IP Corporate Strategy Summit 2020

The Hon Mr Justic Birss

Judge, High Court of Justice for England and Wales

Colin Birss is a judge of the High Court of England and Wales.  He was called to the English Bar in 1990 and practiced in intellectual property law.  He was appointed Standing Counsel for the Comptroller 2003-2008 and took silk in 2008.  In 2010 he was appointed judge of the Patents County Court (now Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC)).  In 2013 Colin Birss was appointed to the High Court, Chancery Division.  He is the Judge in Charge of the Patents Court. 

Colin Birss is also a member of the Civil Procedure Rules Committee and chairs the Judicial Digital Steering Committee.  He served as Supervising Judge for the Business and Property Courts on the Midlands, Western and Wales Circuits from 2017-2019.  He is an independent judicial member of the EPO Boards of Appeal Committee and serves on the Advisory Board of Judges for the WIPO Judicial Institute.  He is also General Editor of Terrell on the Law of Patents and a Council member of the UK Foundation for Science and Technology.

 Speaking session 

Keynote address: Resolviing global IP disputes - the role of the courts

September 10 - 09.55 BST

Gordon Harris

Partner,, Gowling WLG

Biography coming soon.

 Speaking session 

COVID-19 - what have we learnt about IP?

September 10 - 10.30 BST

Rob Calico

Vice president, IP & litigation, ARM

Biography coming soon.

 Speaking session 

Portfolio optimisation

September 10 - 15.30 BST

Calum Smyth

Partner, Wiggin

Biography coming soon.

 Speaking session 

Strategic Industry focus breakout discussions

September 11 - 15.00 BST

Adeline-Fleur Fleming

Senior managing counsel, Mastercard

Biography coming soon.

 Speaking session 

Global considerations for maintaining and protecting your trade secrets

September 10 - 14.00 BST

Sarah Guichard

Lead patent counsel, Google

Biography coming soon.

 Speaking session 

Portfolio optimisation

September 11 - 15.30 BST

Bowman Heiden

Co-director of the center for intellectual property, University of Gothenburg

Biography coming soon.

 Speaking session 

Keynote address: The economics of IP - 5G, SEPs

September 11 - 10.05 BST

Guido Gielen

Technical director, International Automobile Federation (FIA)

Biography coming soon.

 Speaking session 

Clean and green: sustainable IP

September 11 - 11.45 BST

Frank Landolt

Chief counsel, Confo Therapeutics

Frank Landolt is Chief Counsel, Intellectual Property and Legal at Confo Therapeutics, a privately held biopharmaceutical start-up based in Ghent, Belgium specializing in GPCR-targeted therapeutics.

Prior to joining Confo in 2018, Frank worked for fifteen years at Ablynx N.V. (now a Sanofi company), where he was a member of the management team and headed an integrated IP and legal group of four lawyers and five patent professionals. At Ablynx, Frank was responsible for overall IP strategy and involved in negotiating Ablynx’s partnerships deals, including those with AbbVie, Boehringer-Ingelheim, MSD, Merck-Serono, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi and Wyeth.

Before Ablynx, Frank was director of IP and legal counsel at Devgen N.V. (now part of Syngenta), another Ghent-based biotechnology company, where he was involved in negotiating Devgen’s partnerships with Sumitomo, Monsanto and DuPont Pioneer.

Frank started his career in private practice in the Netherlands, where his clients included major pharmaceutical companies as well as some of the top biotech firms and research institutions in the Netherlands.

Frank is a Dutch and European patent attorney, and also holds degrees chemistry (Leiden University), contract law (Leiden University) and business law (University of Antwerp). He is a member of the Dutch association of patent attorneys (where he is a tutor for the professional qualification course), EPI and LES Benelux (where he is involved in the LES Licensing Course). He is a regular speaker on a range of topics relating to IP and licensing in the (bio)pharmaceutical sector. Frank was named as one of Managing IP’s ‘Corporate IP stars’ for five years in a row (2015-2019).

Frank is also the founder and principal of Aquilexis BVBA, a legal advisory firm specializing in technology protection and transfer.

 Speaking session 

Aligning IP strategy with corporate strategy

September 11 - 13.30 BST

Charlotta Ljungdahl

Group vice president, IP, Air Lquide

Biography coming soon.

 Speaking session 

Aligning IP strategy with corporate strategy

September 11 - 13.30 BST

Sumati Parikh

Global head of intellectual property, Smiths Detection

Biography coming soon.

 Speaking session 

Aligning IP strategy with corporate strategy

September 11 - 13.30 BST

Michel Rorai

Lead global trademark counsel, Unilever

Michel Rorai is a lead global trademark counsel of Unilever, one of the largest trademark owners in the world and known for brands such as such as Dove, Magnum, Lipton, Hellmann’s and Surf. Based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Rorai is responsible for the management, protection and enforcement of the trademark and domain name portfolio of Unilever’s foods & refreshment division.

Prior to his 12 year career at Unilever, Rorai worked as a qualified attorney at law at a Dutch IP boutique firm and subsequently as a certified Dutch and European trademark attorney at one of Europe’s largest IP consultancy firms.

Rorai is a board member of the Benelux Association of Trademark Attorneys (BMM) that serves the interests of over 700 IP attorneys. Furthermore, he is a tutor in the professional education program of the BMM, regular speaker at international IP conferences and active member of INTA, AIM and BMM.

In 2020, Rorai was identified as one of the world’s leading in-house trademark professionals by WTR in their WTR300 list.

 Speaking session 

COVID-19 - what have we learnt about IP?

September 10 - 10.30 BST

Natasha Shilling

Senior legal counsel, Vodafone

Natasza is an in-house lawyer at Vodafone Group and has broad experience in commercial and intellectual property, working in these sectors both in private practice and in-house for global companies (Caterpillar Inc., Sony Music and Vodafone Group).

She is responsible for all intellectual property matters relating to Vodafone’s brand including overseeing clearance of product names, devising global trade mark filing strategies, managing over 300 intellectual property litigation matters worldwide, brand protection/enforcement and licensing. Additionally, Natasza advises on Vodafone’s commercial activities including global advertising campaigns, advertising/marketing clearance, social media and drafting terms and conditions. Natasza also works on M&A deals and recently acted as lead IP counsel for Vodafone’s £16bn acquisition of Liberty Global’ s European assets.

 Speaking session 

COVID-19: What have we learnt about IP?

September 10 - 10.30 BST

James Sullivan

Head of legal, Monzo

James is head of legal at Monzo, overseeing a multi-disciplinary legal team. He has over 10 years' in GC/head of legal & compliance positions, and has also held COO and MD roles.

With a career spanning over 20 years, much of which has been spent working in multinational organisations, he has experience in FinTech, banking, investment management, crowdfunding, and telecoms. As well as being a solicitor, Sullivan holds an executive MBA from Cass Business School and a diploma in UK, EU & US Copyright Law from King's College London.

 Speaking session 

Strategic Industry focus breakout discussions

September 11 - 15.00 BST

Nigel Swycher

CEO, Cipher

Biography coming soon.

 Speaking session 

Portfolio optimisation

September 10 - 15.30 BST

Frank Tietze

Head, IIPM lab, University of Cambridge

Frank Tietze is a lecturer with the department of engineering, institute for manufacturing at the University of Cambridge. Within the centre for technology management, he heads the innovation and intellectual property management (IIPM) laboratory, a research group that conduct engineering management research on the role of IP in innovation processes and systems. Dr. Tietze is a steering group member of Cambridge Global Challenges and the Open COVID Pledge. He is affiliated to the Cambridge Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Law and a member of the Innovation and the Intellectual Property Research Group, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden.

Dr. Tietze is a departmental editor for IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, an editorial board member of the World Patent Information, and an editorial review board member of LES Nouvelles.

 Speaking session 

COVID-19 - what have we learnt about IP?

September 10 - 10.30 BST

Zeeger Vink

Intellectual property director, MF Brands

Biography coming soon.

 Speaking session 

Aligning IP strategy with corporate strategy

September 11 - 13.30 BST

James Graham

Associate general counsel, trademarks, Coty

James Graham is the Associate General Counsel, Trademarks at Coty.  He has been in this role since March 2020  with responsibility for trademark and other IP matters for the Luxury Division of one of the world’s leading beauty companies.  Previously he was the Vice President, Chief IP Counsel at Johnson Controls a Fortune Global 500 company in the industrial sector where he worked for 14 years. 

He is a UK qualified lawyer with extensive experience of international trademark, patent, design, copyright and commercial intellectual property matters both in house and in private practice.

 Speaking session 

Global considerations for maintaining and protecting your trade secrets

September 10 - 14.00 BST

Matt McBrien

Head of patents, BAE Systems

Biography coming soon.

 Speaking session 

Portfolio optimisation

September 11 - 15.30 BST

Cassandra Derham

Senior IP attorney, head of IP technical, Amadeus

Biography coming soon.

 Speaking session 

COVID-19 - what have we learnt about IP?

September 10 - 10.30 BST

Anjanette Lecher

Director, intellectual asset management, Corning Incorporated

Biography coming soon.

 Speaking session 

Aligning IP strategy with corporate strategy

September 11 - 13.30 BST

Maaike van Velzen

Head of IP portfolio management, Philips

Biography coming soon.

 Speaking session 

Strategic Industry focus breakout discussions

September 11 - 15.00 BST

Jyoti Uppuluri

Associate general counsel, patents, Facebook

Biography coming soon.

 Speaking session 

Diversity in innovation - fireside chat

September 10 - 12.00 BST

Panagiota Dafniotis

Partner, Dentons

Panagiota is the National Lead of Dentons Canada Intellectual Property group. She is an advisor and strategist with a practical mind-set and deep experience working with clients ranging from start-ups to global corporations on the development and implementation of integrated IP strategies covering all aspects of the IP lifecycle: to develop frameworks and governance for the protection of innovation in the context of clients’ commercial objectives.

Panagiota advises in all areas of intellectual property law, including patents, trademarks, trade secrets, branding, copyright, marketing and sponsorship, IP support in M&A and corporate commercial transactions as well as IP disputes.. She helps her clients identify, protect, mitigate, and manage key IP risks and opportunities across their businesses globally in a holistic and strategic manner. Her work includes the development and management of an IP portfolio, IP clearance, implementation of IP protection processes, commercialization and monetization models, deploying IP mining strategies, developing education and policies, inventor recognition programs, supporting digital transformation, and advising on strategic partnerships, co-development and technology collaboration with start-ups, working with research and academic institutions and allocation of IP ownership with third parties and employees.

Panagiota has also been an IP lead in legal working groups at the Canadian Bankers Association and the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association, submissions to the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions and the Canadian Competition Bureau and R3, a Global Blockchain Consortium on financial services industry-related IP issues.

Prior to joining Dentons, Panagiota was Assistant General Counsel and Head of the Intellectual Property, Sponsorship & Marketing at a major global financial institution in Canada as where she spent the last 20 years of her career in progressively senior roles.

 Speaking session 

Global considerations for maintaining and protecting your trade secrets

September 10 - 14.00 BST

Jason Skinder

Chief intellectual property counsel (connected enterprise), Honeywell

Jason Skinder is the chief IP counsel for Honeywell Connected Enterprise, a division offering SaaS solutions across Honeywell’s aerospace, buildings and industrials portfolios, providing global strategy for litigation, trade secret protection, portfolio development and open source issues. He has been in-house for more than half his career: also serving as global patent counsel for Aptiv’s autonomous vehicle effort, at Apple developing and defending its user interface portfolio and Walker Digital developing a portfolio of gaming and business method assets.

Having survived the “smartphone wars”, Skinder’s expertise lies in developing global strategies to protect intellectual property in a cost-effective, flexible and unassailable manner.

As well as being registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, he holds an electrical engineering and computer science degree from University of Michigan, degrees in biochemistry and history from U.C. San Diego and a J.D. from University of Illinois.

 Speaking session 

Strategic industry focus

September 11 - 15.00 BST

David Carr

Programme manager for open reach, Wellcome Trust

David Carr is Programme Manager for Open Research at the Wellcome Trust, and helps to drive Wellcome’s efforts to maximise the availability and use of research outputs (including data, publications, software and materials), in ways that will enrich the research enterprise and accelerate the delivery of health benefits. Prior to this, David was a Policy Adviser at Wellcome where he led on work to develop and communicate Wellcome’s policy in several areas, including research data sharing, open access publishing, biosecurity and genetics. Through his work, he has played a key role in shaping Wellcome’s policies as a funder and in taking forward work in partnership with others to support and champion open research. 

 Speaking session 

COVID-19 - what have we learnt about IP?

September 10 - 10.30 BST

Parminder Lally

Senior associate, Appleyard Lees

Biography coming soon.

 Speaking session 

Global considerations for maintaining and protecting your trade secrets

September 10 - 14.00 BST