Patents and Standards 2026

08:30 Registration and networking breakfast

09:00 Welcome and Introduction

09:05 PANEL 1: What assistance can SSOs give in resolving FRAND disputes?
Moderator: Katie Coltart, Linklaters LLP

1. Magali Fitzgibbon, ETSI
2. Jorge Contreras, University of Utah
3. Nina Belbl, WIPO
4. Manveen Singh, Jindal Global Law School (JGLS)
    

10:05 PANEL 2: Getting to FRAND – Resolving FRAND Disputes – Is there a better way?
Moderator: James Marshall - Pinsent Mason

1. Ales Zalar, PMAC
2. Julia Zhu, Oppo
3. Julia C Mattis, InterDigital
4. Thomas Dreiser, Huawei 
    

11:05               Refreshments 
 

11:35 PANEL 3: The way forward after the Commission and UKIPO proposals
Moderator: Otto Licks, Licks Attorneys

1. Steve Faraji, Head of Litigation, Licenses, Brand Protection, Volkswagen AG
2. Carmen Lembo, Senior Manager for Government Affairs, Qualcomm
3. Monica Magnusson, Ericsson
4. Rebekka Porath, Innovators Network
    

12:35 KEYNOTE 1: Nokia
Dr Clemens Heusch Vice-President, Global Head of Dispute Resolution
 

13:00               Lunch
 

14:00 PANEL 4: Licensing Streaming Standards
Moderator: Robert Rodrigues, RNA Law

1. Vera Wang, Tencent
2. Judy Yee, Avanci
3. Clemens Heusch, Nokia
4. Ashleigh Landis, Warner Bros. Discovery
5. Scott Hayden, Amazon
    

15:00 FIRESIDE CHAT: Ericsson
Christina Petersson, Chief Intellectual Property Officer, in conversation with Professor Sir Robin Jacob
 

15:30               Refreshments
 

16:00 PANEL 5: Valuing a Portfolio and Assessing FRAND 
Moderator: Saya Choudhary Kapur, Singh & Singh Law Firm LLP

1. Pekka Sääskilahti, Compass Lexecon
2. Brian Napper, Ocean Tomo
3. Benno Buehler, CRA
4. Kirti Gupta, Cornerstone 
    

17:00 PANEL 6: Does the ecosystem work for rookie licensees, SMEs and other?
Moderator: Luke McLeroy: LFM Firm

1. Robert Pocknell, Fair Standards Alliance
2. Heike Wollgast, WIPO
3. Bowman Heiden, Center for Intellectual Property (CIP), University of Gothenburg
4. Lawrence Archard, Factoree
    

18:00               Drinks Reception

19:30               Day one ends

08:30 Registration and breakfast
 

09:00 PANEL 7: Are Courts in Danger of Overreaching?
Moderator: Gary Moss,  EIP

1. Lars Meinhard, the Presiding Judge of the Higher Regional Court Munich
2. The Rt Hon Lord Justice Arnold, Court of Appeal of England & Wales
3. The Rt Hon Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury, former President, United Kingdom Supreme Court; Arbitrator, One Essex Court 
    

10:00 PANEL 8: Hot Topics  
Moderator: Daniel Lim - Kirkland & Ellis International

1. Le Chen, Xiaomi
2. Taylor Ludlam, Lenovo
3. Laura Sheridan, Google
4. Name TBA
    

11:00 BREAK
 

11:30 PANEL 9: Measuring the quality of a patent portfolio
Moderator: Myles Jelf - Bristows

1. Adam Mossof – George Mason University
2. Sarah Abram KC, Brick Court Chambers
3. Justus Baron, BRELA – Research in Economics and Legal Analytics
4. Apostolos “Paul” Kakaes, Cosmos Communications Consulting Corporation 

12:30 KEYNOTE 3 - Qualcomm: Jacob Ewerdt, Senior Legal Counsel for Global IP Policy
 

13:00 LUNCH      
  

14:00 PANEL 10: Platforms and Pools: Where Next?
Moderator: Peter Camesasca

1. Matteo Sabattini, Sisvel
2. Shreya Gupta, Oxera
3. Phong T Dinh, Microsoft
4. Keith Mallinson, WiseHarbor
    

15:00 PANEL 11: Judges Panel
Moderator: Professor Sir Robin Jacob

• Judge Edger Brinkman, UPC (Europe)
• Judge Rodney Gilstrap (USA)
• The Hon Mr Justice Meade (UK)
• Justice Prathiba M Singh, Delhi High Court (India)
• Judge Victor Torres, State Court of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
• Professor Yanfang Wang, former Presiding Judge of the IP Tribunal, Supreme People's Court (China)
   

16:10 Closing Remarks

16:20 Closing networking break

17:00 Conference ends

QUALCOMM
Jacob Ewerdt is the Senior Counsel for Global IP Policy at Qualcomm where he provides strategic guidance on global intellectual property and standards policy with a focus on emerging issues in patent protection, licensing, and enforcement. 

Previously, Mr. Ewerdt served in the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) within the Executive Office of the President, where he developed, shaped, and implemented U.S. trade policy on intellectual property. He represented the United States at the WTO TRIPS Council, negotiated the IP Chapter of a draft U.S. trade agreement, and engaged with IP and trade authorities across Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, and Africa. 

Before USTR, Ewerdt litigated patent disputes at a Chambers-ranked global law firm recognized with multiple Band 1 rankings, clerked at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and advised Administrative Law Judges at the U.S. International Trade Commission. 

Ewerdt is an inventor, a registered USPTO patent attorney, and holds a J.D. from Northwestern University. 

NOKIA
Dr Clemens Heusch (Vice-President, Global Head of Dispute Resolution, Nokia)
Dr. Clemens-August Heusch, LL.M. is Vice President at Nokia and heads the Global Litigation and Disputes Team. He is responsible for litigation, arbitration and mediation globally with a strong focus on multinational IP litigation and licensing (FRAND) arbitrations. Since 2008 Nokia has been involved in more than 200 patent cases worldwide against companies such as Apple, HTC, Blackberry, InterDigital, Qualcomm, Daimler, Intellectual Ventures, IPCom, KPN, Daimler, Lenovo and others. Those patent cases related to implementation patents as well as to standard-essential patents relating to GSM, UMTS, LTE, H.264, WiFi, NFC and others. 

Before joining Nokia, Clemens was an attorney at law at the international law firm Bird & Bird LLP (2004 to 2008) in Düsseldorf. He studied law at the Universities of Freiburg and Bonn, holds an LL.M. degree from the University of Maastricht and a doctorate from the University of Cologne. During his traineeship, he worked (among others) in the competition law team of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Cologne and Brussels. 

Clemens is a registered lawyer at the Cologne Bar and is a certified IP lawyer. Fluent in German, English and French, he regularly presents and writes on a range of legal topics. He is a member of the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI) and was appointed to the AIPPI Standing Committee on Standards and Patents. He is also a member of the board of the German AIPPI group, the German Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property and the Licensing Executives Society. He also is a member of Licensing Executives Society (LES) and the German Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (GRUR).

ERICSSON
Christina Petersson, Chief Intellectual Property Officer (CIPO)
As CIPO and Head of IPR & Licensing at Ericsson since 2019, Christina Petersson is responsible for Ericsson’s patent development and patent licensing worldwide. Ericsson is one of the leading providers of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to service providers, investing heavily in R&D as a leading contributor to open standards. With more than 60,000 granted patents, Ericsson has emerged as holding the industry’s strongest patent portfolio in cellular technology, and is the lead holder of 5G essential patents. Ms Petersson’s previous role was Vice President and Head of IPR Legal Affairs at Ericsson. In this role, which she held since 2011, Ms Petersson had an active role in licensing negotiations and has been responsible for concluding license agreements with the vast majority of Ericsson’s long list of licensees.

Ms Petersson has worked at Ericsson since 1998 when she started her career as a Trademark Attorney. She has a Master of Law, LL.M. from Uppsala University, Sweden.

Sarah Abram KC (Brick Court Chambers)
Sarah Abram KC was called to the Bar in 2006 and took silk in 2022; she is described in the directories as “a wonderful advocate who always has the ear of the court”, “a smiling assassin in cross-examination” “very calm under pressure” and “very strategic and focused” as well as having an “[i]ncredible knack of being on top of everything all of the time”.  

Sarah is a leading competition, EU and commercial law silk with a particular specialism in FRAND litigation.  Over the past two years, she has led the UK FRAND teams for ZTE in Samsung v ZTE (trial heard Jan-Feb 26, judgment awaited), Ericsson in Lenovo v Ericsson (settled shortly before trial, Apr 25) and Panasonic in Panasonic v Oppo & Xiaomi (settled shortly before trial, Oct 24). 

Sarah led the team acting for the patent-holder in the only case in which the English Court of Appeal has ever refused to grant an interim FRAND licence (Samsung v ZTE [2025] EWCA Civ 1383, Oct 25), overturning the judgment of the High Court.  She was nominated for Competition Law Silk of the Year at the Legal 500 UK Bar Awards 2024 and the Chambers and Partners UK Bar Awards 2025.

Lawrence Archard (Factoree)
Lawrence Archard is CEO of Factoree. Lawrence’s career in electronic hardware design started in a large consultancy and while the other half of the company developed the first independent GSM chipset, he was busy designing custom silicon into various consumer, industrial and medical products. He worked on the market requirements and early technical development of what eventually became IEEE802.15.4, underlying Zigbee, Thread & Matter. He has always liked making cost-sensitive connected products for high volume manufacture and applying his experience to help many angel/VC-funded startups and university spinouts, from using low-cost camera chips in a skin cancer triage system to using trained honey bees to detect explosives.

The Rt Hon Lord Justice Arnold (Court of Appeal of England & Wales)
Lord Justice Arnold was born in Chelmsford and spent his childhood in North London. Educated at Highgate School he then read Chemistry before training as a barrister, specialising in intellectual property law and allied fields, particularly entertainment and media law and ICT law.

Called to the Bar in 1985, he was appointed to the High Court, Chancery Division in October 2008 and was appointed to be Judge in Charge of the Patents Court in April 2013. In March 2016 he was appointed as an External Member of the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office.

As a judge he has continued to specialise in intellectual property and in 2017 was made an honorary Doctor of Law by the University of Westminster. Outside his judicial role, he enjoys cooking, walking in Suffolk and watching cricket. He has contributed to a number of publications, including as the author of Performers’ Rights (5th ed, Sweet & Maxwell, 2015), the editor of the Halsbury’s Laws of England title Trade Marks and Trade Names (5th ed, Butterworths, 2014) and acted as editor of Entertainment and Media Law Reports from 1993 to 2004 inclusive.

Justus Baron (BRELA)
Dr Justus Baron is the Director and Founder of BRELA – Research in Economics and Legal Analytics, a research and consulting firm dedicated to the study of standards and patents. BRELA produces studies and reports, and offers assistance with FRAND determinations and SEP licensing.

Justus is also the Founder and Director of FRANDLY, a novel solution for data and analytics on SEP licensing. Additionally, Justus is a Research Director in Economics at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law. His research focuses on technological innovation, standardization, and intellectual property rights, and has been published in leading scholarly journals.

Justus served as a member of the European Commission’s Expert Group on Standard Essential Patents (SEP) and led a consortium assisting the Commission with an impact assessment of its proposed SEP Regulation. He has frequently been consulted by government bodies on SEPs and standardization.

Nina Belbl (WIPO)
Dr. Nina Belbl implements WIPO's SEP strategy as legal officer in the Patent and Technology Law Division. In this role, she coordinates SEP policy development and provides expertise on standard essential patents. Further, Nina contributes to WIPO's broader IP mission through legislative and policy advice to member states on patent law and by developing trade secret policy, including significantly contributing to the development of the WIPO Guide to Trade Secrets and Innovation.

Dr. Belbl’s SEP expertise is grounded in both practical and academic experience. Her doctoral thesis at the University of Freiburg (Germany) examined strategic transfer of SEPs, providing theoretical foundation for her current policy work. Before joining WIPO in 2020, she practiced patent litigation at a leading German patent litigation firm, focusing on the telecommunications and automotive sectors. Her work included multinational SEP litigation and connected car disputes.

Judge Edger Brinkman (UPC) 
Edger Brinkman is a Judge at the Court of First Instance of the UCP. Edger finished his chemistry degree in 1993, specializing in biochemistry, and a law degree in 1995 at Utrecht University in The Netherlands.  After joining the bar that same year as a solicitor/barrister in Amsterdam focusing on patents and regulatory affairs, he was appointed judge at the Court of The Hague, IP department in 2002.

Edger became a senior judge in 2007. He has been involved in many patent and other IP cases and speaks regularly on international conferences. 
He is co-editor of a leading Dutch IP magazine (BIE).

Benno Buehler (Charles River Associates)
Benno Buehler is a Vice President at Charles River Associates. Previously, he was a senior member of the European Commission’s DG Competition Chief Economist Team. With more than 15 years of competition experience, Benno specializes in antitrust and intellectual property matters, especially where the two issues are combined.

He has been retained as economic expert in several SEP litigation cases and advised in multiple SEP licensing negotiations. He also conducted the economic analysis in several antitrust matters such as the landmark Samsung and Motorola Standard Essential Patent cases. In addition, he was involved in multiple policy initiatives such as the Commission’s overhaul of the Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation. He was also the lead economist on several high profile horizontal and non-horizontal mergers, including Qualcomm/NXP and Google/Motorola, where IP was an important consideration. His experience covers a wide range of sectors, including digital platforms, (mobile) telecommunications and broadband, high-tech, commodities and raw materials, paper, energy and transport.

His academic work has been published in scientific journals such as the Journal of Industrial Economics and the European Economic Review. He has also published on competition policy in the Review of Industrial Organization as well as in Competition Law & Policy Debate. Benno regularly speaks at IP & competition conferences, universities and research institutes and is lecturer at the Brussels School of Competition.

Le Chen (Xiaomi)
Le Chen is currently the senior director for dispute resolution and head of IP policy Europe at Xiaomi. Previously Le was a senior IP counsel at ABB Schweiz AG, where he was a reference expert in the IP field related to digital innovation and standardisation, and led frequently patent licensing and IP benchmarking activities in the furtherance of ABB’s digital innovations. Prior to ABB, he worked at renowned German IP law firm, where he was involved in the case of Huawei vs. ZTE which established later the fundamental case law for SEP and FRAND at the CJEU. Before that he was a global project manager at Sun Microsystem.

Jorge Contreras (University of Utah)
Jorge is a University Distinguished Professor, the James T. Jensen Endowed Professor for Transactional Law and Director of the Program on Intellectual Property and Technology Law University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. He has previously served as a visiting professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Tilburg University and the University of Minnesota.  Professor Contreras’s research focuses on intellectual property, antitrust law and standardization. He has published more than 150 academic articles and chapters and has written or edited 14 books including FRAND Cases in Context (Edward Elgar, 2026) and the 2-volume Cambridge Handbook of Technical Standardization Law (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2017, 2019). He has testified before committees of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, the Federal Trade Commission and the European Commission and is regularly quoted by news outlets such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Economist, Bloomberg, Law360, and CNN. He has served as an expert witness in complex intellectual property cases around the world and his work has been favourably cited in numerous judicial opinions. He received his JD from Harvard Law School, earned his BSEE and BA at Rice University and clerked for Chief Justice Thomas R. Philips of the Texas Supreme Court.

Phong Dinh (Microsoft)
Phong Dinh is an Assistant General Counsel at Microsoft, where he leads a patent team supporting Microsoft’s Cloud and AI businesses, including worldwide patent portfolio development, IP counseling, M&A transactions, licensing, and strategic partnerships for Microsoft.  He further drives the company’s Standard Essential Patent (SEP) strategies with internal and external stakeholders, including its engagement with patent pools as both licensor and licensee. Prior to Microsoft, he focused on patent litigation, prosecution, and IP transactions at Goodwin LLP in Washington D.C.

Thomas Dreiser (Huawei)
Thomas Dreiser is a German qualified lawyer and Chief IP Litigation Counsel (EMEA) for Huawei in Munich. He is responsible for Huawei’s EMEA patent litigation and licensing projects.   His focus is on standard essential patents in the telecommunications sector and FRAND-related issues.
Prior to joining Huawei, Thomas worked as an external attorney specializing in patent litigation, IP and IT law, and he, inter alia, represented a company in one of the largest German SEP litigation campaigns in the telecommunications sector in recent years.

He holds law degrees from the Universities of Munich, Duesseldorf, and Jena, and he has more than 15 years of professional experience in the field of IP and patent law. Thomas also teaches IP law at the University of Weimar.

Steve Faraji (Volkswagen AG)
Steve is Head of Litigation, Standards at Volkswagen AG in Wolfsburg, Germany. He is a qualified German and European Patent Attorney specializing in SEPs and computer implemented inventions. Prior to joining Volkswagen, he worked at AUDI AG as Head of Patents Vehicle/Production and Chief IPR Policy Manager and before that on prosecution and litigation of ICT patents for a major patent law firm in Munich.

Magali Fitzgibbon (ETSI)
Magali Fitzgibbon is the Legal and Governance Director at ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute), where she oversees legal strategy and governance in the dynamic field of telecommunications and standardization. Previously, Magali served in various positions, including as an IP Legal Expert at Inria (Institut National de Recherche en Informatique en Automatique), where she had the opportunity to work on managing intellectual property issues related to software and technology transfer, and contributed to the development of a methodology for IP analysis in software, foreshadowing the importance of software bill of materials in software supply chain management. Magali is passionate about the intersection of technology, law, and governance, and regularly contributes to discussions on the future of intellectual property in innovation and a global context.

Judge Rodney Gilstrap (US District Judge for the Eastern District of Texas)
Judge Gilstrap was nominated in 2011 to serve as United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Texas (EDTX) and was confirmed later that year. He served as Chief Judge of the Eastern District from 2018 to 2025. He resides in Marshall, Texas, and has judicial responsibilities in both the Marshall and Texarkana Divisions. Prior to assuming the bench, Judge Gilstrap was engaged in the private practice of law in East Texas. During this time, he also was elected three times as County Judge of Harrison County, Texas.

Judge Gilstrap holds a BA magna cum laude from Baylor University where he was elected to membership in Phi Beta Kappa. He also holds a JD from the Baylor University School of Law where he was an Associate Editor of the Baylor Law Review. Judge Gilstrap received an LLD degree from East Texas Baptist University in 2023. He has served as President of the Baylor Law Alumni Association and in 2018 he was named the "Baylor Lawyer of the Year” -- the highest recognition given by his law school. He was also selected as “Jurist of the Year” for 2018 by TEXABOTA (which comprises all 16 chapters of the American Board of Trial Advocates situated in Texas). In 2023, he was recognized with the Outstanding Public Service Award from The New York Intellectual Property Lawyers Association. In 2024, he completed serving as a member of the board of directors of the American Inns of Court.

In his free time, Judge Gilstrap is a hobbyist beekeeper who enjoys travel and all things Baylor.

Kirti Gupta (Cornerstone Research)
Kirti Gupta is an engineer and economist specializing in technology; intellectual property (IP) issues such as standard essential patents (SEPs) and fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory (FRAND) licensing; and antitrust. Dr. Gupta addresses class certification, breach of contract claims, licensing, and damages in IP matters, and liability and damages issues in antitrust matters.

Dr. Gupta provides economic and statistical consulting, analysis, and expert testimony in complex business litigation. Her expertise in the technology sector spans engineering, supply chain, litigation, and policy issues. She serves as a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington, DC-based think tank, and as a research director at the University of California, Berkeley.

Before joining Cornerstone Research, Dr. Gupta was the vice president and chief economist at Qualcomm Inc., a global leader in mobile communications and semiconductors.

Shreya Gupta, CFA (Oxera Consulting)
Shreya is a leading expert in economics and financial valuation, with particular expertise in disputes involving intellectual property (IP). She leads Oxera’s IP practice and frequently serves as an expert witness before courts and arbitral tribunals. 

Shreya has advised on more than fifty disputes across a range of sectors including telecoms, hi-tech, life sciences and financial services. In IP disputes, her experience spans assessing reasonable royalties, hypothetical licence fees, accounts of profits, lost profits, and allegations of abuse of dominance. Beyond IP, Shreya brings wide-ranging expertise in counterfactual analysis and the quantification of damages in a variety of contexts. 

Shreya was named Arbitration Expert of the Year by Lexology in 2025 and is recognised as a Global Elite Thought Leader in Lexology’s Arbitration directory for Expert Witnesses Under 45. Shreya regularly speaks at international conferences and delivers training on economic and financial valuation matters to lawyers, judges, and arbitrators in the UK, Europe, and China.

Scott Hayden (Amazon.com) 
Scott is Vice President Intellectual Property and Associate General Counsel at Amazon.com. He received his BS degree in Electrical Engineering and Technology from Purdue University, his Masters Business of Administration from Illinois University, and his JD from Saint Louis University.  After 13 years with Emerson Electric in the engineering and corporate legal departments, Scott joined Armstrong Teasdale in St. Louis, Missouri as an intellectual property attorney.  In 1999, Scott became the division IP counsel for General Electric in Melbourne, Florida.  Following several years as General Counsel of a GE business, Scott returned to IP as the founding leader of GE’s global patent operations in Fairfield, Connecticut.  In 2006, Scott joined Amazon.com as the Vice President of the intellectual property group with responsibility for all patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret and domain issues. He has managed the growth of the IP team from 4 people to over 80 and is responsible for a patent portfolio of 18,000+ patent families.

Bowman Heiden (Center for Intellectual Property, University of Gothenburg)
Bowman Heiden is the Executive Director at the Tusher Strategic Initiative for Technology Leadership at UC-Berkeley, the Co-Director of the Center for Intellectual Property at the University of Gothenburg, and a Fellow of the Classical Liberal Institute at New York University School of Law. Dr. Heiden is the co-founder of the Berkeley Deep Tech Innovation Lab, the Dynamic Competition Initiative, ICM Global, and the Eira Initiative. Over the past twenty years, Dr. Heiden has also managed over 150 innovation projects with industry, university research institutes, healthcare providers, and start-up ventures. Dr. Heiden holds degrees in engineering, technology management, and economics. Before turning his focus to the fields of innovation strategy and policy, Dr. Heiden played professional basketball in a number of European countries. This is why he is so tall.

Apostolos "Paul" Kakaes (Cosmos Communications Consulting Corporation)
Paul first came to the United States in 1970 as a high school exchange student with the American Field Service. Upon graduating from Topeka High School, he returned to his native Greece to begin his university studies. In 1974, in the midst of political instability, he left Greece and enrolled at the University of Colorado where he received his BS and MS degrees, both in applied mathematics with a minor in electrical engineering.  Subsequently, he worked on voice and data network design at AT&T Bell Labs in New Jersey. In parallel he pursued his doctorate in electrical engineering with a minor in applied mathematics at Polytechnic University in Brooklyn (now NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering). After receiving his Ph.D. in 1988, he joined the electrical engineering faculty at The George Washington University in Washington, DC. While there, he developed and taught the university’s first course on the then-emerging topic of wireless communications. That same year, he founded the Cosmos Communications Consulting Corporation, where he has worked full time since leaving GWU in 1994. His work has taken him to over 40 countries. He has consulted not only for the telecommunications industry, but also for financial analysts, US government entities including the Federal Communications Commission and US Marshals Service, and the United Nations. 

He has worked as an expert witness and consultant to litigation teams on numerous intellectual property issues including patent validity, infringement, and portfolio valuation. He has testified in patent-related litigation related to mobile communications including, 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, and WiFi, among other subjects in a wide variety of venues, including EPR and IPR proceedings, the ITC, US Federal courts, and UK courts.

Ashleigh Landis (Warner Bros. Discovery)
Ashleigh Landis is vice president, legal, litigation at Warner Bros. Discovery LLC, where she provides enterprise wide litigation strategy and counsel across intellectual property, commercial, and regulatory matters for the company’s global media portfolio. She joined Warner Bros. Entertainment in 2019 and previously practiced patent and complex commercial litigation at Morrison & Foerster LLP in Los Angeles. 

Carmen Lembo (Qualcomm)
Carmen Lembo is a Senior Manager for Government Affairs at Qualcomm, based in Brussels. She works on EU policy files at the intersection of digital regulation, competition, and intellectual property. Before joining Qualcomm, Carmen worked in the European Commission’s Directorate‑General for Competition (DG COMP), where she was part of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) enforcement team. She previously served as a Policy Adviser in the European Parliament in the office of Andreas Schwab, MEP (EPP), supporting the Parliament’s work on internal market, competition, and digital policy. Carmen is a qualified lawyer with a background in EU competition law. Prior to her role in the Parliament, she trained in private practice with a focus on competition law. She holds an LL.M from the College of Europe and Master’s degrees in law from the University of Milan.

Taylor Ludlam (Lenovo)
As the Vice President of Intellectual Property and Global Litigation at Lenovo, Taylor Ludlam leads teams supporting all aspects of the Company's Intellectual Property interests. These teams provide legal support and strategy for patent portfolio development, licensing, global litigation from complaint to conclusion, trademark protection, support for business development deals involving IP, M&A diligence, open source compliance, brand protection and standards bodies participation. Ms. Ludlam is a highly respected litigator, having created and executed Lenovo's groundbreaking global SEP litigation strategy leading to landmark decisions in SEP litigations around the globe and placing Lenovo as a leader in global SEP Litigation strategy. Working strategically and cooperatively with business leaders to identify areas of risk and to mitigate exposure across product offerings, Ms. Ludlam creates and drives intellectual property and litigation strategy for the company in a way that aligns with its core values and supports its business. 

Julia Mattis (Chief Licensing Officer, InterDigital)
Julia Mattis has over two decades of experience in the IP industry. Since she joined InterDigital in February 2010, she has served in senior roles in the legal and licensing teams, including Chief Licensing Counsel and, most recently, as Head of Smartphone Licensing, where she oversaw InterDigital’s largest licensing program. Throughout her career at InterDigital, she has been responsible for closing license agreements with some of the world’s leading smartphone and consumer electronics manufacturers. Ms. Mattis began her legal career in private practice at McGuireWoods before moving to Troutman Pepper Locke. She worked in the intellectual property groups of both firms, focusing on IP transactions, related commercial and M&A transactions, and trademark prosecution. Ms. Mattis holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Richmond School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts from James Madison University.

Monica Magnusson (Ericsson)
Monica Magnusson is Vice President and Senior Advisor of IPR Policy at IPR & Licensing within the Ericsson group, reporting to Ericsson’s Chief Intellectual Property Officer Christina Petersson. Prior to this position, she headed a global team with corporate responsibility for advocating Ericsson’s views on patent policy issues towards regulators and policy makers across the world, operations she had gradually built over the previous decade. Monica joined Ericsson in 1998, as a patent engineer and part of a team focused on the forming of Ericsson’s patent portfolio for WCDMA (3G) related inventions. Her experience with Ericsson also includes managing patent attorney groups in Sweden and in the US, and out-licensing patent portfolios in North America. Prior to joining Ericsson, Monica was a patent agent with Albihns, an intellectual property consultancy in Stockholm, and before that an R&D engineer with Siemens-Elema, Stockholm. She holds a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. In her free time, she enjoys nature, preferably skiing, sailing or foraging for mushrooms depending on the season.

Keith Mallinson (WiseHarbor)
Keith Mallinson has over 25 years’ experience in the telecommunications industry: as a research analyst, commercial consultant and testifying expert witness. Complementing Keith’s industry focus are broad skills in technologies, market analysis, competition, regulation, economics and finance. He has published and presented on various topics including market developments and competition in next generation mobile network technologies and services, semiconductors, standard essential patents and licensing.

Prior to founding expert consulting firm WiseHarbor in 2006, Keith was an Executive Vice President at industry analyst firm Yankee Group leading its global wireless and mobile communications research and consulting team.

His career started in communications electronics design, project management and systems engineering at the UK Ministry of Defence. For several years he was a director at a seed capital investment firm specialising in ICT and biotechnology.

He has a degree in electrical engineering from Imperial College and an MBA from the London Business School.

Mr Justice Richard Meade (High Court of England and Wales)
Mr Justice Richard Meade is a judge of the High Court of England and Wales. He is Judge in Charge of Intellectual Property and the Judge in Charge of the Patents Court. Sir Richard was educated at William Ellis School in London and University College, Oxford, where he studied law. After he left university he worked in computing until he returned to Bar School in 1990. He did pupillage in chamber at 8 New Square, Lincoln’s Inn. His first pupil supervisor was (Lord) David Kitchin, and the Head of Chambers was Professor Sir Robin Jacob. He worked at 8 New Square until he became a High Court Judge in 2020, becoming a Queen’s Counsel in 2008, and a Deputy High Court judge in 2011. He worked in intellectual property law, especially patents, and represented clients in the High Court, the Court of Appeal, the House of Lords/Supreme Court, the European Patent Office and the Court of Justice of the European Union. His work at the Bar was mainly in the technology fields of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, telecoms, medical devices, and engineering.

Lars Meinhardt (Higher Regional Court of Munich)
Lars Meinhardt is, since January 2022, the Presiding Judge at the Higher Regional Court of Munich, 6th Civil Senate (responsible in particular for intellectual property law, in particular patent law including FRAND and trademark law). Between August 2018 to December 2021 he wsa a Judge at the Higher Regional Court of Munich, 29th Civil Senate and Cartel Senate (responsible for trademark law, unfair competition law, design law, copyright law and antitrust law). Previously between April 2012 to July 2018 he was the Presiding Judge at the Regional Court of Munich I (as Chairman of a Chamber for Trademark Law, Unfair Competition Law and Copyright Law). Between December 2003 to March 2012 he was a Judge at the Regional Court of Munich I (initially responsible for general civil law; since April 2004 responsible for trademark law, unfair competition law and copyright law). Prior to this he has been the Public Prosector for Munich I and a National Expert at teh European Union DG Internal Market. 

Lars is a regularly speakers on patent law, trademark law and unfair competition law and is also published in trademark law and unfair competition law (including in the WRP). He ist he co-author in a commentary on unfair competition law (edited by Büscher)

Adam Mossoff (Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University)
Adam Mossoff is Professor of Law at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University in the United States of America, and he is a Senior Advisor at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Professor Mossoff is widely published in academic journals and in monographs on the law, history, and policy of patent licensing and the key role of patent licensing in thriving innovation economies. His research has been relied on by Justices on the United States Supreme Court, by judges on the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and by officials at US federal agencies, such as the US Federal Trade Commission, the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice, and the USPTO. Professor Mossoff has been invited to testify seven times before the US Congress on proposed patent legislation. He is a member of the Intellectual Property Rights Policy Advisory Group of ANSI, and he has served as Chair and Vice-Chair of the Intellectual Property Committee of the IEEE-USA.

Brian Napper (Ocean Tomo)
Brian Napper is a leading expert in intellectual property valuation and a Senior Managing Director at Ocean Tomo, a part of J.S. Held. Mr. Napper has provided testimony in US Federal and State Courts, governmental agencies (e.g., ITC) and Arbitration panels (including International Chamber of Commerce) on issues of infringement damages, licensing disputes and setting Fair Reasonable and Non‐Discriminatory (“FRAND”) rates. 

Mr. Napper has extensive experience in determining FRAND/RAND rates for Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) in a variety of situations. These projects have included either consulting with companies negotiating license agreements for SEPs related to various types of standards or analyzing RAND royalty rates in the context of disputes (International Arbitration, U.S. federal court and ITC). Examples of these standards include but are not limited to: Telecom (3G, UMTS, LTE/4G/5G), Wi-Fi 4/5/6), MPEG 2/4, ATSC, H.264/AVC and H.265/HEVC.

In addition to his disputes work, Mr. Napper has worked with and advised SEP owners as well as potential SEP licensees (either individual patents or entire SEP portfolios) and analyzed and quantified the value of SEP portfolios in connection with acquisition, sale or private equity investment wherein the primary asset was SEP portfolios. Mr. Napper has also analyzed and opined as to whether licensing behavior by SEP licensor/licensees was conducted within the economic principles of RAND. 

Mr. Napper has guest lectured at a number of law schools in the U.S. and Taiwan related to methods and approaches used to determine a FRAND/RAND rate for SEPs. Mr. Napper was a member of The Sedona Conference Working Group 9 in drafting a “Framework for Analysis of Standard-Essential Patent (SEP) and Fair, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) Licensing and Royalty Issues – Global Edition.” 

Lord Neuberger (former Supreme Court Judge) 
Lord Neuberger graduated with a degree in natural science from Oxford and worked at a merchant bank until he entered Lincoln's Inn and was called to the English Bar in 1974. He specialised in property law and was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1987 and became a Bencher of Lincoln's Inn in 1993.  From 1996 to 2004, he served as a Judge of the Chancery Division of the High Court. He was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal in 2004 and a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in 2007. He became Master of the Rolls in 2009, and in 2012 he was appointed President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. He retired from that post in September 2017. 

He has since been practising as an arbitrator, mediator and legal expert from One Essex Court. He became a Non-Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal in 2009 and a Judge of the Singapore International Commercial Court in 2018, and continues to sit in both courts. 

Lord Neuberger was Treasurer of Lincoln’s Inn in 2017, and was elected an honorary Fellow of the Royal Society the same year. He is an honorary Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. He was appointed Chancellor of the University of Law in 2018. He has received honorary doctorates from UCL, Queen Mary London, York, Exeter, and Oxford. He is President of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, and of the Academy of Experts. He is also a trustee of Prisoners Abroad, and of Mental Health Research UK and, a Patron of Sapere.

Robert Pocknell (Fair Standards Alliance) 
Robert is CEO of N&M and a Board Member of the Fair Standards Alliance. He has over 25 years experience is advising clients on IP matters. He was in private practice for 12 years before joining Sendo, the UK’s first mobile phone manufacturer and developer of the world’s first Microsoft smartphone. Robert spent 2 years as IP Counsel at TomTom, the leading satellite navigation company. Robert has advised small and large companies on patent licensing in the wireless industry.

Rebekka Porath (Innovators Network) 
Rebekka Porath is an Intellectual Property Fellow at the Innovators Network.
She has worked for leading innovation companies in the ICT industry for more than 30 years, during which she has gained profound and multi-faceted insights into standards and IP matters.

She started her career in the research department of Royal Philips Electronics, where she developed a number of patented inventions. Following a subsequent business development function on novel mobile phone antennas, she went on to coordinate the company’s standards development engagements in the consumer electronics field. In 2009, Rebekka joined Intel’s policy department. There, she initially represented Intel’s standards policy interests and perspectives in the EMEA region and later complemented that work with a focus on IP policy, assuming the role of Intel’s Global IP Policy Director in 2021. Rebekka has accumulated hands-on standardization experience across a wide variety of standards development organizations. She has participated in technical working groups and/or governance bodies in DVB, OMA, the Open IPTV Forum, DLNA, JTC 1, DIN, IEC, and IEEE. In the context of her standards policy engagements, she led DigitalEurope’s Standards & Interoperability Working Group for 8 years and represented Intel’s interests in a number of additional EU-based trade associations. She participated in the European Commission’s ICT Multi-Stakeholder Platform for Standardization and also engaged as external expert in review activities on standardization-related projects within the framework of the European Commission's “Horizon” research and development programs. In the field of IP policy, Rebekka’s passion and focus has been patent law and policy and their effects on innovation, including the special field of standard-essential patents. Rebekka has been strongly engaged in the foundation of the Fair Standards Alliance, an industry association promoting transparency and fairness in SEP licensing. She also acted as Vice President of IP2Innovate, participated in the patent policy work of other industry associations, and has further contributed to the public dialogue on the nexus of patent laws and innovation through speaking engagements at numerous conferences.

Rebekka is based in Germany and holds a PhD in Theoretical Physics from the Bonn university.

Dr. Matteo Sabattini has years of expertise in technology licensing and IP strategy. He currently serves as Executive Head of Government Affairs at Sisvel, Europe’s largest and longest-established patent pool operator. In this role, he leads the company’s patent policy and advocacy initiatives.

Dr. Sabattini served as President and Chief Licensing Officer of Convida, a joint venture between Sony Corporation of America and InterDigital and a pioneer in research and innovation for IoT and cloud services. He also held positions at Ericsson, the Sisvel Group, InterDigital and other leading organizations in the IP industry. He also held several teaching and research positions in wireless and mobile communications at UCSD and at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR).

Dr. Sabattini holds an MBA from the George Washington University (GWU), a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and a Laurea Magistrale magna cum laude also in electrical engineering from the University of Bologna. He is a member of the board of the Licensing Executive Society International (LESI). He is an IEEE senior member, a Beta Gamma Sigma lifetime member, as well as a member of the MIT Enterprise Forum. He is active in the community and has served on several boards of non-profit organizations. He is an avid skier and a mediocre surfer.

Pekka Sääskilahti (Compass Lexecon)
Dr. Pekka Sääskilahti is an Executive Vice President, Head of IP Practice and Head of Finland and Scandinavia at Compass Lexecon. He has economic consulting experience in competition cases and in intellectual property matters. In addition, he has worked more than 15 years in the telecommunications and high-tech industries as an in-house economist as well as in management consulting. Pekka has served as Professor of Practice at Hanken School of Economics teaching intellectual property and competition economics, pricing, and strategy.

Pekka regularly provides economic advice to parties in merger proceedings in front of the EC and national competition authorities, and he also advises clients in relation to Article 101 and 102 matters, valuation, damages, and regulatory policy. He has provided reports and testimony in front of the Finnish Market Court and an arbitral tribunal. Pekka is particularly known for his expertise in IP matters. He is the economic expert in various proceedings regarding FRAND royalties for Standard Essential Patent portfolio licenses, and he regularly advises companies on the valuation and pricing of patent and copyright licenses and other intellectual property.

Pekka has a Ph.D. and a M.Sc. in economics from the Helsinki School of Economics. He has published his economics research in various academic journals. He is listed as a Thought Leader in the Lexology Index for Intellectual Property Experts and for Competition Economists. He has also received Client Choice recommendation by Lexology.

Lauren Sheridan (Google)
Laura Sheridan is Head of Patent Policy at Google, advocating for an effective patent examination process, a patent litigation system that operates fairly for all participants, and transparency in these areas. She has shared her views on patent issues in numerous policy dialogues, including testifying before the U.S. Congress on the intersection of AI and patents. Her patent policy work is shaped by years of experience in patent prosecution, litigation, due diligence, and post-grant practice. An active member of the IP community, Laura is part of the Intellectual Property Owners Association delegation to IP5 Industry, a group which engages on procedural harmonization matters with the IP5 Offices. Laura is a member of the Board of the Federal Circuit Bar Association and the Advisory Board for the NYU Law Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy. Laura studied mechanical engineering at Cornell University and received her J.D. from Fordham Law School.

Dr Manveen Singh (Jindal Global Law School (JGLS))
Dr. Manveen Singh is a Professor and Associate Dean at Jindal Global Law School (JGLS). He is also the Director of Centre for Postgraduate Legal Studies (CPGLS) and the Deputy Director of the Jindal Initiative on Research in IP and Competition (JIRICO). Dr. Singh was appointed as a Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Law, Bar Ilan University, Israel, in November 2022. He is also the Leader, India Chapter, of the GW Competition and Innovation Lab, George Washington University, USA. Dr. Singh’s primary areas of interest are Intellectual Property Rights, Technology and Innovation, Intersection of Intellectual Property and Competition Law, and the Law of Evidence. Dr. Singh has published on Intellectual Property Law and Law of Evidence in several international journals and recently published his book on Standard-Setting Organisations’ IPR Policies, with Springer Singapore.

Dr. Singh has received research grants from organisations such as Qualcomm and the Thakur Foundation (USA). He completed his Ph.D. from Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal Global University; his research being on standardization and the licensing of standard essential patents (SEPs). Dr. Singh holds an LL.M. in Intellectual Property Law from University College London (UCL), where he was awarded the Master of the Rolls Scholarship, and a B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) degree from University Institute of Legal Studies (UILS), Panjab University. He was the recipient of the Award for Teaching Excellence in 2015, and the Awards for Research Excellence in 2017 and 2021 at Jindal Global Law School.

Justice Prathiba M. Singh (Delhi High Court, India)
Justice Singh is a Permanent Judge of the High Court of Delhi, is widely published in the field of law, and has won a number of awards in recognition of her accomplishments in many aspects of the legal profession. She has made significant contributions to academic literature and legal developments in Indian intellectual property law, as a practicing lawyer, and as an advisor to several legislative committees concerned with drafting related legislation. Singh joined the bar in 1991 and practiced primarily in the field of intellectual property law, acting as the managing partner in a law firm. She was appointed by the Delhi High Court to consult with them to improve the functioning of the Copyright Office, and also consulted with a High Level Parliamentary Panel on streamlining the patent examination process in India. Singh was appointed a senior counsel by the Delhi High Court in 2013 and was appointed a permanent judge in the Delhi High Court in 2017.

Victor Diz Torres (7th Business Court of the Tribunal de Justiça do Estado do Rio de Janeiro)
Victor Diz Torres is a Brazilian judge serving at the 7th Business Court of the Tribunal de Justiça do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. He earned his law degree from the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), one of Brazil’s most respected academic institutions. His judicial work centers on complex business disputes, with particular emphasis on patent litigation, industrial property, and innovation-driven conflicts. He has developed notable expertise in matters involving intellectual property, competition, and technology, including cases related to standard-essential patents (SEPs).

Throughout his career, Judge Diz Torres has handled disputes that sit at the intersection of law, economics, and technological development, addressing issues critical to modern markets and knowledge-based industries. His decisions reflect a strong engagement with the legal challenges posed by innovation and rapidly evolving commercial practices.

In addition to his judicial duties, Victor Diz Torres is actively involved in academic and professional education. He is a professor at the Escola de Administração Judiciária, where he contributes to the training and development of judges and court personnel. He also teaches at the Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV), where he serves as an examiner in public competitive examinations.

Vera Wang (Tencent)
Vera is Senior Legal Counsel at Tencent, advising on standard-essential patent (SEP) matters. Prior to joining Tencent, Ms. Wang spent six years as Legal Director at a major multinational consumer electronics company, managing the company’s European SEP litigation and FRAND-related proceedings. Her professional background also includes ten years at the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), where she served as a Senior Patent Examiner. Ms. Wang holds an LLM from UC Davis School of Law, building on her technical background in Communication Engineering and Pattern Recognition.

Yanfang Wang (East China University of Political Science and Law.)
Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the School of Intellectual Property, East China University of Political Science and Law. Appointed in 2021 following a 25-year judicial career at the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme People’s Court of China, where served as Presiding Judge. Research focuses on standard essential patents (SEPs), FRAND licensing and disputes, at the intersection of intellectual property, competition law, and unfair competition law, alongside trademark and copyright law. Actively involved in legislative reform and judicial interpretation of China’s IP laws, with extensive experience in adjudicating complex SEP- and competition-related disputes. Currently, she serves as an expert for the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and CNIPA, as a neutral with the Unified Patent Court (UPC), and as an arbitrator with SCIA, HKIAC, and the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center. Author of a monograph on anti-unfair competition law and widely published in Chinese leading law journals.

Heike Wollgast (WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center)
Heike heads the IP Disputes Section at the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center. She oversees the administration of WIPO mediation, arbitration and expert determination cases, and leads legal and policy developments relating to WIPO Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). This includes the development of ADR schemes adapted to specific industry sectors, as well as ADR collaborations with IP authorities and courts globally.

Heike is a German lawyer and holds a Ph.D. in European Law from the University of Cologne. Following studies and legal training in Germany, Switzerland and the US, she practiced with two major law firms in Germany in the areas of IP and trade law.  Before joining the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center, Heike also specialized in international IP enforcement law and policy at WIPO. 

Judy Yee (Avanci Video)
Judy Yee is Vice President of Avanci Video, the independent, one-stop licensing platform which brings together licensors and licensees to share video technologies for internet streaming video. Judy Yee is also Head of North America Market Unit at Avanci, a leading, independent global provider of patent licensing platforms. In this role she supports the growth of all Avanci businesses in North America, deepening Avanci’s relationships with licensees and licensors.

Before joining Avanci, Judy spent 13 years at Microsoft, most recently as Assistant General Counsel, IP, where she led several teams of patent professionals and developed and executed SEP-related strategies to solve for legal risks impacting internal and external stakeholders. Prior to Microsoft, Judy practiced law at Perkins Coie LLP and worked as an engineer at Intel.

Admitted to the Washington State Bar and licensed to practice before the USPTO, Judy has extensive experience in the business of intellectual property spanning patent portfolio development, licensing, M&A transactions and more. A regular conference speaker, Judy features in the IAM Strategy 300 list of leading IP professionals, and is a co-founder and board member of ADAPT.legal, a nonprofit which aims to increase diversity across patent teams.

Aleš Zalar (PMAC)
Aleš Zalar studied law at the University of Ljubljana and served as a judge and president of the District Court of Ljubljana as well as president of the Slovenian Judges Association. He was also Minister of Justice and acting Minister of Home Affairs in Slovenia. In the last 12 years, he served as president of the European Centre for Dispute Resolution (ECDR), mediator, arbitrator, and as independent consultant in international rule of law reforms and dispute system design projects. He has also served as a policy adviser, trainer, and lecturer and been engaged in more than 30 countries worldwide.

For more than last 15 years, he occasionally assisted Ukraine in development of ADR system, constitutional reform, and since the establishment of the High Anti-corruption Court of Ukraine, he also supported its operation as senior legal adviser. He served as the first chairman of the Advisory group of Experts in Ukraine, which selects candidates for judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, and continues to serve as a member.

He is a member of various international institutions, inter alia, Mediation Centre Stakeholders Network of the EUIPO, International Institute for Justice Excellence, and of Council of the European Law Institute (ELI). For his contribution to development of mediation he received many special recognitions and awards, including from the Council of Europe (Crystal Scale of Justice) and from the US State Department (International Visitor Leadership Gold Star). Since September 2024, Aleš Zalar has held the position of the Director of the Patent Mediation and Arbitration Centre (PMAC) of the Unified Patent Court.

Julia Zhu (Oppo)
Julia (Juan) Zhu currently serves as the Senior IP Director at OPPO, where she leads the IP litigation and licensing team. Since joining OPPO in 2015, she has been instrumental in managing global patent disputes, conducting licensing negotiations, and formulating comprehensive IP strategies. With a background in law, technology, and journalism, Ms. Zhu has nearly two decades of experience in intellectual property within the mobile phone industry.
 

Peter D. Camesasca, Ph.D., is a seasoned, multi-faceted competition lawyer with close to 30 years of experience in all major aspects of EU competition law. He has a strong business development track record with a leveraged client base and is a routined cross-practice and cross-office team player, working in law firms as well as with clients’ in-house teams. Peter is highly experienced working in and with different cultures (Asia, Europe, U.S.) and has a particular focus on in- and outbound aspects of the Asia/Europe interface. Peter’s work experience includes cases under Articles 101, 102 and 106 TFEU, national and multijurisdictional merger and joint venture notifications (including FDI and Foreign Subsidies Regulation / FSR assessments / DMA Digital Markets Act), investigations by multiple enforcement authorities and global antitrust litigation and monopolization issues (including Digital Markets Act / DMA and IP cross-over issues). In addition, he advises and litigates on horizontal and vertical cooperation issues, prepares and executes various compliance and dawn raid programs and participates in the installation of in-house training programs.

Saya Choudhary is a Senior Partner at Singh and Singh Law Firm with professional experience of about two decades. She practices in the field of Intellectual Property Rights with extensive experience in patents. She heads the patent litigation team, which primarily deals with litigation pertaining to multiple fields including telecommunications, electronics, diagnostics, chemicals, pharmaceuticals etc. She has handled various landmark patent cases in India representing both Indian and foreign multinationals. She has extensive experience in relation to disputes pertaining to the field of Standard Essential Patent (SEPs) and has also handled various mediation and arbitration proceedings pertaining to FRAND licensing issues. She is actively involved in policy issues and is member of AIPPI, APAA, IGAL, CII etc. Saya has been consistently recognized as one of the leading patent professionals in India.

Katie Coltart is a partner at Linklaters. She is a patent litigator with a wealth of experience across the telecoms and technology sectors. She is well-versed in dealing with major cross-border matters requiring significant coordination across multiple forums and on appeal. 

Katie’s telecoms and technology experience spans a broad spectrum of subject matters, including those relating to GPRS, 3G, 4G and 5G telecommunications, wireless radio communication protocols, mobile email systems, connected cars, consumer technology products, magnetic sensors, and technology and communications aspects of medical devices. She is particularly experienced in SEP/FRAND licensing matters in the mobile handsets and connected cars sectors.

Katie is recognised for patent litigation by top directories such as Chambers, The Legal 500 and IAM Patent 1000. In 2019 she was named as an “IP Trailblazer” by World Intellectual Property Review’s Influential Women in IP.

Myles Jelf is a partner at Bristows LLP and is a leading hi-tech patent litigator – having acted for many years for a range of multinational telecoms companies including Samsung, ZTE and Panasonic and tech blue chips such as Google and Intel. He is a registered UPC practitioner and recent work includes appearing before the Hague local division of the court.

Myles has been a board member of the European Patent Lawyers Association since 2017 and was elected President of the organisation between 2020-2022. He now sits upon the association’s advisory board. 

Otto Licks is a partner at Licks Attorneys, a long-standing Brazilian 350+ members law firm with several offices in Brazil and overseas, doing global IP litigation for over 30 years. Otto is an expert in complex litigation and policymaking, representing international clients in the life sciences, ICT, SEP, and internet sectors. A trial and appellate practice specialist, focusing on preliminary and permanent injunctions and monetization.

Daniel Lim is a partner in Kirkland & Ellis' IP Litigation Team in London. Daniel has a broad practice that covers a wide range of technical fields. He is noted both for his creativity and success in representing clients involved in complex SEP and FRAND licensing disputes as well as his extensive experience in cutting-edge life sciences patent litigation. In addition to UK litigation, Daniel is regularly called upon to assist clients in devising, coordinating and executing patent strategies for complex multijurisdictional disputes at a pan-European and global scale. Daniel currently serves as the Vice-Chair of AIPPI’s standing committee on biotechnology and has been recognised in World Intellectual Property Review, IAM Patent 1000, Managing Intellectual Property, The Legal 500 UK and Chambers UK.

Luke McLeroy has more than twenty years of experience as an intellectual property licensing executive, legal counsel, law professor, and mediator.  He is currently the Managing Member of LFM Firm, a law firm he started in February 2025 to provide clients with intellectual property and dispute resolution expertise.  Luke also teaches Intellectual Property Licensing as an Adjunct Professor at the SMU Dedman School of Law in Dallas, Texas.  

Since completing mediation training in 2018, Luke has resolved many commercial disputes through alternative dispute resolution. Luke frequently volunteers at the Dallas County Dispute Resolution Center to mediate lawsuits in which one or more parties cannot afford to hire a lawyer. 

Luke previously worked at Avanci where he designed, built, and operated multiple patent licensing platforms, led the North American patent licensing business at Ericsson, and practiced as a principal at the law firm McKool Smith. Luke graduated from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering and received his law degree from the University of Texas School of Law.

Gary Moss - EIP
Since April 2023 Gary has held the position of Chairman of EIP. His career as a leading IP lawyer acting in large scale UK IP disputes and cross-border IP disputes both in Europe and the United States spans more than 40 years.   Since joining EIP in 2011 Gary has overseen major litigations and led the teams acting for the successful claimants in the Supreme Court Unwired Planet v Huawei and Conversant Wireless v Huawei and ZTE cases which are leading cases worldwide on the issue of FRAND in the context of Standard Essential Patents (SEPs).

More recently Gary represented the Claimants in Optis Wireless v Apple, another case which has established many precedents in the same area and us also acting for Avanci in the case of Tesla v InterDigital and Avanci, which also relates to the scope and reach of declarant’s FRAND undertakings.  Both the Optis and the Tesla cases are scheduled to be heard in the United Kingdom Supreme Court during the first half of 2026.  Gary is also currently representing ASUSTek in its disputes with OPPO and Xiaomi before the UPC.

In previous years Gary has led the teams in Good Technology v AirWatch, Good Technology v Mobile Iron, Research in Motion v Visto Corporation, and also led the case of Kirin-Amgen v Hoechst Marion Roussel, which for many years stood as the leading case on the construction of patents.

Gary has consistently been ranked among the top UK patent litigators by the Legal 500, Chambers and Partners, IAM Patent 1000, and IP Stars directories.

Rob Rodrigues - RNA Law
Rob Rodrigues is a seasoned litigator specializing in high-stakes business and intellectual property disputes in Brazil. Renowned for his strategic acumen, Rob delivers unmatched expertise to FORTUNE 500 companies and dynamic startups alike. He expertly navigates complex legal landscapes, ensuring robust patent portfolio management for top-tier life sciences and telecommunications firms. His deep market insight positions him as a first-choice advisor for both acquisition and enforcement actions.

Rob's excellence has been recognized by a number of leading publications. In 2024, Lexology listed him as a Legal Influencer in Dispute Resolution. Chambers describes Rob as a "superb litigator", "a very competent professional", and "outstanding in providing business-oriented advice." Who's Who Legal praises "his top-tier practice advising clients on life sciences-related patent litigation." The Legal 500 reports that clients describe Rob as someone "who stands out for his strong background in both the IP area, both in terms of litigation and in relation to more technical topics." Client testimonials in IAM Strategy 300 laud him for his "deep understanding of IP issues and keen strategic insight, which he leverages to add value and monetise portfolios."

A Stanford Law School LL.M. alumnus, Rob served as a lead editor of the Stanford Technology Law Review. He has contributed extensively to global technology law journals and currently holds an editorial role at the Kluwer IP Blog.

This conference will be held in-person at Beveridge Hall, Senate House, University of London.  The theatre will maintain 75% capacity only and is very well ventilated. We also have a live stream ticket available to those unable to join us in the UK.

Standard Ticket = £650 
Standard Group Ticket (3 or more from the same firm) = £550 
UCL Alumni / IBIL Sponsors Ticket = £450
Government Legal / NGOs = £300
Academic Ticket (full time academics) = £250
Live Stream (2 days) = £300

Judiciary - please email lisa.penfold@ucl.ac.uk for a complimentary ticket

Book here: https://ucl-patents-standards-2026.eventbrite.co.uk

Corporate bookings requring an invoice should email lisa.penfold@ucl.ac.uk

Senate House -  University of London, London WC1E 7HU
Access from either Russell Square or Malet Street

Our conference was held at the iconic Art-Deco building in the heart of Bloomsbury, London, and just behind the British Museum. Senate House was constructed between 1932-1937 to house the University of London.

If you have any queries about this event please contact Lisa Penfold in the UCL Laws Events team - lisa.penfold@ucl.ac.uk