After spending 10 years as a Research Scientist in Munich and Cambridge, Claudia entered the patent profession in 2008 and held both in-house (for two Cambridge University spinouts) and private practice roles (in London, Cambridge and Edinburgh) before becoming an IP Entrepreneur in 2019. She is the Founder of Innovare IP, a full-service legal practice, and IP Bloks, a LegalTech venture.

Claudia also spent one year working in university research commercialisation in Scotland, engaging directly with the Scottish Microelectronics Centre at the University of Edinburgh.

She is the Chair of CIPA’s IP Commercialisation Committee and Vice-Chair of epi’s IP Awareness Working Group.  She is also a Member of the UKIPO’s IP Finance Advisory Group, CIPA’s Public Affairs Committe  and epi’s IP Commercialisation Committee, as well as a Professional Member of the Economy and Enterprise Committee of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

David Ewing leads BAE Systems Launchpad, the company’s technology incubator and investment arm designed to take dual-use technologies beyond the defence sector and help cutting-edge innovations reach their full commercial potential.
He holds an MEng in Mechanical Engineering from Heriot Watt University and is a qualified UK and European patent attorney and a member of the CIPA IP Commercialisation Committee. He originally started at BAE Systems as a manufacturing engineer working on the F35 Joint Strike Fighter before retraining internally as a Patent Attorney, eventually managing several of BAE Systems UK business patent portfolios.
With over a decade of defence experience, he is adept at forging strategic collaborations with universities, engineers, venture builders and investors to create shared value and accelerate technology commercialisation.
He is passionate about emerging technologies and thrives on connecting with innovators and industry leaders worldwide.

Freddy Guemeni is Associate Director of IP Strategy and Intelligence at the University of Manchester Innovation Factory, where he leads IP Services and supports the senior leadership team in shaping the organisation’s approach to intellectual property. His work focuses on integrating IP and innovation intelligence across the commercialisation pipeline to support informed decision-making, value creation and strategic differentiation.

A qualified European Patent Attorney with over a decade of experience in research commercialisation and strategic IP management, Freddy oversees the University’s IP portfolio and external patent counsel network. He was listed in the IAM Strategy 300: The World’s Leading IP Strategists in 2024 and 2025.

Freddy began his career drafting medicinal chemistry patents in the biopharma sector before moving into university technology transfer and innovation consultancy roles, including at Imperial Innovations, the NIHR and Inventya. He holds the Master of Intellectual Property Law and Management from CEIPI, Université de Strasbourg, co-developed with the European Patent Office.

Daryl is Senior Director and Head of IP Prosecution at Arm. He has a degree and PhD in Electronics from York and joined Arm in 2001 as an engineer, working on CPU design and research where he was named as an inventor on 16 patent families. Becoming interested in innovation and IP rights, he moved in-house to retrain as a patent attorney at Marks & Clerk where he qualified as a CPA and EPA. Rejoining Arm in 2013, he first managed patent prosecution for a variety of different technology portfolios, building out processes to manage the intersection of open source and patents, supporting M&A activities, before talking on the role of head of patent prosecution. Today, in his role as global head of IP prosecution he has a team of 9 people, a portfolio of over 10,000 active patents and applications and over 500 trademarks registrations to keep him and the team busy.

John-Paul Rooney is a Partner and European and UK Patent Attorney at Withers & Rogers, based in Sheffield. He leads several multinational client teams for UK-based and overseas clients, advising on patent strategy and portfolio development, and ensuring high standards of work product delivery. His work focuses on electronics and software technologies, including telecommunications (5G), computing, video coding, vehicle systems and new energy, with significant experience in standards‑essential patents. John-Paul holds a PhD in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from the University of Leeds and began his career in industry as an engineering technician and later as a design engineer. He is passionate about solving problems and ensuring the sustainable future of the profession.

Anna Molony is a UK and European Patent Attorney with over 25 years’ experience across private practice, in-house roles and IP-led businesses, including founding and growing two patent firms and establishing an in-house patent function within a venture-backed technology company. She is Co-Founder of Two IP, a modern IP firm built around a fee-share consultancy model, enabling experienced patent and trade mark attorneys to build their own practices within a structured, supported environment. Through both her own career and her work with senior attorneys across the profession, she has developed a particular interest in how career pathways in IP are structured and experienced, including the factors that influence progression, visibility and long-term career sustainability.

Chris Mercer joined the patent profession in 1975 and passed the UK Finals exams in 1979. For the majority of his career, Chris was either a partner or a consultant for Carpmaels & Ransford, with a large practice in oppositions and appeals at the EPO and litigation before the UK courts. Chris is a member of Council for CIPA and is also on a number of CIPA committees, including the Education, Patents and Litigation Committees. He is also on epi’s Council and on various epi Committees and was a founding member of EPLIT. Chris is a former president of both CIPA and epi. He appeared as an advocate in a Moot Court event in 1977.

Anna Molony is a UK and European Patent Attorney with over 25 years’ experience across private practice, in-house roles and IP-led businesses, including founding and growing two patent firms and establishing an in-house patent function within a venture-backed technology company. She is Co-Founder of Two IP, a modern IP firm built around a fee-share consultancy model, enabling experienced patent and trade mark attorneys to build their own practices within a structured, supported environment. Through both her own career and her work with senior attorneys across the profession, she has developed a particular interest in how career pathways in IP are structured and experienced, including the factors that influence progression, visibility and long-term career sustainability.

Barry Moore is Managing Director, Patents at Murgitroyd and an Irish, UK and European Patent Attorney and a Professional Representative at the EU IPO for trade mark and designs matters with 25+ years’ experience in Intellectual Property and private practice which includes co-founding Hanna Moore + Curley in 2003 prior to it being acquired by Murgitroyd in 2021.

He advises clients on patent prosecution, IP strategy, due diligence and opinion work, and has also supported international litigation. His work focuses particularly on telecommunications, mobile devices, security and software, with further experience in mechanical, electronic and medical device technologies.

Barry has prosecuted thousands of patent applications, drafted hundreds more, and is regularly called on by international clients for oral proceedings before the EPO’s Examination and Opposition Divisions and Boards of Appeal. He studied Experimental Physics at University College Dublin and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys. He leads a group of 140+ Patent professionals and as a member of the Executive Management Team supports the strategic direction of Murgitroyd. An early adopter of AI, Barry represents Murgitroyd at national and international conferences.

David J. Kappos is a partner in Cravath’s Corporate Department and is Co-Chair of the Intellectual Property Practice. He is widely recognized as one of the world’s foremost leaders in the field of intellectual property, including intellectual property management and strategy, the development of global intellectual property norms, laws and practices as well as commercialization and enforcement of innovation-based assets.

Mr. Kappos advises Cravath’s clients on a wide range of their most complex intellectual property issues, including those pertaining to artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptoassets and fintech, as well as cybersecurity and data privacy.

From August 2009 to January 2013, Mr. Kappos served as Under Secretary of Commerce and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Prior to leading the USPTO, Mr. Kappos served as litigation counsel, Asia Pacific IP counsel and, from 2003 to 2009, Vice President and Chief Intellectual Property Lawyer for IBM.

Mr. Kappos serves on the Boards of Directors of the Partnership for Public Service, the Center for Global Enterprise and the Intellectual Property Owners Education Foundation. He is the Chair of the Advisory Council of the Naples Roundtable and is a Co-Chair of the Best Practices in Intellectual Property Conference.

Dr Hubertus Schacht is the Presiding Judge of the 21st Chamber of the Munich District Court, which specialises in patent litigation. Previously, he was a member of the Patent Senate of the Munich Higher Regional Court, Deputy Presiding Judge of both patent litigation chambers of the Munich District Court, as well as a Legal Officer with the Patent Law Department of the Federal Ministry of Justice in Berlin, where he was involved in the work on the Unified Patent Court. Dr Schacht is a co-author of the latest edition of the standard commentary on German patent law, “Benkard” and in the commentary “Luginbühl/Hüttermann” on the UPC. He publishes and speaks regularly about patent litigation topics. Hubertus Schacht started his career as a public prosecutor in Ingolstadt. He studied law and philosophy in Munich and Geneva and gained practical experience with law firms in Cologne, Düsseldorf, Munich and Mumbai.

Bart van den Broek graduated from the University of Amsterdam (cum laude) in 1991 and completed his LL.M. at Columbia Law School in New York in 1992.

Before joining the Unified Patent Court, Bart was a patent litigator. Bart started his career as a lawyer in 1992 in the IP department of a general practice firm in the Netherlands. During his career at that firm, Bart spent a period of time in their New York office and was seconded to an IP firm in New York, where he worked in the firm’s patent litigation group. After becoming a partner in 2000, Bart moved to a US firm to assist them setting up its European IP practice, with offices in Amsterdam, Brussels, London, Munich, Paris and Madrid. In 2010, together with a number of his European colleagues, Bart co-founded an independent European IP boutique specialising in international patent litigation, where Bart headed the Amsterdam office and was a member of the Executive Committee.

As a patent litigation lawyer, Bart has focused on national and international patent litigation in various sectors. Early in his career, Bart became involved in the litigation of standard essential patents. In addition to cases in the high-tech field, Bart has also handled cases in the pharmaceutical, mechanical and other fields.

For many years, Bart was a co-director of the “Patent Law” section of the professional education for Dutch patent attorneys. Bart regularly participates as a speaker at national and international conferences dedicated to patent law issues.

Darren Smyth is a UK and European Patent Attorney, and was the head of EIP’s chemistry practice group EIP Elements until 2023.  He now holds the position of Head of Knowledge, and is known as an authoritative commentator on IP issues, having been a regular contributor to the IPKat weblog and the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice, and contributing the UPC reports to the CIPA Journal.  His practice is now heavily focussed on contentious work including EPO oppositions and UPC litigation.

Darren has a masters degree in chemistry and DPhil in synthetic organic chemistry from the University of Oxford, and worked in Japan for two years at the Tokyo Institute of Technology before entering the patent profession.  Darren is an honorary professor at Queen Mary, University of London, where he teaches the Certificate and Masters courses aimed at trainee patent and trade mark attorneys.

Darren serves on the committee of IP Out, the LGBTQ+ community group within the IP Inclusive initiative in the UK Intellectual Property professions, and was a speaker at its inaugural event.  He is the convenor of the EIPride group within EIP.

Richard Meade was called by Lincoln’s Inn in 1991. He became a Recorder in 2009 and a Deputy High Court Judge in 2011, and has sat as a Deputy in the Chancery Division and the Patents Court since then. He started as a High Court Judge in September 2020.

Pawel (Pav) Piotrowicz is an attorney in Venner Shipley’s Electronics, Software and Communications team with over 25 years’ experience, and is the firm’s former Managing Partner. Pav played a central role in Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBA) G1/19 (Pedestrian Simulation), for which he won the Managing IP award for European Impact Case of the Year in 2022.

Mark is a Partner and patent attorney specialising in sustainable technologies, including cleantech, energy, advanced materials and engineering innovations. A member of CIPA’s Sustainability Committee and his firm’s Net Zero project group, he works with global corporations, start-ups and university spin-outs to protect and commercialise impactful technologies.

Andy is Head of IP at Ceres Power, a FTSE 250 technology licensing company developing solid oxide fuel cells and electrolysers. Ceres partners with climate conscious companies who see the market opportunity for clean energy and decarbonising industry. This partnership model enables scalability but relies on strong IP rights to secure ongoing royalty revenue.