IP Protection for Plant Innovation 2022

Michael is founder of his own IP and strategy consulting firm. From 2007 to October 2017 Michael was Head Intellectual Property for Syngenta Crop Protection AG based in Basel, Switzerland. He studied chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology in Hamburg, Germany, and Nanjing, China, and graduated with a Diploma in chemistry and has a Ph.D. in molecular biology. Michael Kock is also a qualified Swiss and European Patent Attorney.

Michael Keller is General Secretary of the International Seed Federation since 2014. Prior to taking up the position, he was with DuPont where he has acquired extensive experience in crop protection, food and feed issues and renewable resources. Michael started his career working for the French Senate and then had a leading role in the Mayors Association. He represented constituents' interests at the European level and regularly interacted with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Bank. Michael holds a bachelor degree in law from the University of Mannheim, a Post-graduate diploma in political science, a master in European law and has done a cycle of post-graduate European studies.
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Mr. Peter Button was appointed Vice Secretary-General of UPOV on December 1, 2010, having previously held the role of Technical Director at UPOV since 2000. Mr. Button, a national of the United Kingdom, holds a B.Sc. Honors degree in Biological Sciences. From 1981 to 1987 he worked for Twyford Seeds Ltd., a plant breeding company in the United Kingdom, on the development of new cereal varieties. Between 1987and 1994 he was the General Manager of Twygen Ltd., a company which developed micropropagation systems for the commercial production of seed potatoes and soft fruit stocks and continued as General Manager, following the change of ownership, of GenTech Propagation Ltd. in1994. In 1996, Mr. Button joined the British Society of Plant Breeders as Technical Liaison Manager, where his responsibilities included the operation of officially licensed variety trials. In 1998, he became Technical Liaison Officer for the United Kingdom Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Plant Variety and Seeds Division), where he was responsible for the operation of the tests and trials associated with the United Kingdom Plant Breeders’ Rights and National List schemes and Seed Certification in England and Wales and was the United Kingdom representative in the UPOV Technical Committee.

Heli Pihlajamaa, Director Patent Law, EPO Munich, studied Law at Helsinki University and at Max Planck Institute in Munich. Heli acts as legal member in opposition cases and advises EPO higher management on policy issues and legal amendments. She is responsible for supporting the EPO policy by developing, strengthening and promoting the EPC, including proposals for legal changes, compliance of operations with patent law-related norms and case law. Before joining the EPO she worked in both the private and public sectors. She has written books and articles on patent law in Finnish and is fluent in English, German, Swedish, Finnish and French.

Mr Francesco MATTINA is President of the Community Plant Variety Office (Angers - France). He graduated in Law and obtained a Master degree in European Union Law and Intellectual Property Law from the European College of Parma and the Magister Lucentinus of the University of Alicante. After his degrees, he worked during several years as a specialized lawyer dealing with infringements of Intellectual Property Rights. He also served as lecturer of Intellectual Property Law in several Italian Universities. Nowadays, his field of practise focuses on plant variety rights.

Szonja is Hungarian and holds a degree in law from ELTE Budapest University, an MA in French and European Law from Panthéon-Assas University (Paris) and an LL.M. in IP and Competition Law from the University of Liège (Belgium). Before joining ESA she worked at the Budapest office of the law firm Gide Loyrette Nouel and at the European Commission. In 2009 she became ESA’s Manager Intellectual Property and Legal Affairs. Within ESA she is primarily responsible for issues related to intellectual property protection and plant genetic resources and also handles all seed legislation related legal questions. She represents ESA towards relevant international organizations, European Institutions as well as the Community Plant Variety Office.

Dr. Petra Jorasch holds a PhD in plant molecular biology from the University of Hamburg. She worked for the plant breeding association in Germany (BDP) in different positions dealing with IP, technology transfer as well as with regulatory issues concerning modern plant breeding methods. Petra joined the European Seed Association (ESA) in February 2017 as the spokesperson of the EU plant breeding sector on modern plant breeding methods and innovative technologies. Petra is also member of the ISF Working Group Plant Breeding Innovation.

Dominic Muyldermans is an independent lawyer since August 2011 with a focus on regulatory issues and issues of intellectual property in the area of green biotechnology. In his capacity as independent lawyer he is working as Senior Legal Consultant IGO Affairs for CropLife International since then. He is responsible for following up on access and benefit sharing and intellectual property related to plant biotech.

Claudia Hallebach is Head of Global Legal and Intellectual Property at the KWS Group. Besides her overall responsibilities for KWS Legal and IP strategy, commercial and RD transactions as well as corporate matters, she represents KWS in several industry associations such as ISF; Euroseeds and BDP for IP and Legal policy matters. Claudia is a lawyer by training and successfully completed a postgraduate LLM in European and International Laws at the University of London. She started her professional career at the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture followed by a position as Managing Director of the Working Group Agriculture in the Leading German Business Association (BDI).

Dr. Sonja Woitsch is Head of Intellectual Property at KWS SAAT SE & Co. KGaA. She joined KWS in 2006 and has 16 years of experience in the plant breeding industry. Sonja has strong expertise in plant IP and policy matters, R&D and business strategy development, IP validation, portfolio management, M&A transactions, and due diligence processes. Since December 2020 she is a board member of the International Licensing Platform (ILP) Vegetable. She studied Biology at the University Konstanz, Germany and graduated with a Diploma in Biology and a PhD in plant physiology and biochemistry.

Nicolas Amelot studied genetics and molecular biology at the Toulouse III University and obtained a Ph.D. in plant biosciences in 2010. He started to study Intellectual Property law the same year and holds a Master of Laws from the Toulouse I University. He started his IP career at Syngenta as a patent counsel for the Seeds & Biotechnology Division, working especially on seeds traits and enabling technologies such as RNA interference and genome editing. He took responsibilities of gradual importance within Syngenta over the last 10 years and is currently the Global IP Lead for both Vegetables and Flowers Divisions. In his position, Nicolas has extensive experience in all aspects of plant patent and PVP laws, all the way from drafting to litigation, as well as in advising the business in all collaboration, licensing and M&A deals.

Dr. Gilsohn is an experienced Intellectual Property executive, specialising in leading global IP strategy of biotech and pharma companies at various stages. Prior to joining Tropic Biosciences Dr. Gilsohn was Principal Patent Counsel at Quark Pharmaceuticals, responsible for a patent portfolio of siRNA-based clinical-stage products. He also held positions in leading private practice firms both in the UK and Israel, directing IP portfolios of multinationals, SMEs and start-up companies. He holds a PhD in Molecular Genetics from the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel) and an MBA specializing in Bio-Medical Management.

Dan has a PhD in microbiology and cancer biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has a JD, with distinction, from Stanford Law School. Before attending law school, Dan was director of intellectual property at Third Wave Technologies, where he managed a large international patent portfolio and licensing and litigation matters. Dan’s practice focuses on life sciences intellectual property litigation. He counsels clients regarding disputes in a wide variety of technology areas, including agricultural technology. He publishes regularly on plant-related patents.

Malathi has more than 30 years of experience in the field of biochemistry and Molecular Biology with an expertise in plant genomics, DNA fingerprinting and genetic transformation. She has more than 100 publications to her credit in various International and Indian journals. Prior to joining the firm, she served as the Head, Centre for Bioresource & Biotechnology Division in The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI) for a period of 17 years. At present, she serves as a Director and heads the life science group at the IP division of the firm. She is a registered patent agent and has been actively engaged in preparing, filing and prosecuting of patent applications, both in India and abroad. She mainly works on pharmaceutical, chemical and biotechnological patent applications. She advises clients on plant variety protection and registration. She is actively involved in the area of Biodiversity and Traditional knowledge.

Elliot has been advising Global companies on IP strategies for almost 26 years, the last 16 of these from Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai, where he currently lives and works. He specialises in China patent and trade secret litigation. He represents Europe's leading companies in enforcing their patents and utility models and over the last 7 years or so has developed a reputation for defending them against patent infringement lawsuits brought by Chinese competitors.
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A partner of Dannemann Siemens Advogados, Gustav is an attorney at law licensed in Brazil and has a degree in Electronic Engineering. His practice areas include amongst other litigation, patents and plant varieties. He is also IP law professor at the São Paulo Law School.

Marc Cool is Global Seed Policy Leader for Corteva Agriscience TM. He attended the Agricultural University of Wageningen in the Netherlands where he graduated with a Masters Degree in Plant Breeding and Plant Pathology. Marc's 30-year seed experience spans the alfalfa seed industry in California where he developed new markets for proprietary varieties and technology, to the turf and forage grass industry in Oregon where he worked in sales, marketing and management. Marc was General Manager of an organic vegetable seed company before moving to China as Director of Marketing and Product Strategy at DuPont Pioneer, and he now works in the External Affairs Division of the new Corteva Agriscience Company. Marc is an active member of various seed trade associations, and is actively engaged in legislative and regulatory affairs guiding the global seed industry. As a fifth generation seedsman, Marc spent most of his summers detasselling and breeding corn on his grandfather’s corn seed farm in Wisconsin.