs	PATLIB centres: "One of about 330: PATLIB centre Kiel - who we are and what we do". Steffi Jann, WTSH-Wirtschaftsförderung und Technologietransfer, Kiel, DE Presentation (PDF, 391 KB)
10.15 - 10.30 hrs	Journey to and from Porto: implementation of PATLIB 2.0 A dialogue between Elizabeth McDonald-Maier and Susanna Kernthaler, EPO
10.30 - 10.40 hrs	Focus on member states and their role in PATLIB 2.0 Telmo Vilela, Principal Director Co-operation and European Patent Academy, EPO Presentation (PDF, 490 KB)
PATLIB network: potential for growth
10.40 - 11.00 hrs	Keynote speech: Europe's innovation landscape and the role of IP in it Alison Campbell, Knowledge Transfer Ireland, IE  Presentation (PDF, 980 KB)
11.00 - 12.00 hrs	Panel discussion Technology transfer – what is it all about and how can PATLIB centres help Introduction: Tom Hockaday, Technology Transfer Innovation Ltd, GB Presentation (PDF, 500 KB) Moderator: Marco Bravo, EPO Marco Alemán, WIPO Presentation (PDF, 1.2 MB) Tom Hockaday, Technology Transfer Innovation Ltd, GB   Cécile Cavalade, ASTP Alison Campbell, Knowledge Transfer Ireland, IE Mustafa Çakır, Patent Effect, TR
12.00 - 13.00 hrs	Lunch break
Parallel panel sessions
13.00 - 14.00 hrs	Intellectual property management in light of COVID-19 – the way towards a more open sharing IP system Moderator: Peter Dröll, DG Research and Innovation, European Commission Jürgen Bauer, EMBLEM Technology Transfer GmbH, DE Kristine Peers, European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) Marie Louise Conradsen, Aarhus University, DK Geert Boedt, EPO The role of IP valuation in attracting private investment Moderator: Keith Sequeira, EIC and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA) Naoise Gaffney, BUSINESSEUROPE Patents Working Group, IE Dulce Miranda, Deloitte Legal, ES Ilja Rudyk, EPO Špela Stres, Innovation and Technology Transfer Center for the Jožef Stefan Institute, SI Challenges in the face of AI and IP - new dilemmas for the ownership Moderator: Clara Neppel, IEEE Europe Rachel Free, CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP, GB Ulrike Till, WIPO Jaroslav Bláha, CellmatiQ, DE Juha Heikkilä, DG CNECT, European Commission
Closing session
14.00 - 14.15 hrs	PATLIB centres' thoughts Véronique Spannagel, INPI Ile-de-France, Courbevoie, FR José Aguilar, Instituto Pedro Nunes, Coimbra, PT Kath Griffiths, Norfolk Library & Information Service, GB
14.15 - 14.30 hrs	Christoph Ernst, Vice President for Legal and International Affairs, EPO
Wednesday, 19 May 2021
Participation by invitation only – restricted to members of the PATLIB network
Opening session
09.05 - 09.10 hrs	Welcome by Marco Bravo, EPO
09.10 - 09.25 hrs	Introduction to the EPO's PATLIB team
09.25 - 09.40 hrs	Introduction to the new PATLIB Advisory Committee Susanna Kernthaler, EPO
PATLIB centres: services offered and impact
09.40 - 09.50 hrs	PATLIB: a heterogeneous network Edward Cooke, EPO
09.50 - 10.15 hrs	90% of all HW start-ups fail – on a mission to change that Mikael Beving, TOOLSPACE, SE
10.15 - 11.00 hrs	Panel discussion Perspectives from PATLIB centres Moderator: Sven Nytoft Rasmussen, Danish Patent and Trademark Office, DK Ursula Höfermayer, Austrian Patent Office, AT Melanie Rawles, Plymouth Central Library, GB Karin Pichler, Istituto per la promozione dello sviluppo economico, azienda speciale della Camera di commercio di Bolzano, IT Ólöf Vigdís Ragnarsdóttir, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, IS
11.00 - 11.15 hrs	Coffee break
Parallel sessions PATLIB 2.0 – shaping the future together
11.15 - 12.15 hrs	Porto Paper: recommendations 1-2 Moderators: Elizabeth McDonald-Maier, Susanna Kernthaler and Edward Cooke, EPO Michael Fröhlich, EPO Françoise Feuillet, INPI, Délégation Auvergne Rhône-Alpes - Site de Lyon, FR Ana Cariño, Spanish Patent and Trademark Office, ES Sander de Vrieze, PATLIB Centexbel Vlaanderen, Gent, BE Nicolae Dascalescu, Regional Centre for Promotion and Protection of the Industrial Property, Maramures, RO Porto Paper: recommendations 3-4 Moderators: Marco Bravo and Enrico Luzzatto, EPO Veronica Beneitez Pinero, European Commission Roger Hildebrandt, German Patent and Trade Mark Office, DE Philippe Borne, INPI Grand-Est, Strasbourg, FR Sandra Ennas, Sardegna Ricerche, Pula, IT Porto Paper: recommendations 5-7 Moderators: Daniel Shalloe, Ane Urtaza-Chacón and Nuria Nine, EPO Bruno Götz, Bayern Innovativ, Nürnberg, DE Olli Ilmarinen, Finnish Patent and Registration Office, FI Idil Buse Kok Hazer, ODTÜ Technology Transfer Office, Ankara, TR Justyna Duda, Silesian University of Technology, Gliwice, PL
Closing session
12.15 - 12.30 hrs	Wrap-up and next steps Elizabeth McDonald-Maier, Daniel Shalloe and Marco Bravo, EPO

Speakers

Marco Bravo
Marco Bravo is EPO's director of Patent Knowledge Promotion.  He is an expert in innovation, technology transfer, and IP-based commercialisation.

His professional experience crosses industry, academia, government, and entrepreneurship, with extensive cross-cultural in Europe, the United States, and Asia.

As an entrepreneur, Marco has co-founded four companies, with one successful exit, and a business angel fund, and actively mentored 200+ technology start-up companies and entrepreneurs from multiple countries.

Throughout his career, Marco Bravo has published in international peer-reviewed journals and has been distinguished with multiple business and academic awards.

Marco M. Alemán
Marco M. Alemán, studied law at the Javeriana University (J.D., 1991) where he also obtained a Corporate Law Certificate (L.L.M., 1996). He then obtained a Diploma in Advanced Studies (DEA) in Research at the Alcala University (Spain, 2006), and a Ph.D. in Law (2011, Cum Laude).

Mr. Alemán practiced as an IP Attorney from 1991 to 1995. He was then appointed Head of the Colombian Industrial Property Office, from 1995 to 1998, and was invited as a Fellow Visiting Researcher at the Max Planck Institute in Munich, Germany in 1998. He joined the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1999 as Senior Program Officer, Office of Cooperation for Development for Latin America and the Caribbean (from 1999 to 2006). He was then appointed Deputy Director in the Division for Public Policy and Development (from 2006 to 2009), Deputy Director of the Patent Law Division (from 2009 to 2013), and went on to be Director of the Patent Law Division. He currently holds the position of Assistant Director General, leading the IP and Innovation Ecosystem Sector (IES).

Mr. Alemán is the author of The Andean Legal Framework on Trademarks (Bogota, 1994) and co- author of several books, the most recent ones being: Studies in Homage to Mariano Uzcátegui Urdaneta (Caracas, 2011), Bilateral Trade Agreements and Intellectual Property (Heidelberg, 2014), Intellectual Property Study in contemporary issues (Mexico, 2015) and Technology Transactions (Genève/ Zurich 2018, Schulthess Éditions Romandes).

Steffi Jann
Steffi Jann has been working at the Patent and Trade Mark Center (PTMC) in Kiel (Schleswig-Holstein, Northern Germany) since 2000, as a team leader since 2016.The PTMC is an integrated part of the Business Development and Technology Transfer Corporation of Schleswig-Holstein.

She has a professional degree as technician for power plants and a diploma in history but returned from humanities to business and completed a distance learning course in "Patent, Trademark and Design Law" at the Technical University of Berlin in 2012 successfully.

She has also been certified as a Qualified Patent Information Professional (QPIP) since 2019.

In her daily work, she informs small and medium sized companies about the benefits of IPR and supports them in the development of appropriate IP strategies. In addition, she has been conducting training courses directly in companies for many years and organizes events on all IP topics for companies in Schleswig-Holstein. Active participation in national and international networks is extremely important to her team in order to "think outside the box" and expand the possibilities for their customers.

Elizabeth McDonald-Maier
Lisa McDonald-Maier joined the EPO's principal directorate of patent information in 1992.  Over the years she has been heavily involved in the area of training and the PATLIB Network. She was responsible for the patent information content and its implementation of the pilot project to reorient patent information centres which ran from 2010 to 2013. Since 2013 Lisa heads the unit of user support coordination and tools for patent information products and services. Today, Lisa also manages the training and continued development offerings for PATLIB centres within the PATLIB 2.0 project.

Susanna Kernthaler
Susanna Kernthaler has a degree in Law from the University of Vienna. Her professional background is international trade mark law. She joined the EPO two years ago and is part of the PATLIB team.

Telmo Vilela
Telmo Vilela has a degree in Law from the Law School of the University of Minho, in Portugal, and holds postgraduate qualifications in IP and Competition Law, Law and Genetics and Pharmaceutical law.

Mr Vilela began his career as an IP legal adviser at TecMinho and managed the IP office at the University of Minho. He later joined the multinational IP consultancy firm Clarke, Modet & Co, where he opened and managed the company's office at Oporto and the company's Portuguese marketing department.

In 2007 Mr Vilela was appointed a Portuguese Patent and Trademark attorney. In 2009 he joined COTEC, a non-profit association representing the top 100 Portuguese companies, where he worked as IP manager.

In 2010 he was appointed Vice President of the Portuguese Industrial Property Institute (INPI). He was a member of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Office, the Administrative Board of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (today EUIPO) and the Supervisory Board of the European Patent Academy. Mr Vilela also lectured on intellectual property and technology transfer as an invited teacher and lecturer in several Portuguese, European and international universities, such as the University of Minho, the Porto Business School (University of Porto), the New University of Lisbon, the University of Sassari (Italy), and the Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil).

In 2013 he joined the European Patent Office as Administrator of the European Patent Network and in 2015 he was appointed Adviser to the President for Legal, International and Quality Affairs. From February 2018 to June 2019 he was the Director for International Cooperation at the EPO, managing and supervising the bilateral and multilateral co-operation with national, regional and international IP offices and organisations outside of the EPO member states, including the Trilateral and the IP5 Offices and WIPO, as well as the co-operation and external relations with User Groups and Associations.

Mr Vilela has been Principal Director Co-operation and Patent Academy since July 2019, overseeing all EPO's co-operation and external training activities.

Alison Campbell OBE PhD RTTP
Alison is Director of Knowledge Transfer Ireland (KTI), the national office, responsible for policy, practice and the performance of the Irish knowledge & technology transfer (KTT) system.  She's worked in the biotech industry and research and innovation roles, including CEO at Medical Research Council Technology and King's College London. Alison is Past Chair of AUTM and founder and Past Chair of ATTP, the global KTT standards organisation. She is Chair of the European Commission Expert Group on harmonisation of KT metrics. Alison was awarded an OBE in 2010 (UK) in recognition of her contribution to Knowledge Transfer. In 2018 she received the Global University Venturing Lifetime Achievement Award.

Tom Hockaday
Tom Hockaday is an independent technology transfer and innovation consultant with his business Technology Transfer Innovation, and author of 'University Technology Transfer - What It Is and How to Do It' published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2020. Tom has thirty years experience in the university technology transfer sector, working in the UK and around the world, most recently as CEO of Oxford University Innovation Ltd, the University of Oxford's Technology Transfer company from 2006 to March 2016. Tom is currently working on assignments advising universities and governments on Technology Transfer and is on the Investment Committee of three early stage investment Funds in Madrid, Milan and Capetown

Cécile Cavalade
Cécile Cavalade is the current President of ASTP, the European association of Knowledge Transfer (KT) professionals. She has previously served the association as vice-president and chair of the Impact and Survey Committee. Cécile has more than 20 years of experience in supporting public/private research partnerships and projects in Luxembourg and Belgium. In 2013, Cécile entered the KT world at the University of Liège. She is currently Business Development Manager at the Université libre de Bruxelles, in charge of spin-offs creation. She has been involved in the executive boards of several innovation-related entities such as start-ups, science parks or a creative hub.

Cécile has a management and innovation academic background. She is French, living in Belgium and committed in several associations for a more sustainable, multicultural and peaceful world.

Mustafa Çakır
Mustafa Çakır is an industrial engineer with 12 years of experience in University-Industry collaborations, patent portfolio management, patent data analytics, licensing, deep-tech startup programs, market research, and spinoff creation. He has completed practical technology transfer experiences in NIH (National Institutes of Health, USA), UCLB (UK), and Cambridge Enterprise (UK).

He is co-founder of Patenteffect.com, his company providing IP, tech transfer, and startup services. He mainly leads patent data analytics services, patent portfolio management, patent licensing, start-up acceleration programs, and commercialisation services for IP-based spinoff companies.

Until recently, he worked at Sabanci University TTO as Patent Attorney and Ege University EBILTEM-TTO as IPR and Licensing Unit Manager for patent portfolio management, technology transfer, and entrepreneurship services. He is also acting General Secretary at LES Turkey.

QPIP: Qualified patent information professional
RTTP: Registered Technology Transfer Professional

Peter Dröll

Peter has been working in the European Commission for more than 20 years with positions in environment, enlargement negotiations, industry policy, innovation and research. He was a Cabinet member of Enlargement Commissioner Günter Verheugen and Head of Cabinet of the Science and Research Commissioner Janez Potočnik.

Since 2010 he is at Directorate-General Research and Innovation where he was first responsible for Innovation then for Industrial Technologies. Following the re-orientation of DG Research and Innovation towards sustainability, his competences have been enlarged to include industrial R&I agendas and business intelligence as well as knowledge valorisation policies.

Before joining the European Commission in 1991, Peter worked as a lawyer in a German law firm. Peter is a lawyer by training with a doctorate degree in German constitutional law and European law.

Jürgen Bauer
After spending four years as a research scientist at the Nestlé Research Center in Lausanne, Dr. Bauer joined the R&D Center of Lesaffre International, the world leader in the baker's yeast market, where he was Head of the Molecular Biology and Genetics Team. In 2000 he joined Axaron Bioscience AG in Heidelberg, a joint venture of BASF and Lynx Therapeutics from where he moved on to Gentana GmbH, a biotech company providing gene expression analysis services based on its proprietary technology platform.

After acting as CEO of Gentana for two years, Dr. Bauer joined EMBL Enterprise Management Technology Transfer GmbH, a 100% subsidiary of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory as Business Development Manager. As of May 2011, he was appointed as Deputy Managing Director of EMBLEM and responsible for Business Development.

Dr. Bauer is alumnus of the Chemical Industry Fund within the German Chemical Industry Association and the St. Gallen Business School. He serves as board member of different companies, associations and consortia.

Dr. Bauer is a graduate of Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt (Biology) and holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology.  

Kristine Peers
Kristine Peers is General Counsel at the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA). She is a strong advocate for intellectual property which has the power to bring about vital medical innovation, creates access to new treatments, and supports people's lives and their livelihoods. 

Kristine builds on a career combining legal expertise with public policy and government relations. She has worked in various legal and corporate affairs functions at Belgian, European and global level with GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer. Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, Kristine practiced at

the Belgian Bar. She graduated in law from Leuven University, Belgium, and obtained a post graduate qualification in European Law at the European University Centre in Nancy, France, where she was also visiting lecturer teaching European regulations of medicinal products to health professionals. Throughout her career she had several legal, business and leadership trainings including at INSEAD and NYU Stern. She is co-founder of the Brussels Pharma Law Group.

Marie Louise Conradsen
Marie Louise Conradsen is Head of Open Science at Aarhus University.

Since 2016, she has developed the university's practice of using open science as a new model for IP-free industry collaboration - within several research areas. She now leads the university's largest open platform, the ODIN initiative.

Marie Louise is also part of several international research projects that aims to map the anatomy of open collaborations and explore the link between openness and commercialisation. She has a strong interest in need-driven and research-driven innovation, which she has worked with in both academia and as chief consultant in the private sector. She holds a PhD from Copenhagen Business School and a MSc in Molecular Biology and The History of Science from Aarhus University.

Geert Boedt
Geert Boedt is a business analyst and holds a degree in applied informatics. Having worked for more than 10 years with various EPO patent information products and in particular the PATSTAT database, he knows the ins and outs on how to use patent data to the fullest. Transforming patent data into business knowledge is his daily work.

Keith Sequeira
Before his appointment as the head of unit responsible of the EIC Board, Strategy and EA Feedback to Policy at the recently established European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA), Keith was the head of the governance and coordination unit at the European Innovation Council taskforce. He has been a member of the cabinets of two European Commissioners for research, Carlos Moedas and Maire Georghegan-Quinn. Keith has a background in physics and innovation studies and has worked at European and national level as well as the private sector on innovation strategies, programmes and projects. 

Naoise Gaffney
Naoise is Chair of the of the IP Group at Ibec (the Irish Business Employers' Confederation) and a member of the BUSINESSEUROPE Patents Working Group. He is a European, UK and Irish Patent attorney, a US Patent Agent and an EU Trademark & Design Attorney. He is a member of the adjunct faculty at Trinity College Dublin, where he teaches International Patent Law to LLM students and founder of Start-Ed, a support initiative for SMEs and entrepreneurs that helps them understand legal issues relevant to their business. He is Head of Patent Development for Intellectual Ventures' Invention Investment Funds where he oversees one of the world's largest patent portfolios.

Dulce Miranda
Professional career

• Dulce joined Deloitte in 2015. She is partner of the Digital Law practice of Deloitte legal in Spain.

Major projects

• She specialises in IT, intellectual property and data protection.
• She was appointed by the European Commission (DG Research & Innovation) as a member of the group of independent experts to work on a report on intellectual property valuation.
• Dulce has provided legal advice on IP disputes, primarily in the fields of patents, trade marks, copyright and unfair competition.
• She is an expert in contacting related to IP rights (licence agreements, assignments, research and development agreements, NDA, MTAs, etc.).
• Legal protection of trade secrets.
• Specialist in copyright, basically in software licensing and in the media sector (coproduction agreements, etc.) She provides advice on the legal aspects of taxation of intangibles (patent boxes, advice to comply with BEPS requirements).
• Dulce also specialises in legal issues relating to information technologies and data protection, implementation of GDPR requirements, international transfers of data, data breaches, cybersecurity, etc.

Educational and professional background

• Graduate in Law from San Pablo CEU University, Madrid (Spain).

Other relevant information

• Singled out as a leading lawyer in Intellectual Property and Life Sciences by the most important directories, including Chambers & Partners, Legal 500, Best Lawyers.
• Co-author of various books and manuals, such as: "Comments and Concordances on the Safeguards for and the Rational Use of Medicinal Products and Medical Devices", (Ed.Marcial Pons); "Drafting Agreements in the Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industries", (Ed. Oxford University Press); "Exhaustion of patent rights in ECJ case law ", Ed. AIPPI; "Disruptive technologies" Ed. Aranzadi.
• Member of AIPPI
• Speaker at various in-house and external seminars

Ilja Rudyk
Ilja is a core member of the Chief Economist Unit of the EPO. He has co-authored several studies on the role of patents and technology for the European economy. He provides expert economic insight into issues relating to innovation and technology commercialisation.

Clara Neppel
As the European head of the world's largest technical professional organization, Dr Clara Neppel is responsible for the growth of IEEE's operations and presence in Europe. These focus on the needs of industry, academia, and government. She serves as a point of contact for initiatives with regard to technology, engineering, and related public policy issues. She is dedicated to supporting and advancing human-centric and sustainable innovation. She contributes to issues regarding the technology policy of several international organisations, such as the OECD, European Commission, and Parliament or the Council of Europe. She is involved in efforts related to emerging technologies, entrepreneurship, education, as well as societal implications of technology.

Rachel Free
Rachel Free is a partner at international law firm CMS and a UK and European patent attorney with an MSc in Artificial Intelligence and a DPhil in vision science. She is a member of the House of Lords all party parliamentary group on AI which advises parliamentarians about AI and an independent advisory board member of the University of Bath Centre for Doctoral Training on accountable, responsible, transparent AI.

Jaroslav Blàha
As a technologist and computer science expert at heart, Jaroslav Bláha has 30 years of experience in leading-edge innovation. He has led world-wide strategic initiatives and organisations, amongst others as NATO Chief Architect in Belgium, Chief System Design for ThalesRaytheonSystems in France, as global program manager for logistic systems at DB Schenker, as CIO of the Swiss electrical grid, and as global CIO/CTO for Solera Holdings in the US. In 2018, he co-founded CellmatiQ with the goal of advancing AI-based image analysis in healthcare (and beyond). Since 2019, CellmatiQ commercially offers a certified AI-based medical image analysis system; a respective patent has been applied for. He participated in the development of the first German autonomous vehicle in 1987 and developed his first AI in 1995.

Juha Heikkilä
Juha Heikkilä has been a Head of Unit in the European Commission Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology since 2014, developing and managing the Commission activities and policies in artificial intelligence and robotics. The Commission has been funding a multidisciplinary research and innovation programme on cognitive systems, robotics and AI since 2004. Before joining the Commission, Juha Heikkilä was involved in computational linguistic research at the University of Helsinki, and he has a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Cambridge.

Véronique Spannagel
Véronique Spannagel has been Director of the network of regional delegations of INPI since 2017. The network, composed of 12 regional branches, contributes to the structuration and efficiency of the French innovation ecosystem by initiating actions and implementing numerous tools to support innovators. The main objective of the network is to create awareness amongst all economic actors, and in particular SMEs and start-ups, in order to increase the level of protection and defense of their intangible assets, and to foster the development of IP strategies.

Véronique makes sure that all stakeholders are dedicated to IP and encourages the territorial actors to develop IP protection, thanks to the signature of cooperation agreements with all regional actors (Regional authorities, Incubators, Competitiveness Clusters, Universities,...) and to the implementation of tools like Alliance PI, for technical centers and competitiveness clusters, which is aimed at fostering public and private partnerships.

Véronique is a chemical engineer, whose primary career focus was on the development of Patent Databases. Since 2005, Véronique has been highly involved in SME Awareness and support on all IP matters, initially as Regional INPI Delegate in Lorraine, then in the Eastern Region of France, before becoming Inter-regional Delegate for the North-East part of France.

In 2020, INPI French regional network organized more than 11 700 meetings with companies, amongst which 3 000 start-ups, and nearly 5 000 visits in SME premises to discuss IP protection, combined to more than 700 high value services provided to SMEs and start-ups (dedicated coachings, financial support,...).

José Agulilar
José Ricardo Aguilar is part of the Knowledge and Valorisation Department of Instituto Pedro Nunes (IPN), a private non-profit association for the promotion of applied research, entrepreneurship and incubation of tech-based start-up companies headquartered in Coimbra, Portugal.

His daily job since 2002 is to promote the use of the IP system by the IPN´s innovation ecosystem, namely assisting researchers and entrepreneurs on the fundamentals of IP an tech transfer. Within this context, IPN is also an EPO PATLIB Center, providing relevant information on patent information to the aforementioned publics.

On top of this work, since 2011 José is also invited lecturer on Universidade de Coimbra School of Pharmacy, teaching IP to graduates and master students, also with regular intervention as trainer and lecturer, in specific training programs, graduate and post-graduate studies.

Since 2018, member of the EPO - European Patent Office Standing Advisory Committee on Patent Information and Documentation.

Since 2019, member of the EUIPO - European Intellectual Property Office Observatory SME Expert Group.

Since 2019, member of the EARTO - European Association of Research and Technology Organizations Legal Experts Working Group.

He´s also responsible for the legal support to ESA Space Solutions Portugal hosted by IPN and researcher on SPARC - Space Law Research Center at Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

Kath Griffiths

Kath is a qualified librarian with over 20 years' library experience having worked as a Locality Manager for Norfolk Library & Information for the past 8 years. She is responsible for service delivery and development in six libraries including the Library Service's flagship library in Norwich.

She leads on Business Information for the county and has rolled out four Business & IP Centres across the county with three to come in June. Each of these centres has staff trained to deliver IP support.

She is a previous Secretary and Chair of the UK PATLIB network.

Christoph Ernst
Christoph Ernst worked for several years as an attorney-at-law and held leadership positions at the German Federal Ministry of Justice for over two decades, first as chief of division and then as head of the Directorate responsible for Intellectual Property. A range of sophisticated legislative projects have been successfully concluded under his supervision and leadership, starting with rules on financial markets and moving on to intellectual property, with legislation on patent and copyright law and acts to prepare and implement the Unitary Patent and the EU Trade Mark Directive. During his tenure in the Ministry, he was also responsible for personnel leadership and organisational matters, including a period of major structural and organisational changes affecting staff.

Since 1997 he has been active in various capacities at the international level, in particular, from 2010 as head of Germany's delegation to the Management Board of EUIPO and to the General Assembly of WIPO. He was the Head of the German delegation to the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation from 2010, member of Board 28 from 2012, and Chairman of the Administrative Council in 2017 and 2018. From 2015 to 2017 he was Chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee.

He is the author of a number of publications and articles and a key speaker at international conferences.

As of 1 January 2019, he is the Vice-President Legal and International Affairs of the European Patent Office. In this capacity, he is in charge of International Cooperation with IP Offices and stakeholders inside and outside Europe, Patent Information, Patent Knowledge and Legal Affairs. As a member of the Top Management Team, he is also involved in a broad range of strategic matters.

Edward Cooke
Edward has been an EPO patent examiner since 2006 and member of the opposition directorate since 2018. He has a genuine passion for intellectual property and completed a Master of Laws in intellectual property in 2019.

Sven Nytoft Rasmussen
Sven is a senior patent examiner at the Danish Patent and Trademark Office, deeply involved in PATLIB activities, performing patent literature searches for private inventors and SMEs. Sven is a member of EPO's transitional PATLIB Committee.

Karin Pichler
Karin Pichler is a member of the Patlib Bolzano/Bozen, located in Northern Italy. She has a degree in economics and a law degree. After successfully passing her bar exam in 2012, she started working in the Chamber of Commerce Bolzano/Bozen. Her main tasks are advising SMEs on IPR, especially trademarks, as well as general legal advice.

Olöf Vigdis Ragnarsdottir
Ólöf Vigdís Ragnarsdóttir is an Innovation Manager at the University of Iceland and its Patlib centre. Previously, Olof worked as an Investment Manager at the New Business Venture Fund, as a lawyer and an adviser for the IP committee of the University of Iceland and National hospital in technology transfer, IPRs and Agreements, and as an lawyer and head of division at the Icelandic Patent Office.  Olof graduated as a lawyer from the University of Iceland in 2001, completed her studies in marketing and international affairs in 2006 and MS in Project Management from the University of Iceland in 2019.

Ana Cariño
Ana Cariño Fraisse, started working as a Lawyer at the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (SPTO) in 2001. After 3 years, in the Dissemination and Communication Area she performs different activities like the organization of IP dissemination activities, participates in IP events, news writing, press releases...etc

Since 2012 she is technical adviser by the Director Support Unit of SPTO. Among other tasks, she coordinates the Spanish Industrial Property Regional Centers Network, (Spanish Patlib Centers).

Michael Fröhlich
Michael Fröhlich is the Director of European and International Legal Affairs, PCT at the European Patent Office. He is a fully qualified German lawyer with a magister legum and a Ph.D. in intellectual property.

Serving in increasingly responsible positions in the area of IP since over twenty years, he is overseeing a team of lawyers and paralegals supporting key policy projects of the EPO by developing, enhancing and promoting the legal framework of the European and international patent system, including the PCT.

Prior to joining the EPO, Michael was the Senior Director, EU IP & Strategy at BlackBerry, where he was responsible for the company's IP affairs in Europe and the management of a range of global strategic matters in the context of standard-setting initiatives, patent licensing, and litigation. Previously, Michael worked as Senior Legal Counsel at Nokia, where he helped defining Nokia's patents and standards position. He also headed the Legal Affairs department at the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), where he has been shaping ETSI's IPR Policy. Before joining ETSI, Michael 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 shows work experience in Brazil, where he was active for Dannemann Siemsen Advogados.

Michael served many years as the Chairman of the AIPPI Committee on Patents & Standard, as the Vice-Chairman of the GSMA IPR Working Group, and as the Vice-Chairman of the LES Publication Committee.

Françoise Feuillet
Françoise has a master's degree in intellectual property and the management of innovation. A first nine-year job experience in the IP Department of a SME provided her with in-depth knowledge of the protection of innovation and IP practices in a business context. She then joined INPI regional branch office in Lyon where her main activities consist in promoting IP and supporting stakeholders in their IP strategy thanks to tailored services such as, IP prediagnosis, IP masterclass or start-up support programmes. INPI Patlib Centre in Lyon addresses the local network of education, academic research, incubators, start-ups and mid-size or mid-cap companies. 

Sander de Vrieze
Sander de Vrieze,PhD in Science and Engineering, Materials Science and Textile Technology. Master of Science and Engineering in Materials Science and Textile Engineering. Inventor.

He works in the PATLIB center Centexbel in Belgium since 2010 as an IP advisor. Yearly, he tackles around 200 questions coming in from Belgian (textile) companies related to mostly patents.

Nicolae Dascalescu
In his position as President of the CDIMM Foundation (Small and Medium Size Enterprises Development Center Maramures), the host organisation of the PATLIB Maramures Center, Nicolae  coordinates its activities since 1999 when it was established through an Agreement with the Romanian National Patent Office (OSIM).

 As regarding EPO, he had the privilege to be a member of the PATLIB Committee from 2014-2016 and was involved in several panel discussions during the breakout sessions of the PATLIB Conferences.

Enrico Luzzatto
Enrico Luzzatto studied chemistry in Rome, university "La Sapienza". He joined the EPO in 1989 and in 1998 passed the European Qualifying Examination. He became operational director in 2010 and was also active in the training of EPO examiners and has given a number of lectures on patenting and procedural matters.

In January 2018 joined the European Patent Academy as Senior Advisor and as of January 2020 works in the principal directorate Patent Knowledge.

Veronica Beneitez
Veronica Beneitez is policy officer at the directorate of Research and Innovation in the European Commission. She has 20 years of experience in research management, especially in intellectual property aspects related to technology transfer of science-based ventures.

Roger Hildebrandt
Roger A. Hildebrandt has been working at the German Patent and Trade Mark Office since 2008. His main activities include coordinating the cooperation with the German patent information centers and business support organizations, as well as the management of the German part of various EU co-financed IP-related projects, such as IPeuropAware, IPorta, InnovAccess, VIP4SME, IPA4SME, etc. He has a master's degree in natural sciences and is holder of the IP Panorama Diploma as well as EquIP Certificate. He is a lecturer and speaker on IP at DPMA, European Patent Office (EPO), World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and European Academy Berlin, University of Applied sciences SRH, HTW, HWR, BBW for many years and alumnus of the KIPA/KAIST/WIPO IP academy. Roger A. Hildebrandt is also a registered expert for Intellectual Property in the technical assistance and information exchange instrument (TAIEX) program of the European Commission and a member of the GROUP OF EXPERTS ON THE ENFORCEMENT OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS of the DG for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs. He is currently member of the ECP 6 (supporting SME) working group of the European Intellectual property Office. Since 2015 he is a member of the Jury and Coach for the Berlin/Brandenburg Business Plan Award, BPW. Prior to joining the DPMA, he was founder of a consulting firm specializing in business and regional development and was involved as strategy consultant in various assignments for European municipalities and international donor organizations, among other for the Instrument for Pre-Accession (IPA) at INTERACT secretariat in Vienna.

Philippe Borne

Philippe Borne is head of the INPI branch office in Strasbourg. Qualified as a pharmaceutical doctor, he joined INPI in 1986 to participate to the design of the Pharmsearch pharmaceutical patent database, a project also involving the Questel-Orbit and Derwent companies. This permitted him to get in close contact with the patent information professionals from the major pharma/chemistry companies in Europe, especially Germany, and in the US. Philippe later became deputy manager of the INPI IP search service, before joining in 2008 the regional branch department of INPI. His main task consists in raising awareness of businesses, especially SMEs, about intellectual property and to get them to implement an active IP policy. Patent information is one of the subject he has to monitor as part of its activities.

Philippe is member of the French speaking patent information user group (CFIB).

Sandra Ennas

Sandra Ennas is an Electrical Engineer, manager of the Transfer and Technology sector in Sardegna Ricerche, the regional Agency for Innovation in Sardegna (Italy) and manager of the Sardegna Ricerche Patlib Center. She has 25 years' professional experience in the field.

Bruno Götz
Bruno Götz studied materials engineering at the Nuremberg University of Applied Sciences. He has been at the PATLIB Centre Nuremberg since 1990 and has headed the department since 2002. Bruno Götz has a teaching position at the Ostbayerische Technische Hochschule Amberg-Weiden on the subject of "patent data management" and gives guest lectures at several Bavarian universities. He is co-author of the study "Patent-based Instruments for Strategic Technology and Innovation Management".

Olli Ilmarinen
Olli joined the Finnish Patent and Registration Office (PRH) in 2006. Since then he has worked on service development & marketing, stakeholder cooperation and communication as well as managed various trainings and events.

Olli was a member of the PATLIB Advisory Committee in 2014-2017. He is also a long time board member and currently the vice president of Finnish Knowledge Management Association.

Prior to PRH, he has worked as a project manager, consultant and trainer in private enterprises.

Idil Buse Kok Hazer
Idil Buse Kok Hazer, attorney at law, registered technology transfer professional (RTTP) and chartered patent attorney, is the director of Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ) Technology Transfer Office. She is also one of the IP Ambassadors of the European IP Helpdesk. She has more than 13 year's expertise in technology transfer, commercialisation of IP, managing the IP portfolio development and management, litigation, patent valuation and strategic opinion.

Justyna Duda
Justyna Duda started her IP career in 2004. Patent attorney and professional representative before EUIPO since 2008. Master of Law and mechanical engineer. She was working 8 years as a lawyer for private enterprises in fuel and steel industry, before she joined university staff. Since 2010 patent attorney of Silesian University of Technology (SUT) in Gliwice in Poland and IP adviser of Patlib Centre. Working with inventors and scientists on technical solutions and identification of IP objects created in research projects, drafting and filing patent applications before patent offices, conducting patent proceedings, patent searching, is her daily work. Involved in activity of Incubation and Technology Transfer Centre of SUT, she has gained over 10 years practical experience in technology transfer, patent licensing, negotiating contracts with domestic and foreign entities.  

Since 2014 also an expert of intellectual property rights for enterprises within European Enterprise Network at Upper Silesian Fund in Katowice.  IP trainer and adviser for private enterprises and lecturer of SUT.  

She is acting an arbitrator by Chamber of Commerce and Industry.