Emerging issues in licensing and enforcement of Standard Essential Patents

Steven is a partner in Kirkland & Ellis’ IP Litigation team in London who has extensive experience litigating complex global SEP/FRAND disputes and conducting FRAND licensing negotiations on behalf of the industry’s leading players. He frequently plays the role of global coordinating counsel charged with creating and driving forward the client’s SEP/FRAND litigation strategy across the world and has been involved in SEP litigation in over 30 countries including the U.K., the U.S., China, India, Germany, The Netherlands, France and Italy. Key recent SEP/FRAND cases include Ericsson v Apple, InterDigital v Lenovo, Sisvel and Mitsubishi v Xiaomi/Oppo and others, IP Bridge v Huawei (intervening party), TCL v Philips and Conversant v Huawei and ZTE (plus numerous others that remain confidential). Each of those cases has involved novel aspects of SEP/FRAND law and Steven has been at the very forefront of the still-developing case law on SEP and FRAND issues in the United Kingdom and Europe.

Steven’s case experience covers a broad range of technical fields including 3GPP, 3GPP2, DMR, TETRA and other wireless (standardised and non-standardised) mobile telecommunications technologies.

Steven is recognized as a Recommended Individual for 2020-23 and as “One to Watch in UK Patent Litigation” for 2023 in JUVE Patent’s rankings, is listed in IAM Patent 1000 and is listed as a notable practitioner by Managing IP. He is also listed in The Legal 500: “Steven Baldwin is a pleasure to work with. He is fantastic both in his grasp of the detail and clear strategic thinking. High customer focus. Attention to detail and prepared to think outside the box” (2022) and “clients know they are in excellent hands” (2023); Chambers & Partners (2023): “Steven is incredibly bright and hard-working” and “understands both the law and the tech…you are not going to be disappointed when you work with him.”

Justus Baron, Research Director, Northwestern University

Justus Baron is a Research Director in economics at Northwestern University, Pritzker School of Law. Dr Baron’s research focuses on technological innovation, standardization, and intellectual property rights. Dr Baron has written scholarly articles published in leading outlets, such as Research Policy, Antitrust Law Journal, and the International Journal of Industrial Organization, as well as several comprehensive policy reports for the European Commission. Dr Baron was a member of the European Commission’s Expert Group on Standard Essential Patents (SEP), and was the lead researcher of a consortium assisting the European Commission with an Impact Assessment on SEPs. Dr Baron has created the Searle Center Database, a collection of datasets on technology standards and SEPs used by numerous scholars in various fields.

Carole Boelitz is Vice President – Chief IP Counsel of Schneider Electric. She is a practicing attorney with experience in all aspects of intellectual property protection, strategy and law. Ms. Boelitz has previously worked as Executive Director Global IP for Lenovo, Chief IP Counsel at startups Zume Inc. and Terrapower, and AGC patent counsel at Microsoft. Prior to that she was associate counsel at Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks LLP, and served in the USAF. Carole is a graduate of the USAF Academy, MIT, and Harvard Law School.

Enrico Bonadio is Reader in Intellectual Property Law at City, University of London. He holds law degrees from the University of Florence (PHD) and the University of Pisa (LLB), and is Associate Editor and Intellectual Property Correspondent of the European Journal of Risk Regulation as well as member of the Editorial Board of NUART Journal.Enrico has been delivering classes and talks in more than 130 universities and institutions spanning six continents.

His current research agenda focuses on the intersection between IP and technology, protection of non-conventional forms of creativity as well as IP protection in the agricultural sector, amongst other areas. He has two monographs – ‘TRIPS and genetic resources’ (Jovene 2008) and ‘Copyright in the Street – An Oral History of Creative Processes in the Street Art and Graffiti Subcultures’ (Cambridge University Press 2023). Enrico also authored more than one hundred articles, case notes and book chapters touching various aspects of IP law.

Enrico is also researching on IP protection of AI and robotics: he is part of a consortium that has been awarded funding by the EU as part of Horizon2020 to assess the area of interactive robots in society (INBOTS project). He also recently authored a report on Standard Essential Patents and the Internet of Things (commissioned by the European Parliament). Enrico has been awarded grant funding for other projects, including substantial grants from the ESRC, HEIF, the UK Global Challenges Research Fund and the Australian Research Council.

He is a Solicitor qualified to practise in England and Wales as well as in Italy. Enrico practised as IP attorney for several years in top-tier international law firms. He also regularly joins training and technical assistance missions organised by WIPO.

He is member of ATRIP (International Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research in Intellectual Property), BLACA (British Literary and Artistic Copyright Association) and The Law Society of England and Wales

Aleksander Braksator is a qualified attorney-at-law and a member of Allen & Overy’s global antitrust group specialising in all aspects of national and European competition law and foreign investment. He has particular experience in the oil & gas, energy, technology and retail sectors.

Aleksander holds PhD and a Master’s degree in Law from the University of Warsaw. Additionally, he obtained his Bachelor’s degree from the faculty of International Business and Master’s degree from the faculty of Finance and Accounting at the Warsaw School of Economics. His PhD thesis on antitrust liability of standard essential patent holders was awarded the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology prize in a contest organised by the Polish Patent Office.

Benno Buehler is a Vice President at the economic consultancy Charles River Associates. Previously, he was a senior member of the European Commission’s DG Competition Chief Economist Team. He started his career at an international management consultancy.

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 worked on many aspects of competition policy, with a focus on the high-tech and telecommunications sector.

He was retained as economic expert in several SEP litigation cases and advised in multiple SEP licensing negotiations. He also conducted the economic analysis in a number of landmark antitrust cases including the Samsung and Motorola Standard Essential Patent cases. He was the lead economist on several high profile horizontal and non-horizontal mergers, both at CRA and at the European Commission. In addition, he was involved in policy initiatives including the Commission’s overhaul of the Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation. His experience covers a wide range of sectors, including (mobile) telecommunications and broadband, high-tech, commodities and raw materials, paper, energy and transport. In light of his experience at the European Commission, he is familiar with the perspective of competition agencies.

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 competition policy conferences and teaches at the Brussels School of Competition.

He is a native German speaker, and is fluent in English and French.

Jorge L. Contreras is the James T. Jensen Endowed Professor for Transactional Law and Director of the Program on Intellectual Property and Technology Law at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, and was a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science during 2023. Prior to entering academia, Professor Contreras was a partner at the international law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP where he practiced intellectual property transactional law in Boston, Washington DC and London. Prof. Contreras’s academic research focuses on intellectual property, antitrust law, technical standardization and science policy. He has published more than 150 academic articles and book chapters and has written or edited twelve books including the 2-volume Cambridge Handbook of Technical Standardization Law (NY: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2017, 2019). His scholarship has received numerous awards and recognition, including the Patent & Trademark Office Society’s 2021 Rossman Memorial Award and the University of Utah’s 2020 Distinguished Research Award. Professor Contreras has appeared before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, the Federal Trade Commission and the European Commission, and as an expert witness before courts across North America, South America and Europe. His book, The Genome Defense: Inside the Epic Legal Battle to Determine Who Owns Your DNA, was recognized by the NY Times as one of the top nonfiction books of the season and selected as the Best Patent Law Book of the Year by the IPKat blog. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute and the former co-chair of the National Conference of Lawyers and Scientists. He received his JD from Harvard Law School, earned his BSEE and BA in English at Rice University and clerked for Chief Justice Thomas R. Philips of the Texas Supreme Court.

Niccolò Galli is a Research Associate at the European University Institute, Centre for a Digital Society.

Previously, he was a scholarship holder at the technology transfer offices of the University of Florence and the Tuscan Region. Between 2017-2020, Niccolò was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Early-Stage Researcher within the EIPIN – Innovation Society European Joint Doctorate and PhD Candidate at Max-Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in Munich.

In 2023, he defended his PhD thesis titled „Patent Aggregation, Innovation and EU Competition Law“ before Augsburg University and Maastricht University obtaining the highest academic distinctions. In addition, he holds a second level master’s degree in “Internet Ecosystem” from the University of Pisa, with a first-class dissertation on credit data in the European Union, and a law degree summa cum laude from the University of Florence, with a dissertation on standard-essential patents and competition law that won the 2016 Elena Messina Dissertation Prize. His research interests range from the intersections between innovation, antitrust and intellectual property law, to policymaking and regulation for the ICT sector.

Caitlin is a strategic patent litigator, who has considerable expertise providing counsel in respect of multi-jurisdictional patent litigation, and has been entrusted to lead on a raft of ground-breaking IP cases internationally. She is a highly versatile practitioner, with experience advising across a range of industry sectors across both life sciences and technology. This broad experience and insight have afforded her a flexibility in approach – clients rely on her guidance to formulate IP strategy including management of IP risk.

Caitlin has gained a reputation for her work in standard essential patent and FRAND licensing and disputes, acting on several standard essential patent disputes across several jurisdictions. She has written academically on the subject (“Intellectual Property in Electronics and Software” (published by Globe Law and Business, 2019)) and has recently supported CIPA in preparing its response to the government consultation on SEPs.

Caitlin is active in helping to shape the industry agenda. She is a contributing author for a leading practitioner text (Lexis PSL), writing content addressing how IP protects AI. She has also recently contributed to a publication addressing the role of IP in sustainability, and is preparing content for a textbook for Sweet & Maxwell addressing patent considerations for crypto and blockchain.

David H. Herrington handles high-stakes intellectual property and commercial disputes in domestic and cross-border matters.

David has helped clients achieve victories in both pursuing and defending against claims of trade secret misappropriation and infringement of patents, copyrights, and trademarks, as well as disputes concerning IP licenses, employment restrictive covenants, and other commercial matters. He has led multiple IP and commercial suits through trial and appeal and in international arbitrations. He also counsels on IP and employment issues in the transactional context, including mergers and acquisitions, licensing, and capital markets transactions.

David’s first-chair successes for clients include winning a groundbreaking cross-border trade secret suit in the International Trade Commission for Korean pharmaceutical Medytox, translating into a highly valuable settlement (and receiving recognition in Litigators of the Week); defeating contract claims for more than $150 million against leading South American airline LATAM by securing victories in the Bankruptcy Court and District Court in the SDNY and a precedential decision by the Second Circuit (also receiving recognition in Litigators of the Week); representing Nortel Networks, Inc. in defeating claims exceeding $120 million for copyright infringement and breach of license as to software in the District of Delaware Bankruptcy Court; representing People’s United Bank in defeating trademark infringement claims by other “People”-named banks as it expanded throughout the Northeast, culminating in victories in the First Circuit and Second Circuit; and representing a Taiwan semiconductor manufacturer in defeating claims under a patent license in the Northern District of California.

In the pro bono sphere, David led the team that represented Tennessee death row inmate Ndume Olatushani (formerly known as Erskine Johnson), overturning his wrongful conviction and winning his freedom. This work was recognized with the New York City Bar Association’s inaugural Norman Redlich Pro Bono Capital Defense Award and in Am Law Daily and the New York Law Journal and was featured in the ABA’s Pro Bono Publico Award to Cleary Gottlieb. He continues to be active in the death penalty field on the global level, including partnering with organizations to challenge capital punishment on human rights grounds. David has chaired the firm’s pro bono committee and currently serves on the Advisory Board of Directors of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law.

David’s speaking engagements include PLI’s Advanced Trade Secrets 2023: New Challenges, New Solutions, and New Opportunities and Strafford’s Google v. Oracle: Implications for Fair Use Doctrine, Developing, Copying, and Licensing Software API and Copyright Fair Use and the Warhol Decision: Navigating the Evolving Landscape, Minimizing Infringement Risks. His publications include Why Arbitrate International IP Disputes? for Global Arbitration Review’s The Guide to IP Arbitration and Provisional and Final Remedies for Juris’s Arbitration of International Intellectual Property Disputes.

Dr Clemens-August Heusch LL.M. is VP and Head of Global Litigation and Disputes at Nokia, responsible for litigation, arbitration and mediation globally with a strong focus on multi-national IP litigation and arbitration. Since 2008 Nokia has been involved in more than 200 patent cases worldwide.

Before joining Nokia in 2008, Clemens was an attorney-at-law at the international law firm Bird & Bird LLP. He studied law at the Universities of Freiburg and Bonn, Germany; received an LL.M. degree from the University of Maastricht, Netherlands, and a doctorate from the University of Cologne, Germany. During his traineeship, he worked inter alia in the competition law team of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Cologne and Brussels, Belgium.

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 based in Germany.

Judge Hoffmann was appointed to the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Court of Justice) in Karlsruhe, Germany in 2010. He is a member of the 10th Civil Division (X. Zivilsenat) which has, inter alia, jurisdiction on patent dispute matters. Prior to this appointment, he was a Judge at the Oberlandesgericht (Higher Regional Court) and the Landgericht (Regional Court) in Frankfurt am Main, where he still resides. Before taking the Bench, he worked as an assistant to lawyers admitted to the Bundesgerichtshof in Karlsruhe, drafting submissions on civil law appeals held before the Bundesgerichtshof.

Judge Hoffmann was a member of the Expert Group of European Commission on licensing and valuation of Standard Essential Patents.

He studied law at the Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, where he is now a lecturer teaching patent law.

Patrick Hofkens joined Ericsson in November 2013 as Director IPR Policy. He works in the intellectual property and licensing unit of Ericsson and focuses primarily on F/RAND related topics and IPR policies of standardization organizations. He previously worked as Corporate Secretary and Chief Development Officer for a company active in the telecom sector focused on the design and development of products and services for the M2M market. Patrick also acted as chairman of the Board of directors of M4S, a spin off from IMEC, active in the development of reconfigurable RF transceivers. Prior to that, he worked in private practice as Counsel at Loyens&Loeff. Patrick has a master degree in law from the University of Leuven, a master after master degree in company law from the University of Brussel and is finalizing an executive master in law & artificial intelligence at the Brussels School of Competition.

Kamil Kiljański is currently the deputy director responsible for intellectual property at Directorate General for Single Market and Industry (DG GROW). Prior to this posting, he had been in charge of space data and international relations at Directorate General for Space and Defence (DG DEFIS), served as the Chief Economist and worked on regulatory matters in network industries and financial services. Kamil began his career at the Commission at the then newly established Chief Economist Team at Directorate General for Competition (DG COMP). Prior to that, he had been a senior economist at an antitrust micro-economic consultancy in its London office. He holds a PhD in economics and an LLM in EU law.

Aleksandra Kuźnicka-Cholewa – PhD at the Institute of Law Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences, attorney-at-law cooperating with IP/TMC practice at CMS.

She has been a member of the European Commission’s expert group on licensing and valuation of standard essential patents. Aleksandra is a lecturer on various postgraduate studies and courses concerning IP aspects of new technologies and an author of various patent related publications, including monography on standardization of new technologies and its influence on the scope of freedom to exercise patent rights.

She specialises in intellectual property law (in particular in patents, SEPs and FRAND related issues) and represents clients in court cases concerning such issues as infringements of patents, trademarks, copyrights and moral rights, as well as issues related to counteracting unfair competition. She also assists clients in drafting and negotiating complex IP-related agreements, including technology assignment and licensing agreements. Aleksandra is also involved in setting up an IP protection strategy for clients in various sectors. She is recognised in Chambers & Partners Europe rankings and is also recommended by the Legal 500 ranking EMEA in field of Intellectual Property and by the IAM Patent 1000 ranking in the field of patent litigation.

Jamie took on the role as Head of Standard Essential Patents, IP and Competition and Regulatory Policy back in 2020. He has been at the UK IPO over the past 10 years, and involved in a number of areas of intellectual property policy, including international Trade Marks, Designs and Brands policy, copyright and European IP law and practice.

Jamie is currently responsible for overseeing the UK’s SEPs policy development, including advising seniors and Ministers on this policy, along with IP and competition issues. His team is also responsible for ensuring IP is effectively reflected in wider UK government strategies.

Jamie has a legal background that includes various roles in the Ministry of Justice including criminal and family proceeding courts. He joined the IPO during the Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property and Growth, where he was part of the legal frameworks team responsible for development and implementation of the review’s Statutory Instruments.

Jamie graduated in law at the University of South Wales and completed his Legal Practice Course. More recently he obtained a Post Graduate Diploma/Masters in UK, EU and US Copyright Law through King’s College London.

Wim Maas is a partner at Taylor Wessing in Amsterdam. He leads the Dutch & Belgium patents & innovation group and specialises in patent litigation in SEP and FRAND cases. Wim has been involved in many of the major SEP disputes of the last decade.

Taraneh Maghamé is a highly regarded IP business leader, widely recognized for her unique combination of strategic corporate IP licensing know-how and high-level government relations and policy expertise. In 2018, Ms. Maghamé was appointed to the European Commission’s Expert Group on Licensing and Valuation of Standard Essential Patents. She has been included in the IAM 300 World’s Leading IP Strategists for multiple years and is a frequent speaker on patent licensing and policy matters.

Prior to establishing Maghame IP Consulting PLLC, a firm that provides strategic counseling, legal and expert services focused on IP issues, Ms. Maghamé was vice president of wireless programs and corporate development at Via Licensing Corporation, where she developed and managed strategic multi-party licensing programs in wireless and cellular technologies. She launched Via’s multi-generational wireless patent licensing program for mobile devices, which was the first of its kind to include a license for the use of the 5G standard in connected devices.

Before joining Via in 2017, Ms. Maghamé served as senior counsel in Apple’s IP and licensing group, focusing on patent licensing strategy and standards, and represented Apple in global standards-related organizations. Before Apple, she was acting general counsel and vice president for M&A, patent policy and government relations at Tessera Technologies. In this high-profile policy role, she helped to establish the Innovation Alliance, an organization representing patent holders’ interests before Congress. She has testified before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary and the Federal Trade Commission regarding patent matters.

Ms. Maghamé has served as senior IP counsel at Hewlett-Packard and Compaq Computer Corporation and has been a member of distinguished IP law firms Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison and Perkins Coie, specializing in IP litigation, licensing and counselling. She is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Centre and is admitted to practice in California and Washington State, as well as before the USPTO.

Roderick McConnell is IP Counsel at Continental Automotive Technologies, where he is member of the SEP Team with a focus on licensing. He has a technical background in Computer Science and is admitted to practice before the US Patent and Trademark Office, the German Patent and Trademark Office, and the European Patent Office. Roderick has long experience with licensing in, complemented by a few years of experience doing licensing out.

Dr Luke McDonagh is an Assistant Professor at LSE. Luke has published widely in respected journals including the Modern Law Review, the Cambridge Law Journal, the Journal of Law and Society, Intellectual Property Quarterly and Civil Justice Quarterly. Luke is the author of the monograph European Patent Litigation in the Shadow of the Unified Patent Court (Edward Elgar, 2016) and the co-author (along with Prof. Stavroula Karapapa of the University of Reading) of the text book Intellectual Property Law (OUP, 2019). His most recent monograph is Performing Copyright: Law, Theatre and Authorship (Hart, 2021).

Tilman Müller-Stoy is widely recognized as a leading German patent litigator. Co-heading the European patent litigation group of BARDEHLE PAGENBERG, he already is one of the pioneers at the European Unified Patent Court. With over 20 years of experience in IP, he has handled several hundreds of patent disputes (including entitlement proceedings) in courts and patent offices, with a focus on high-profile, multinational matters. He frequently takes on a coordinating role, acting as the European lead counsel, so clients benefit from his solid understanding of the laws and procedures of all relevant jurisdictions. His expertise spans numerous technologies and sectors, for instance telecommunications, IT, consumer electronics, automotive, medical devices, and life sciences. Trained as a commercial mediator, Tilman also assists his clients in IP-related ADR proceedings, including national and international mediation and arbitration.

Tilman is particularly sought after in SEP/FRAND matters, having in-depth knowledge of numerous standards and related industry practice including the underlying economics. He assists his clients not only in such litigation but also in avoiding or preparing for it – be it as lead negotiator be it as trusted advisor in the background. As one of just a few, he already has comprehensive experience in the areas of 5G, connected cars, and IoT.

A significant part of Tilman’s daily work relates to technology transfer including licensing, R & D agreements, and corresponding aspects of antitrust law. He has vast experience not only in defending against, but also creating, evaluating, and enforcing major licensing programs, including compulsory licensing proceedings in the pharmaceutical area. His clients are large multinational corporations primarily headquartered in the US, Asia, and Europe as well as highly innovative SMEs that are hidden champions in their fields.

Brian W. Napper is a Senior Managing Director with Ocean Tomo, a part of J.S. Held. Mr. Napper has over 30 years’ experience in the evaluation and quantification of economic damages arising from patent, copyright and trademark infringement and trade secret misappropriation disputes. He has provided testimony for US Federal and State Courts, governmental agencies and Arbitration panels (including International Chamber of Commerce Arbitration matters) on issues of infringement damages, licensing disputes and setting Fair Reasonable and Non‐Discriminatory (“FRAND”) rates. Mr. Napper has testified in federal courts and International Arbitration matters typically on the subject of intellectual property damages over 75 times. Further, much of his project experience involves advising companies on strategic valuation and commercialization of their intellectual property assets. Mr. Napper’s intellectual property work spans numerous industries, including life sciences/pharmaceutical, telecom, semiconductors, software, clean energy, cloud computing, medical devices and social media, and he has extensive experience with clients based in Asia and Mr. Napper has extensive experience in determining FRAND/RAND rates for SEPs in a variety of situations. These projects have included either consulting with companies negotiating license agreements for SEPs related to a number of standards or analyzing RAND royalty rates in the context of disputes (International Arbitration and U.S. federal court). These standards include but are not limited to:

In addition to his disputes work, Mr. Napper has worked with and advised SEP owners as well as potential licensees to SEPs (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 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 is currently 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.” Since its founding in 2010, Mr. Napper has been a featured speaker at University College London (UCL) annual Patents in Telecom Conference hosted by Sir Robin Jacob (formerly Lord Justice of Appeal, Court of Appeal of England & Wales). Typically, in London, with rotations in Tokyo and Washington DC, this conference features U.S. federal judges and company representatives from the various aspects of the telecom infrastructure including chip makers, screen display manufacturers, global mobile device companies, infrastructure and service providers.

Earl Nied founded Veracity IP Consulting LLC in 2023. Veracity IP offers strategic planning assistance to clients interested in joining Standards Development Organizations (SDOs), creating inter-company SDOs and consortia, and exploring business considerations related to Intellectual Property Rights.

Before forming Veracity IP, Earl was Intel Corporation’s US Director of IP Policy and Global Director of Intellectual Property Rights Matters relating to Standards. During his 40+ year tenure at Intel, Earl managed engineering and legal teams and held the director position in Intel’s Policy & Regulatory Affairs Group. He was twice recognized with the prestigious Intel Achievement Award.

Throughout his career, Earl established and managed several industry trade associations. In 2022, he served as the President of the US*MADE.

Earl serves on the Board of Directors and Executive Standards Council for the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). He chaired ANSI’s Intellectual Property Rights Policy Committee (IPRPC) from 2012-2015, participated on the Board for 10+ years, and received the ANSI Meritorious Service Award in 2009. Over his career, he contributed heavily to the IPR Policies of ANSI, Audio Video Coding Standard Workgroup of China (AVS), China Electronics Standardization Institute CESI, DVB, ECMA International ETSI, JEDEC, IEEE, InfiniBand Trade Association, ITU/ISO/IEC, PCI SIG, USB Developers, and USB Implementers Forum, et al.

Earl continues to advise policymakers of the US, the EU, Japan, the UK, and China.

Dr Igor Nikolic is a Research Fellow at European University Institute (EUI). He specialises and writes in the areas of intellectual property rights, competition law, standard essential patents (SEPs), innovation and the digital economy. He authored a book, Licensing Standard Essential Patents: FRAND and the Internet of Things (Hart Publishing 2021) and his research is also published in academic journals. He taught competition and intellectual property law at EUI, University College London and University of Turin. Igor holds a PhD in IP Law from University College London and is a qualified attorney at law. From September 2023, he will be a Director of IP Policy at Nokia.

Michał Nita holds a master’s degree in sinology and law from the University of Warsaw. He also held a one-year scholarship in Chinese language and culture at Peking University. Michał currently works at the IP&TMT Department of the Domański Zakrzewski Palinka law firm. He specialises in industrial property law and copyright law. He also deals with issues relating to unfair competition law, media law and cyber security. He is the author of academic publications on intellectual property law and new technology law, including a monograph on the protection of reputable trademarks in Poland and China.

Dr. Padilla earned M. Phil and D. Phil degrees in Economics from the University of Oxford. He is Research Fellow at the Centro de Estudios Monetarios y Financieros (CEMFI, Madrid) and teaches competition economics at the Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).

He has given expert testimony before the competition authorities and courts of several EU member states, as well as in cases before the European Commission. Dr. Padilla has submitted written testimony to the European General Court, and the UK Competition Appeals Tribunal in cartel, merger control and abuse of dominance cases. He has also given expert testimony in various civil litigation (damages), international arbitration cases, and competition cases in non-EU jurisdictions (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, India, Israel, Jamaica, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey, and the United States).

Dr. Padilla has written numerous papers on competition policy, industrial organization and finance in the Antitrust Bulletin, the Antitrust Law Journal, the Economic Journal, the Energy Journal, the European Competition Journal, the European Competition Law Review, the Fordham International Law Journal, Industrial and Corporate Change, the International Journal of Industrial Organization, the Journal of Competition Law and Economics, the Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, the Journal of Industrial Economics, the Journal of Economic Theory, the RAND Journal of Economics, the Review of Financial Studies, the University of Chicago Law Review, and World Competition.

Member of the Board of Trustees of the Fide Foundation.

He is also co-author of The Law and Economics of Article 102 TFEU, 3rd edition, Hart Publishing, 2020.

Peter Pereira is a partner in the IP Litigation team in Kirkland’s London office. He has a broad practice across all aspects of IP litigation but has particular expertise in SEP/FRAND litigation. Peter has acted both for SEP holders and implementers and is often called upon to drive forward creative litigation strategies to secure his client’s goals. Peter’s recent cases include acting for Thales against Kigen, the first FRAND-first litigation in the UK High Court, Xiaomi against Sisvel, and AutoStore against Ocado (which included three UPC actions).

The 2023 edition of the The Legal 500 UK describes Peter as someone who “carries with him judgment beyond his years. He has an astute perception of the judge’s likely view which informs his decisions in litigation”. JUVE Patent describes Peter as “a rising star – he is young but very good”. Peter is ranked in IAM Patent 1000 for 2023, which describes him as “a quick thinker… his knowledge, communication and organisation impress”. Peter is also recognised as a Notable Practitioner in Managing IP’s IP Stars.

Urška Petrovčič is senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, where she co-founded the center Forum for Intellectual Property. She is also director of economic strategy at Qualcomm, where her work focuses on innovation economics, standards, IP and antitrust. Before joining Qualcomm, she was Vice President at the economic consulting company Criterion Economics. Dr. Petrovčič holds a B.A. in law from the University of Ljubljana, a Master of Law and Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam, and an LL.M. and a Ph.D. in law from the European University Institute. Her publications on the enforcement of standard-essential patents (SEPs) include a book, Competition Law and Standard Essential Patents: A Transatlantic Perspective (Wolters Kluwer 2014), and articles in the Common Market Law Review and other journals.

Peter Georg Picht studied law at Munich University and Yale Law School, did his PhD (summa cum laude) at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, and holds a masters degree from Yale Law School.

He has been working, i.a., with the EU Commission’s DG for Competition, with the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition (Senior and Affiliated Research Fellow) as well as with two international law firms.

Prof. Picht holds a chair for Business, Competition and Intellectual Property Law at the University of Zurich and is head of the University’s Center for Intellectual Property and Competition Law (CIPCO). He is an Of Counsel with the law firm Schellenberg Wittmer and regularly engages in advisory work for the OECD, the EU Commission, and Swiss governmental agencies. Prof. Picht’s further affiliations include board memberships in the Academic Society for Competition Law (ASCOLA), the Association Européenne du Droit Èconomique (AIDE), and the Munich IP Dispute Resolution Forum. He is a regular guest professor at King’s College, London, the European University Institute, Florence, and Kyoto University.

Focus areas:

• intellectual property law
• competition law
• international private and procedural law, in particular commercial arbitration (mainly IP and Competition), trusts and estates, corporations.

Robert Pocknell is the CEO of N&M, a consultancy that has advised has small, medium and multinational companies on issues relating to standards essential patents (SEPs) for more than 25 years. N&M advised ETSI on the creation and implementation of the 1994 ETSI IPR Policy, and was a founding member of the Fair Standards Alliance, a Brussels based organisation created to advocate for fairer and more transparent SEP licensing. Robert was Chair of the Fair Standards Alliance for 6 years.

Attorney-at-Law, Senior Partner and co-founder of Traple Konarski Podrecki i Wspólnicy. An expert legal practitioner with a long track record in intellectual property law, competition law, new technologies law, civil and litigation law. Paweł acts as a proxy and counsel to the management of numerous Polish companies and foreign companies operating in Poland. At TKP, he oversees the IP practice, which is the largest and is a frequently recommended practice group. He has been frequently recommended in Polish and international intellectual property law and competition law rankings (including Chambers Europe, Chambers Global, WTR1000, Legal 500 and Rzeczpospolita).

Paweł combines his legal practice with numerous external projects. He conducts academic projects at Polish and foreign universities. He also is involved in work on legislative proposals and produces expert opinions for the Polish Sejm and Senate.

Paweł combines his legal practice with academic work. He is a professor at the Institute of Law Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences (INP PAN), and head of the Private Law Center and New Technologies Law Center at the INP PAN. He is also head of new technologies law and public procurement law postgraduate studies. He gives lectures and seminars at the Jagiellonian University on civil law, industrial property law, and law on competition and combating unfair competition. He has authored a number of publications on intellectual property law, competition law, and EU law issues.

Alexander Prenter is the Senior Policy Officer for the Fair Standards Alliance, an international trade association advocating for the licensing of standard essential patents on “fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory” terms. His work focuses primarily on leading the association’s work in markets around the world including, the European Union, United States, United Kingdom and Japan. Alexander holds a Master of Laws in Intellectual Property Law from KU Leuven, a Master of Arts in European Interdisciplinary Studies from the College of Europe, and Master of Arts in Ancient History from the University of Auckland.

Collette Rawnsley, Head of European IP Policy and Advocacy, Nokia

Collette Rawnsley is the Head of IP policy & Advocacy at Nokia Technologies. Collette has extensive experience in providing strategic advice on regulatory and policy matters regarding IP licensing in the technology and media sectors, including standard essential patents, FRAND disputes, and patent pools. Before joining Nokia in January 2021, she spent 15 years in private practice in London and Brussels and was involved in some of the leading cases concerning the intersection of IP and competition law. Collette was the head of EU Competition at Wiggin LLP, a law firm specialising in media, technology and intellectual property. Previously, she was counsel at Shearman & Sterling LLP. Before entering private practice, Collette was senior Référendaire at the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal and a lawyer in the UK Government Legal Department.

Dr. Michael Schlögl, Head of IP SEP, Continental

Dr. Michael Schlögl is head of IP SEP at Continental. Michael is responsible for finding solutions in the ongoing disputes between SEP holders and manufacturers like Continental and other companies from the automotive industry. Michael is also handling SEP and FRAND related cases for Continental in the US. Michael holds a PhD in high energy physics and has been active in the field of IP since 2001. He started his IP career with Siemens and joined Continental in the year 2007. At Continental he built up an IP department in eastern Europe and was involved in several IP related legislative initiatives while there. Michael is actively involved in the development of a SEP licensing framework in Europe, serving on several SEP-focused working groups in various associations. In December 2020 Michael was elected to the ETSI board. In addition, Michael serves as a FSA board member.

Uta Schneider leads European government and EU relations and public policy strategy for Marconi, working with legislators, elected officials, governmental and other agencies as well as trade organizations and industry groups.

Before Marconi, Uta held roles in Brussels for TERMA, a Danish company working in the defense, space, aerospace and security sectors, and with Diehl Group, a global technology and engineering company.

With a master’s degree in Political Science, Modern History and Governmental Law from the University of Bonn in Germany, Uta speaks German, English and French. She is based in Brussels, Belgium.

Cordula Schumacher is a partner of ARNOLD RUESS, a boutique IP firm in Düsseldorf, Germany. Her key area of specialization is patent litigation. She has been involved in a number of high-profile cases, e.g. the FRAND decisions by the German Federal Court of Justice re Sisvel v Haier or the first Anti-anti-suit-injunctions in Germany.

The JUVE Handbook German Commercial Law Firms has her as one of nationwide 13 “Leading Partners under 50 years” in patent law.

Legal 500 praises “excellent communicator” and “vigorous specialist” Cordula Schumacher as a “top patent litigator” whose performance amazes clients”. As a “strategic thinker identifying the key issues” and as “accessible, expert in her field”, she offers a “prompt and reliable service”. She is continuously praised by listings as an expert in her field in IAM Patent 1000 as “an impressive lawyer with a sharp mind and excellent technical understanding” and Chambers and is highly recommended by Leaders League. Chambers reports about client appraisal: “She is extremely dynamic, very reliable and able to find new, creative solutions.”

Ms. Schumacher pursued her law and supplementary business studies at the Universities of Bayreuth and Cologne (Germany), Hawaii Pacific (USA) and Sorbonne-Panthéon, Paris I (France). She holds a Masters Degree in Intellectual Property Law from the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf and speaks German, English, French and Spanish.

Toby specialises in patent litigation in the tech sector, advising on large scale international matters for well-known names in the telecoms, IT and software sectors.

Toby has been involved in many of the leading cases in the electronics and telecommunications sectors in the UK and much of his work involves cross-border disputes, with litigation often taking place in the UK in parallel with actions around the globe. Toby specialises in patent, Standard Essential Patent (SEP) and FRAND litigation across all areas of technology.

Toby’s practice spans the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court as well as international arbitration and mediation. More generally, his experience includes the day-to-day management of complex matters and close co-ordination with counsel, expert witnesses and clients.

Toby graduated from King’s College, University of London with a first class BSc in Pharmacology and worked with clients in the life-sciences sector on a number of significant pharmaceutical cases before focussing on his tech practice.

Toby worked in Bird & Bird’s and Allen & Overy’s IP Groups based in London before moving to CMS.

Rafał Sikorski, PhD (Adam Mickiewicz University), LLM (Central European University), is a professor of law at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Poland). His major research areas include patent remedies, the nexus between IP and competition law, standard essential patents, as well as various forms of private ordering in IP and particularly patent law. He has published on patent pools, access to standard essential patents, patent remedies, conflicts-of-law rules for IP contracts and IP infringement as well as copyright law. Results of his research appeared in books published by Edward Elgar, Cambridge University Press, Wolters Kluwer and C. H. Beck. At the Law Faculty of Adam Mickiewicz University, he teaches various courses on IP, civil law, private international law and European Union law. Rafal Sikorski is also an attorney-at-law at one of the leading Polish law firms where he advises clients in matters related to licensing and protection of IP.

Peter R. Slowinski is a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in Munich. He is admitted as attorney-at-law (Rechtsanwalt) in Germany. He is also qualified as mediator.

He studied law at the University of Passau, the Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, Cardiff University in Wales and Stanford Law School. At Stanford Law School he obtained a Master in the Science of Law (J.S.M.) after researching on alternative dispute resolution and patent law as part of the Stanford Program in International Legal Studies (SPILS). He has given lectures at Stanford Law School and the Munich Intellectual Property Law Center (MIPLC). Until the end of 2016, he practiced as a patent litigator in infringement and nullity proceedings with a global law firm in Munich. In this capacity he represented clients in the Regional and Higher Regional Courts in Germany as well as the German Federal Patent Court and the Federal Supreme Court.

His research focuses on patents and dispute resolution. He has published on copyright law and patent law. His doctoral research concerns the appropriate balance in the enforcement of IPRs. Peter Slowinski has conducted an empirical study on mediation proceedings in patent law at Stanford Law School and participated in the SPC Study of the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition. He is a member of the research groups on data driven economies and artificial intelligence as well as life sciences at the Max Planck Institute. He has co-authored several issue and opinion papers published by the MPI.

Eric Stasik is founder of Avvika AB a consulting firm located in Stockholm, Sweden specializing in licensing standard essential patents (SEPs) for the telecommunications industry. An electrical engineer by training, Eric has worked with SEP licensing for over 30 years in a variety of roles, beginning as a patent engineer in Ericsson’s nascent handset division in the early 1990s, moving to Stockholm to become IPR manager for Ericsson’s GSM/UMTS infrastructure business during the rapid expansion of GSM and the development and launch of UMTS, and finally as corporate director of IPR and licensing. An independent consultant since 2002, Eric has advised and provided licensing support to a broad spectrum of business interests including, network operators, infrastructure manufacturers, handset manufacturers, chipset manufacturers, component manufacturers, software developers, independent inventors, as well as non-practicing entities (NPEs). He has worked with licensing SEPs for ETSI, 3GPP, ITU, and IEEE standards as well as with non-SEPs. He has served as an advisor to start-ups and investors. He is also sometimes invited to speak at conferences on the subject of FRAND licensing. A hands-on practitioner, Eric has lead ‘round the table’ commercial SEP licensing negotiations from both sides of the table, sometimes on behalf of licensors and sometimes on behalf of licensees. Eric has also served as an expert witness on FRAND licensing in a number of high-profile cases.

Martin Stierle is an Associate Professor in Intellectual Property Law at the Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance at the University of Luxembourg. Moreover, he is the founding Co-Director of the Center for Intellectual Property Law, Information and Technology (CIPLITEC) in Munich (Germany). His main field of academic interest is the intersection of law and technology. His current works include legal-economic projects on patent enforcement, compulsory licensing and open innovation.

Before joining the University of Luxembourg, Martin Stierle was working at the Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) of Munich, the DFG Graduate School “Intellectual Property and the Public Domain”, and the University of California, Berkeley. In 2017, he received his doctorate from the LMU Munich with a thesis on non-practiced patents.

Marta Sznajder holds a PhD in law degree obtained at the University of Warsaw as well as attorney-at-law qualifications with more than ten years of experience in intellectual property matters. Marta specialises in patent law, combining her legal practice and extensive academic background with knowledge of technical aspects of cases she is involved in. She has experience in various range of international technology sectors, including telecommunications, providing strategic advice on international and domestic level, and representing clients in the court proceedings. Marta is an author or co-author of numerous publications relating to the protection of intellectual property rights. She is an active member of the Association for the Protection of Industrial Property (the Polish National Group of AIPPI) and a member of Standards and Patents Standing Committee at AIPPI.

Teo Taponen is a Senior Director at InterDigital’s patent licensing team. He joined the team in May 2021 and is coordinating the IoT licensing efforts at InterDigital. Additionally, he is working on customer cases in wireless and consumer electronic space and various different business development projects. Before joining InterDigital, Teo was part of Nokia’s patent licensing team where he was specifically developing Nokia’s IoT licensing efforts and related new business models. Before moving to the patent licensing area, Teo worked as an inhouse counsel and Director, Legal, at Nokia’s Devices and Services -business unit and continued in the same role when the business was acquired by Microsoft. Teo has an LLM from the University of Helsinki.