Event Listing

Dr Rachel Free is a partner in the patent team at International Law Firm CMS where she helps clients to protect their technology through patents. She has an MSc in Artificial Intelligence and a DPhil in Vision Science. She qualified as a European and UK patent attorney in the last century and has worked on AI patent drafting and prosecution through her career. Rachel is a member of the All Party Parliamentary Group on AI (APPG AI) which advises parliamentarians regarding AI. Rachel Free is a gold ranked individual – IAM Patent 1000, United Kingdom: England and Wales 2025, and is individually ranked as a next generation partner in Legal 500 2025. Rachel is recognized in the IAM global leaders 2026.

John is an experienced UK and European patent attorney based in Scotland. Originally working in the electronics and physics field, John has always handled a wide range of mechanical and electronic/digital subject matter. He trained in-house in London before moving to private practice in 1993. In 1997, he relocated to Scotland, where he has been based ever since. John has worked in both small and large firms. In 2014, he established his own consultancy and now supports other firms by providing high-value patent services to their clients. Today, his clients include a UK-based multinational innovating in broadband delivery, alongside his consulting role for other firms.

John has been active in the epi Council continuously since 2008 and maintains good relations with other country delegations, epi office bearers and staff, as well as EPO management. Though currently a substitute member of Council, John participates actively in Council and Board meetings as Chair of epi’s Online Communications Committee (OCC). The OCC collaborates with the EPO and others to develop and improve all the online services that we rely on in our daily work. John is also appointed by the EPO President as an ad personam member of the main SACEPO and of the SACEPO Working Party on the Electronic Patent Process, representing the profession.

With proposals to rotate committee chairs after three terms, he is keen to be elected a full member of Council, so that he may continue to contribute fully. Council can seem an unwieldy decision-making body at times, but with vigilance, goodwill and innovation, it can play its full role as the key deciding body of epi.

Since 2011, John has also been a member of epi’s Disciplinary Committee, serving actively as a chamber chair and in working groups to update the rules of procedure and internal processes. The constitution of the disciplinary bodies is a live topic in Council, and the voices of current and former members are valued.

John believes that principles of diversity and inclusion have been central to the strength and success of the European patent profession, and he is proud to have been a founding member of epi’s Diversity and Inclusion Working Group. This ad hoc group is now to be replaced by a permanent DEI committee. The number of UK voices in the new committee will be limited by rules, which makes it especially important to have diversity champions also elected to the Council.

Jane is Senior Lecturer in Intellectual Property Law at the University of Edinburgh. Before joining the University of Edinburgh, she qualified and practised as a solicitor in the intellectual property team at Linklaters LLP in London. Thereafter, she spent several years practising at McGrigors LLP in Scotland, latterly as Director in the Edinburgh litigation team specialising in contentious intellectual property and dealing with a wide range of intellectual property disputes at the Court of Session. At the University of Edinburgh, she teaches and conducts research in intellectual property law, with a particular interest in trade marks and designs.

Dr Bobby Mukherjee, Chief Counsel, IP & Technology Law – BAE Systems plc and Past President (2012-2014) of the IP Federation. He was the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) President for 2025. He previously served and currently sits on CIPA Council, and chaired the CIPA Internal Governance Committee in its formative stage.

Bobby is a qualified UK and European patent attorney with over 28 years’ experience of IP gained in private practice and at BAE Systems plc. He is currently the Head of IP (2009 -) at BAE Systems plc (a FTSE 30 company), which has one of the largest in-house IP teams in the UK.

Bobby has been named a Corporate IP Star by Managing Intellectual Property every year since 2015.

Mark Kelly is a European and Chartered UK Patent Attorney and serves as the sole IP counsel at Optotune AG, a leading Swiss electro-optics company headquartered in Zurich. In this role, he manages all aspects of intellectual property, including strategic patent filing and prosecution, portfolio development, and oversight of litigation projects.

Before joining Optotune, Mark spent nearly seven years at HGF in Birmingham, where he trained and qualified as a patent attorney. His earlier career was in engineering, working in the oil & gas and defence sectors. Mark holds an MEng and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College London. Based in Lichfield, UK, he works remotely with regular travel to Zurich.

Alastair Blake is a European and Chartered UK Patent Attorney and works as part of the in-house IP team at Optos Plc, part of the Nikon group. Optos is a world-leading medical technology company specialising in ultra-widefield retinal imaging devices for eye care professionals, founded and based in Dunfermline. Within the IP Team’s general remit of strategic IP protection and portfolio development, Alastair has a particular outward focus on third party IP.

Previously, Alastair worked in private practice: initially training and working at Marks and Clerk for 7 years; and then 8 years working remotely for HGF’s Aberdeen & Dutch offices.

Prior to becoming a patent attorney, Alastair spent a decade as a product developer in R&D, mostly in the Netherlands.