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Matt Dixon is the Immediate Past President of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) and Executive Chair at Beck Greener LLP.

Passionate about building motivated teams backed by efficient systems to grow successful businesses, Matt has held significant leadership positions in several notable UK patent and trade mark firms. For over 15 years, he has been a prominent member of the Council of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys, the UK’s largest membership organisation in the field of intellectual property, serving as CIPA’s elected President in 2024. On behalf of CIPA he has actively promoted the capability of UK patent attorneys to represent before the Unified Patent Court (UPC) and has provided evidence to UK Government regarding support for innovative SME businesses.

Matt’s technical expertise covers the broad fields of physics, engineering, electronics and software, working with companies in sectors as diverse as medical devices, wind turbines, robotic vehicles, online gambling, telecommunications security and air conditioning systems. In addition to providing commercially focused IP strategy advice, he has also represented major multi-national corporations in multi-party Opposition and Appeal proceedings before the European Patent Office, particularly in the field of medical devices, such as absorbent products, negative pressure wound therapy, auto-injectors and super-resolution fluorescence microscopy. Recently, Matt has represented clients before the Central Division of the UPC in Paris.

Prior to joining Beck Greener, Matt worked Of Counsel for an Aberdeen-based start-up patent practice, supporting the founder with the growth of the business. He has led the London office and the Engineering team of one of the UK’s largest IP firms. He founded the London office of a new IP practice with an innovative business model based entirely on fixed fees. He trained and qualified at one of the UK’s most respected patent and trade mark practices, becoming a partner in that firm’s Munich office.

Kristina is a biotechnology and life sciences European and UK Patent Attorney, with over 30 years in the profession. She was an equity partner at Kilburn & Strode (a Patent and Trade Mark Attorney firm) for over 20 years, before joining the equity partnership at Pinsent Masons LLP in 2023.

Her current role includes representing clients at the EPO, especially in opposition matters with co-pending national and UPC litigation, and representing clients at the UPC alongside patent litigator specialists. Her UPC experience includes use of the old and new CMS, opting out patents, withdrawing opt-outs, infringement actions, defences to invalidity actions, revocation actions, all with continuing submissions; hearings, seizure orders, settlement discussions, and costs discussions.
Kristina has been recognised in professional directories each year since 2009, including Chambers and Partners, IAM 300 Strategy, IAM 10000, Managing IP and Legal 500.

Since 2003, Kristina has been a member of the EPO Qualifying Examination Committee (Opposition paper); 2003-2025 a member of the CIPA Life Sciences Committee; 2004 -2022 a member of the UK BIA IP Committee; and 2016-2017 a member of the Law Society Brexit committee (invitational).

Kristina is an advocate for European Patent Attorneys acting at the UPC, in particular bringing both a technical skillset and EPO knowledge and experience.

Dr Penny Gilbert is a Partner, and founder, of Powell Gilbert

Penny is an English and Irish qualified Solicitor and a registered UPC representative.  She has an MA in Biochemistry, and a DPhil in Molecular Biology, and specialises in patent litigation, particularly in the life sciences.  She also represents clients in patent licence disputes before the UK courts and in arbitration proceedings.

Much of Penny’s work involves advising on parallel European patent litigation strategies, including for the UPC, and she has a wealth of experience in coordinating actions before European courts.

In UK litigation, she has acted in a number of precedent-setting UK cases, including at appeal level, such as Regeneron v Kymab (Supreme Court – sufficiency); HGS v Eli Lily (Supreme Court – industrial application; CJEU – Art 3a SPC regulation); Biogen v AbbVie (Humira – Arrow declarations), Eisai v GW Pharma (UK jurisdiction over non-UK rights) and has acted in cases involving the application of SPC law (Pharmaq v Intervet – referral from the Norwegian court  to the EFTA court; Royalty Pharma – referral from the German court to the CJEU).  Her most recent cases have involved a review of the UK law of plausibility Glenmark and others v Astra Zeneca and litigation of patents relating to SARS-CoV-2 vaccines:  Moderna v BioNTech and Pfizer; BioNTech and Pfizer v CureVac.

As a former President of EPLAW (the European Patent Lawyers’ Association), and a current member of its advisory board, she has been involved with its aims of harmonising European Patent law, including involvement in the training of judges for the UPC. She is a frequent lecturer on aspects of IP law affecting the life sciences sector and has been a tutor on the Oxford University Diploma in Intellectual Property Law and Practice course, teaching patent litigation.

Her work has been recognized with a number of awards and top tier directory listings, including Managing IP EMEA Awards – Practitioner of the Year, IP Star and Top 250 Women in IP, IAM Global Leader, Legal 500 Hall of Fame, LMG European Life Sciences Awards: IP Lawyer of the Year: Biotech, Who’s Who Legal’s Life Science Patent Litigation Lawyer of the Year, Women in Business Law Europe, Life Sciences Lawyer of the year and Best in Patents Award, World IP Review Leader and WIPR’s Influential Women in IP, Who’s Who Legal Patents and Life Sciences Global Elite Thought Leader, LSIPR top 50 Life Sciences leaders; Expert Guides – Patents UK, Best of the Best; Women in Business Law “Outstanding Achievement Award” , 2025.

Luca Pellicciari is a partner at Milan-based IP litigation firm Trevisan & Cuonzo. Luca has over 15 years of experience in commercial and IP litigation, throughout which he has acted for multinational high-stakes clients in a wide range of technological fields, with a focus on life sciences and pharmaceuticals, chemicals, medical devices and electronics. Luca is also involved in several UPC cases pending across several UPC divisions, including the Milan local division. Luca joined Trevisan & Cuonzo in 2010 and became a partner in 2021. He leads a team of six.

Cameron focuses exclusively on the biotechnology and pharmaceutical fields, with an extensive EPO opposition practice (including many cases defending against multiple opponents) that runs alongside a large prosecution practice. These two areas often overlap, so strategic prosecution and parent/divisional strategies are a regular part of his workload. He is often engaged to advise clients at an early stage, in situations where future patent fights with competitors are inevitable.

Cameron acts for biotech companies including Guardant Health and Mammoth Biosciences, but most of his time is spent acting for blue-chip pharmaceutical companies, including Novartis, Merck, Gilead, and Lilly. This work includes defending patents covering blockbuster products which have attracted numerous EPO oppositions, whether from traditional generics companies or from biosimilars. He often acts as lead counsel at the EPO, but also collaborates with other firms to provide a second pair of eyes, and frequently plays a support role for national litigations. His expertise means that he has also been in demand as a UPC representative, acting for Novartis and Curio in two high profile UPC disputes.

Naoise Gaffney is Of Counsel and UPC Director at Bristows LLP. He is a representative before the UPC and EPO, a Chartered Patent Attorney and a US Patent Attorney. He has featured in the IAM 300 list of the world’s top IP strategists for 9 years running, and prior roles have included General Counsel and Head of IP at a gaming hardware scaleup, head of IP at a Nasdaq-listed biotech and head of patent development at Intellectual Ventures. He is chair of the IP Network at Ibec, Ireland’s foremost business lobby group, is an adjunct professor of patent law at Trinity College Dublin and is a named inventor on over 20 international patent applications.

Conor is an Associate with 9 years’ experience in Dehns’ Tech, Software, and Engineering (TSE) department. With a background in physics, Conor advises clients in a range of fields such as aeronautics, green tech, and medical devices.

In the UPC, Conor has defended clients in several actions at several Divisions, including the first action to be heard at the Paris CD, Bitzer v Carrier. Conor’s experience has enabled him to give up-to-date practical advice to clients and colleagues.

In addition to their case work, Conor is a regular contributor to the CIPA Journal on UPC case law developments. Conor has also given several talks and presentations on aspects of the UPC, written for Landslide, the American Bar Association’s trade magazine, and received a Highly Commended Award from AIPPI.

Max Tilmann has been appointed to the Unified Patent Court in June 2023. His technical focus is in mechanical engineering.

Professional Experience in Intellectual Property
Max Tilmann has worked as patent attorney since 2002, having been admitted as German Patent attorney in May 2002 and as European Patent Attorney in September 2003.
Before leaving the firm to join the Court in 2022, he had been partner at König Szynka Tilmann von Renesse, Patentanwälte Partnerschaft mbB, Düsseldorf, Germany, for almost 20 years.

Professional Experience in Science
Max has worked as mechanical engineer in combustion engine development at Audi AG, Neckarsulm, Germany, and GM Powertrain Group, General Motors Corporation, Warren, Michgan, USA.
Max Tilmann is managing shareholder of an industrial size PV-energy plant and is trained and acts as qualified energy consultant for residential buildings.

Education
Max Tilmann holds a diploma in mechanical engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, Switzerland.
He successfully completed the Diploma Course “Patent Litigation in Europe” at CEIPI, University de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France, and the University Course “Recht für Patentanwältinnen und Patentanwälte” Fernuniversität Gesamthochsuchule in Hagen, Hagen, Germany.

Member of the Amsterdam bar and the bar of the Supreme Court of The Netherlands.

Co-founder of HOYNG ROKH MONEGIER.

50 plus years of international patent litigation experience.

Emeritus professor of IP law Tilburg University.

Member of the Drafting Committee of the UPC Rules of Procedure.

Since 2022 Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the UPC.

Prof. Hoyng publishes each week on Monday on his “Unfiltered” all decisions with his comments which are published during the previous week. On Tuesday a podcast is published with his comments. Since the start of the UPC he has commented more than 1200 decisions.
He is counsel at HOYNG ROKH MONEGIER.

Ronny Thomas is the Presiding Judge of Panel 1 at the UPC Local Division in Düsseldorf. In this role, he has been involved in numerous landmark decisions of the UPC, including, Fujifilm v Kodak and Dolby v Beko. Furthermore, in his capacity as a Presiding Judge, he has played a key role in shaping UPC case law on orders for inspection and the preservation of evidence. The Düsseldorf Local Division has handed down a series of landmark rulings in this area. The same applies to the ordering of provisional measures, particularly with regard to trade fairs and the pharmaceutical sector.

Additionally, Ronny Thomas was a member of the UPC’s first Presidium, playing a key role in establishing the UPC’s organisational framework.

Prior to joining the UPC, he was a member of one of the panels dealing with patent law at the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court for many years, most recently serving as Deputy Presiding Judge.

He is a regular speaker at conferences, where he discusses the latest developments in European patent law and at the UPC. He is also the co-author of several publications on UPC matters.

Emmanuel Gougé was appointed to the Court of Appeal in 2024, where he sits in Panel 1 of the Court as a legally qualified judge.

Before joining the Unified Patent Court, Emmanuel was a patent litigator in private practice. He led the Paris-based intellectual property team of an international law firm, where he had been one of the founding partners of its Paris office. His career began in 1994, and he gained experience working across several European jurisdictions.

With a professional background in France, England, Germany and Belgium, and being qualified both in England & Wales (solicitor) and in France (avocat), Emmanuel has been involved in a range of multi-jurisdictional patent litigations in various sectors.

Since 2020, Emmanuel has been the Director of the Diploma on Patent Litigation in Europe at CEIPI (Center for international intellectual property studies, University of Strasbourg), a leading European postgraduate program for senior patent professionals. Over the past two decades, he has also been actively involved in the management of several international professional associations and has been an author of a number of publications in patent and intellectual property law.

Emmanuel graduated from the College of Law (London) in 1997, completing his legal studies in Paris and Munich (Université Paris II, Postgraduate Diploma in Intellectual Property Law, major in Patent Law, 1992 / French-German Master of German Law and Business Law, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität and Université Paris II ,1991), and obtained a diploma in Economics and Finance in 1993 (Institut d’Etudes Politiques, major in Economics and Finance, Paris).

Anna-Lena Klein is a presiding judge at the Regional Court Munich I and a legally qualified judge at the Milan section of the central division of the Unified Patent Court. She has served as a judge at the Regional Court Munich I since 2014 and has worked in the field of IP since 2018. Since 2020, she has served as a mediator, especially in the field of IP law.

Anna-Lena was a member of the 7th division and the 21st division, both dealing mainly with patent infringement cases. She was also a member of the 33rd division, dealing mainly with trademarks and unfair competition cases.

Prior to her appointment as judge at the Regional Court Munich I, Anna-Lena completed a secondment to the Bavarian State Chancellery from 2011 to 2014. From 2009 to 2011 she served as a judge at a local district court in Bavaria and as a public prosecutor in Munich.

Richard Davis KC has over 20 years’ experience litigating before the English Patents Court as well as oppositions and appeals before the EPO and is equally familiar with both jurisdictions. In March 2025 he became the first UK barrister to appear before the Unified Patent Court.

Richard’s practice encompasses a diverse range of technologies. He has particular expertise in the electronics / telecommunications sector having advised many of the major players in the field such as LG Electronics, Samsung, Nokia, Motorola and Symbian. Although by training an electrical engineer, he is active in the pharmaceutical sector including SPCs. He acted for the Secretary of State for Health in the ground breaking second medical indication litigation concerning pregabalin.

Before commencing practice at the Bar, Richard qualified as a European Patent Attorney and this dual qualification has resulted in him appearing frequently before the European Patent Office often in cases of concurrent UK litigation. He has audience rights before the Unified Patents Court.

Richard is equally at home with the other intellectual property rights and has carved a niche in designs and ‘difficult’ copyright cases including Temple Island v New English Teas (the red bus case). He is one of the few counsel to have appeared before the CJEU on a designs matter and one of the very few to have appeared before the UK Registered Designs Appeal Tribunal (as it then was). He has been involved in a number of cases which have pushed the boundaries of what it protectable under the law of copyright and database rights.

Richard was one of the inaugural tutors at Nottingham Law School on its LLM in Advanced IP litigation and has been a visiting lecturer of CEIPI on the European patent litigation diploma. He is currently one of the two General Editors of the CIPA Guide to the Patents Acts (the Black Book).

In 2019 Richard was appointed as a criminal Recorder giving him a very different and judicial insight into the conduct of proceedings. He has presided over jury trials involving including inflicting grievous bodily harm, child cruelty, aggravated arson and burglary.

Richard spends much of his spare time flying his ‘home-build’ aeroplane which first took to the skies in 2020.

Richard is an intellectual property lawyer specialising in patent and technology litigation. With an engineering background, he excels in technical cases, FRAND and licensing disputes. He is known for his meticulous attention to detail and high standards. Richard’s in depth experience includes the telecommunications, computer hardware and software, engineering, human computer interaction and LED lighting sectors. His background in engineering helps him quickly to understand difficult technical issues in complex patent litigation.

A significant part of Richard’s practice involves the coordination of litigation before the UK Courts with parallel proceedings in the USA, Europe and international patent offices. As a solicitor advocate, Richard is qualified to appear before all courts in England and Wales.

Richard has been involved in the leading patent cases in the UK in the technology sector including: Unwired Planet v Huawei and others, Philips v HTC and others, Philips v Nintendo, Samsung v Apple and Nokia v IPCom. Richard’s clients include Google, Philips, Samsung and IPCom.

Richard’s practice also covers advice on international enforcement and licensing strategies, FRAND issues and SEPs, freedom to operate, patent validity and infringement. Richard is a member of AIPPI (Association for Protection of Intellectual Property), EPLAW (European Patent Lawyers Association) and LES (Licensing Executive Society) and is a regular speaker at international conferences.

Matthew is a UPC Representative and Chartered and European Patent Attorney. He is a Partner and Litigator at Mewburn Ellis. He handles patent and design work in the fields of materials and engineering. His work encompasses drafting, prosecution, opposition, dispute resolution and litigation – all stages of the patent life cycle. Matthew has a degree and PhD in materials science from the University of Oxford. His focus is on helping clients to navigate the opportunities and challenges of the Unified Patent Court.

Matthew is handling several substantive UPC actions along with technical specialists at Mewburn Ellis, in addition to advising on ongoing UPC actions represented by other European firms.

As the founder and lead author of UPC Weekly, Matthew devotes a significant part of each week to reviewing and commenting on UPC case law and educating fellow attorneys and lawyers.

Caelia is recognised as one of the patent profession’s leading experts in contentious proceedings. IAM Patent 1000 describes her as “one of the finest European attorneys, a true credit to the profession”. Bringing 30 years’ experience in IP, Caelia specialises in complex, high-stakes contentious proceedings, including multi-jurisdictional cases, before the EPO and UP. Caelia’s physics degree and an award-winning doctorate from Oxford University provide a strong foundation for her passion, and expertise in a range of technical fields, particularly MedTech and healthcare. She works closely with CEOs, IP leaders, and investors, and is trusted for her strategic, commercially astute approach.

Caelia plays an active role in the wider profession. She is an elected Council Member of CIPA, a Chair of CIPA’s UPC Committee, Chair of its Professional Development Working Group, and is an Advisory Board Member for IP Inclusive. One of the founding members of the IP Ability Committee, Caelia champions inclusion with focus on neurodiversity, strengthened from both family, and profession contexts. She chairs Kilburn & Strode’s charity fund. In between IP, bringing up her family, and as much cycling as possible, she has run a small vineyard in Kent for several years.

Ravi is a European and UK patent attorney based in J A Kemp’s London office. He specialises in organic and inorganic chemistry, with particular expertise in the pharmaceutical sector. His clients range from startups to major pharmaceutical companies, and his work includes building robust IP portfolios and defending key drug patents in high-profile, multi-opponent challenges. He manages patent filings internationally across more than 40 countries. Ravi also advises cleantech clients, especially in fuels, lubricants and renewable energy. He is a qualified litigator with Higher Courts rights and is registered as a European patent litigator to represent clients before the Unified Patent Court. Ravi is ranked Band 1 in Chambers and Partners, as a Leading Partner by the Legal 500, recognised as an IAM Global Leader, and ranked Gold by the IAM Patent 1000 and an IP Star by Managing IP.

Fred is a UK and European Patent Attorney and European Patent Litigator in the Simmons & Simmons IP Group. He specialises in chemistry and life sciences with an emphasis on contentious patent proceedings in oppositions before the European Patent Office and in litigation before the UPC and national courts. He completed his European Patent Litigation Certificate (EPLC) at the Academy of European Law (ERA) in association with Maastricht University and is now working in relation to UPC and EPO opposition proceedings concerning COVID-19 vaccines. He is a silver ranked individual for patent prosecution in the UK and recommended for the European Patent Office by IAM which reports “Sought after for his expertise in contentious proceedings at the UKIPO and EPO, Frederick Nicolle is a clear and confident advocate.”

Diana Pisani was a Patent Examiner at the Patent Office (now the IPO), before moving into private practice and becoming a UK and European Patent Attorney. She also worked in California for four years, where she qualified as a US Patent Agent. She has worked on prosecution, opposition and litigation matters for medical devices, multimedia systems and other electrical and mechanical technology. Last year, she was part of the team representing NJOY Netherlands B.V. in their series of UPC revocation actions against Juul Labs International Inc. and its subsidiary, VMR Products, LLC.

Alex Wilson is a founding partner of Powell Gilbert www.powellgilbert.com, a specialist European IP law firm with offices in London, Dusseldorf, and Dublin.

He is a UK Solicitor Advocate, Irish Solicitor and UPC Representative. He guides clients from a wide range of industries on strategies for exploiting and enforcing of patents in national and UPC courts across Europe as well other major markets. He has handled a number of the leading SEP cases in the UPC and is on the PMAC FRAND Guidelines Working Group.

He is joint editor of an international commentary: Unified Patent Court Procedure, Beck 2025 and was actively involved in teaching legal and technical Judges for the Court. Alex is a Vice President of the European Patent Lawyers’ Association (EPLAW) and chairs its Japan and Korea Outreach and ADR committees.