Doctrine of Equivalents: equivalence in Europe?

Gwilym Roberts, Honorary Secretary, CIPA

Gwilym Roberts advises clients on all aspects of the patent process including IP audit and capture, IP filing strategies and patent portfolio management techniques. He acts for a range of clients including individuals, SMEs, Universities, and spin outs through to multi-nationals and handles a broad and diverse range of cases before the UK Patent Office, EPO and WIPO.

Dominic Adair, Bristows LLP

Dominic’s technical background (MA Natural Sciences, PhD Zoology) leads him to specialise primarily in patent litigation with a focus on life sciences. He has experience before the Patent Office, High Court and Court of Appeal as well as experience of Opposition proceedings before the EPO. Dominic has extensive experience of cross-border litigation in and beyond Europe. In the pharmaceutical sector, Dominic has worked on all aspects of the drug life cycle, from freedom to operate analyses and early-stage risk assessment of generic competition to end-stage litigation, SPCs and anti-trust issues. Dominic writes regularly on reported patent cases in the UK and at the EPO and is a member of EPLAW and sits on the UK council of AIPPI. He is a regular conference speaker and presenter.

Daan de Lange, Brinkhof

Kai Rüting, VOSSIUS & PARTNER

Dr. Kai Rüting is attorney since 2005 and partner of the firm since 2015. He advises clients in patent infringement litigation, technology-related arbitrations, and licensing matters. He specializes in national and cross-border patent litigation. Kai has comprehensive litigation experience, in particular in the areas of standard-related patents, electronics, medical technology, chemistry and life sciences. He also has broad experience advising international clients on strategies relating to enforcement of IP rights in Europe.

Kai passed his two German legal state exams in 2002 and 2004 in Augsburg and Munich. Afterwards, he studied at the Boston University and obtained his LL.M. in Intellectual Property in 2005. Kai’s Ph.D. work explored the validity of restrictions in software contracts under German and U.S. patent and copyright law.

Kai publishes regularly and lectures on current issues of patent and procedural law. He is inter alia co-author of the widely acclaimed “Cepl/Voß, Prozesskommentar zum Gewerblichen Rechtsschutz” (commentary on German procedural law in IP), 2nd edition published in 2018.

Kai is recommended in Chambers Global 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 “Germany – Intellectual Property” as “Foreign Expert for USA”. Managing IP describes him in Patent Editorial 2018 as “brilliant litigator whose solutions are all very well-considered”. According to JUVE, Kai is “technically competent and success-oriented” (Patent Litigation 2018), “highly professional” with “excellent expertise” (Patent Litigation 2019), “well thought-out and structured” (Patent Litigation 2020) as well as “experienced, pragmatic, good” (Patent Litigation 2021). He is also named as being among the world’s leading patent lawyers (Who’s Who Legal: Patents 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022). Who’s Who Legal recommends him also for the categories Life Sciences (2020, 2021, 2022), IP (2021), Patent Litigation (2022) and “Thought Leaders Germany” (2021). IAM Patent Ranking ranks him in the category “infringement” (2020). Furthermore, he is listed in IAM Strategy 300 (2019, 2020, 2021) as being among “The World’s Leading IP Strategists”. Kai has been selected by Best Lawyers in Germany for Intellectual Property Law (2020, 2021, 2022). Legal 500 recommends him in the sectors Electronics, Medical Devices and Life Sciences.

Prior to joining Vossius & Partner, Kai was a member of the patent litigation team at an international law firm in Düsseldorf.

Jean-Hyacinthe de Mitry, Gide Loyrette Nouel

Admitted to the Paris Bar in 2005, partner Jean-Hyacinthe specialises in industrial property. His expertise includes both contentious and non-contentious matters in all areas of industrial property, as well as unfair competition and protection of know-how and trade secrets. In contentious matters, he regularly advises and represents French and international clients, mainly in infringement disputes and in disputes relating to agreements having a strong IP and/or technology content. Notably, he has a wide experience in national and multijurisdictional patent disputes