The IPKat Team

PermaKats

Eleonora Rosati

Following a successful blogging debut with the copyright-oriented 1709 Blog, Eleonora, who is Editor of the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice, accepted the call to join the team after serving a stint as a GuestKat. She is Full Professor of IP Law and Director of the Institute of Intellectual Property and Market Law (IFIM) at Stockholm University, Of Counsel at Bird&Bird, Guest Professor at CEIPI and Research Associate at LegalEdhec. She also holds the distinction of doing a better Italian accent than any other member of the regular blog team. Eleonora is the author of several academic articles and books, including - most recently - Copyright in the Digital Single Market. Article-by-Article Commentary to the Provisions of Directive 2019/790 (OUP:2021) and Copyright and the Court of Justice of the European Union (OUP:2019); she is also the editor of the Routledge Handbook of EU Copyright Law (Routledge:2021). In 2018, Managing Intellectual Property listed her among the '50 Most Influential People in IP' and, in 2020, she was included in the World Intellectual Property Review's list of 'Influential Women in IP'. More details on Eleonora here; Twitter here; LinkedIn here.

Annsley Merelle Ward

Better known as the AmeriKat, though not exclusively tied to that tag, Annsley has been a permanent member of the blog since 2009. After 10 years on the blog, she is no longer the kitten of the team, but is now inspiring the next generation of IP lawyers with her efficient research and powerful writing. An intellectual property litigator at WilmerHale she holds law degrees from University College London and the University of Bristol and has a background in science having studied chemical engineering at the University of New Mexico. Although she specialises in cross-border patent and trade secret litigation in the TMT and life sciences sectors, Annsley's interests span all aspects of contentious IP. She also enjoys reporting on legislative reforms and policy, as well as ways to make the profession more inclusive and diverse (more details here). 

Neil J. Wilkof 

Of Counsel to Herzog Fox Neeman, Tel-Aviv, and to Dr Eyal Bressler & Co., Ramat Gan, Neil specialises in technology transfer and computer and internet law. He teaches and writes extensively on IP issues, being co-author of the current edition of the standard Sweet & Maxwell work on Trade Mark Licensing and a major contributor to the IP Finance weblog. As readers of his work will know, Neil rarely confines himself to the straitjacket of IP law when economic, philosophical or historical issues can be effectively brought to bear. More details here.

Merpel

Merpel McKitten 

Merpel has been adding her own pithy comments to those of the IPKat since 2004. While the IPKat is a fairly simple soul, who (unless he is having one of his occasional rants) is generally quite pleased with the world and everything in it, Merpel has a much more sly and cynical side to her; she's also prone to make the occasionally provocative or mischievous pronouncement. She is empowered to post her own blogs but is generally far too busy enjoying life to bother doing so; one of her favourite occupations is to sit at the IPKat's shoulder while he is blogging, pointing out spelling errors and telling him where he's just plain wrong. Merpel is not the pseudonym of any particular member of the blog team: she is a common resource and can be given voice by any one of us. Oh, and one more thing: Merpel and the IPKat are just good friends ...  You can write to Merpel at merpel.ipkat@gmail.com

GuestKats

Sophie Corke

Sophie 

is currently working in privacy and data protection in Munich, after having worked as a trainee at the European Patent Office and completed the LLM in Intellectual Property & Information Technology Law at Trinity College Dublin. She previously spent a year as an intern in data protection litigation following her undergraduate degree in law at the University of Oxford. Perhaps inconveniently for someone originally from the UK, she is particularly interested in EU law and integration issues such as copyright harmonization. More on Sophie, here.

Riana Harvey

Riana is an Associate Legal Policy Advisor at the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), representing the recording industry worldwide. She holds an LLM in European IP Law from Stockholm University, and was previously Co-Chief Editor of the Stockholm IP Law Review. Riana is a (self-proclaimed) art enthusiast, and has more IPKat-related drawings to her name than she will admit (look at any of her recent posts and you will find at least one of her doodles). You can find Riana on LinkedIn here.

Rose Hughes

Rose is a European Patent Attorney for AstraZeneca, specialising in large-molecule pharmaceuticals. Rose manages complex patent filing strategies in a rapidly expanding and diverse IP portfolio. Rose also has a PhD in immunology and infectious disease from University College London. You can learn more about Rose here.

Anastasiia Kyrylenko

Anastasiia is a researcher at the University of Alicante, as part of the GIPLaw-UA research group, and a PhD Candidate at the Universities of Alicante and of Strasbourg. Her main research interests (and, hence, her thesis) revolve around international IP law and regulation of IP in bilateral trade agreements. She takes additional interest in geographical indications, design law and her cat Louis-Michel. Anastasiia is also consulting the Ukrainian government on the intellectual property reform, as part of the Reform Support Team at the Ministry of Economy. More information about Anastasiia can be found here.

Nedim Malovic

A Swedish/English/Bosnian native/bilingual speaker, Nedim holds an LLM in European IP law from Stockholm University. He currently works as a Brand Protection Specialist at Assa Abloy. A specialist chef of pre-cooked Swedish meatballs, if you happen to travel to Stockholm let him know! You can learn more about Nedim here and follow him on Twitter here. 

Frantzeska Papadopoulou

Currently an Associate Professor and Reader in IP law at Stockholm University as well as at Linnaeus University in Sweden, Frantzeska holds an LLM and a doctorate from Stockholm University. Before accepting a full-time tenure at Stockholm University, she was the head of the IP department at the Swedish Association of Industries. Frantzeska’s research interests focus on patent law and regulatory law as well as on matters that relate to the international regulation of IPRs. You can learn more about Frantzeska here.

SpecialKats

Verónica Rodríguez Arguijo

Verónica has the honour of being the first TechieKat. She is a Qualified Lawyer with extensive experience in the prosecution, enforcement, and litigation of IPRs. Passionate about IP Law and tech-related legal issues, she has studied and worked in different countries. Verónica has provided legal advice to multinational corporations, associations and SMEs in relation to cross-border IP, regulatory and contractual issues. She holds an LL.M. from Maastricht University and a Specialization from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, both in IP Law. Verónica also contributes to the IPTango blog and the Intellectual Property Chapter of the Encyclopedia of Information Technology Law (Westlaw), and she is an IP mentor at HighTechXL. More details on the TechieKat here.

Hayleigh Bosher

Hayleigh is a Senior Lecturer in Intellectual Property Law and Associate Dean (Student Development and Graduate Outcomes) at Brunel University London. She is founder of World IP Women (WIPW) and Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Intellectual Property, Policy and Management (CIPPM). She holds a PhD in Copyright Law from Bournemouth University under the Vice Chancellor's Scholarship Award. Hayleigh's main research areas include copyright in the entertainment industries. More details on Hayleigh here, follow her on Twitter here.

Tian Lu

As an IP enthusiast from the other side of the Eurasian continent, Tian is currently pursuing her Doctoral degree at Maastricht University, having previously completed the advanced master program of Intellectual Property Law and Knowledge Management there. Her PhD thesis is about the protection of famous trade marks in China, EU and the U.S. Her keen-to-learn mindset has extended her expertise to the interactions between GDPR and IP - in May 2019 Tian was certified as a Data Protection Officer in the Netherlands. Tian has been happily a prolific author regularly publishes law, society and culture-related articles in the international press. Tian also runs IP Stork B.V., an IP consultancy located in Den Haag, dedicated to building IP bridges between EU and China, and to adding value to the beloved IP community. More details on Tian here, and Twitter here.

Chijioke Okorie

Chijioke has over a decade of law practice experience having been called to the Nigerian Bar since 2006 and practised in one of Nigeria’s leading commercial law firms. She holds an LLM in Internet Law and Policy from the University of Strathclyde and a doctorate from University of Cape Town. Chijioke is currently appointed a Postdoctoral Research Fellow under the DST/NRF Research Chair in Intellectual Property, Innovation & Development at the University of Cape Town and a Queen Elizabeth Scholar under the Open African Innovation Research (Open AIR) project. She also runs Penguide Advisory, an IP, Technology and Development consultancy. Highly regarded in African IP law circles, Chijioke is a regular contributor to Afro-IP Blog and is a Chartered Mediator as well as a peer reviewer for a number of IP law journals. More about Chijioke on LinkedIn and Twitter, here.

InternKats

James Kwong

James is a qualified solicitor in the Hong Kong SAR and currently works at Rouse. His practice covers all areas of IP, with a focus on trade marks, management of global IP portfolios, IP-related commercial arrangements and advertising matters. He holds law degrees from University College London and University of Southampton, where his interest in IP began to develop. You can learn more about James here.

Giorgio Luceri

Giorgio is currently working as a trainee at Noerr in Alicante (Spain) in the Intellectual Property and Media Department. He is qualified for admission to the Bar in Italy (idoneo all'esercizio della professione forense) and has worked as an intern at the EUIPO in the European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights. Giorgio holds an LL.M. in Intellectual Property from the University of Turin with the WIPO Academy and the International Training Centre of the ILO and a Master's degree in Law from the University of Perugia. More information about Giorgio can be found here.

Alexandre Zanatta Miura

Alexandre is currently working with plant variety protection in France, after working for almost four years with transactional intellectual property matters as a qualified lawyer in Brazil and obtaining his LL.M. in European IP Law at Stockholm University. In addition, he has an LL.B. in Law from the University of São Paulo and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Intellectual Property and New Business Models (PGDip) at Fundação Getúlio Vargas (São Paulo, Brazil). He is also Co-Chief Editor of Stockholm IP Law Review. More information about Alexandre can be found here.