The IPKat Team

PermaKats

Eleonora Rosati

Following a successful blogging debut with the copyright-oriented 1709 Blog, Eleonora, who is an 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 currently a tenured Associate Professor in IP Law at the University of Southampton and an Of Counsel at Bird&Bird. She also holds academic positions at Stockholm University, EDHEC Business School and Queen Mary University of London, runs the e-LAWnora consultancy, and holds the distinction of doing a better Italian accent than any other member of the regular blog team. Her latest monograph is Copyright and the Court of Justice of the European Union (OUP:2019). More details on Eleonora here; Twitter 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 Bristows LLP 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.

GuestKats

Léon Dijkman

Léon is a doctoral student at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, where he writes about proportionality in patent law injunctions. He studied law at Utrecht University and the University of California, Berkeley and practiced law for five years at the Amsterdam office of HOYNG ROKH MONEGIER LLP, where he focused primarily on patent and trade mark litigation. He regularly speaks and publishes on topics across all IP disciplines and will head the European Law section of the European Journal of Legal Studies. A born-again cat person, he enjoys spending time with his kittens Cosimo and Lucrezia, as well as swimming, reading and DJ'ing. You can read more about Léon here.

Antonella Gentile

Antonella holds an LL.M. in European Intellectual Property Law from the University of Stockholm where she specialised in trade mark law. She has recently passed the Italian bar exam. Antonella is a lawyer-linguist at the Court of Justice of the European Union. She mostly deals with appeals against the decisions of the European Union Intellectual Property Office. Further information about Antonella may be found here.

Ieva Giedrimaite

Ieva holds proficiency in copyright and patent protection for computer software, open source and commercial software licensing, commercial contract drafting, review and negotiation, copyright policy drafting and compliance, patent and trademark application/prosecution procedures within the EU and US jurisdictions, FTO and EEA export controls. Ieva holds a Master of Laws degree from Vilnius University and an LLM degree from Trinity College Dublin with specialisation in Intellectual Property Law. She has carried out academic research in the fields of copyright protection for the user generated content, Unified Patent Court and international transfers of personal data. You can learn more about Ieva here.

Rose Hughes

Rose is a European Patent Attorney and Associate at leading intellectual property firm Reddie & Grose LLP. Rose specialises in biotechnology and pharmaceutical patent work, including medical devices, microfluidics, transgenic organisms, diagnostics, stem cells and bioengineering. Rose handles patent work in many jurisdictions, including prosecution of international (PCT), European, US, Japanese and Chinese patent applications. Rose also has significant patent drafting experience. Rose acts for a wide range of clients including academic institutions and multinational companies. has extensive experience handling a variety of patent cases, particularly in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors, and of patent drafting and prosecution in a broad range of jurisdictions, including Europe, US, Japan, and China. You can learn more about Rose here.

Thomas Key

Thomas Key is pursuing his JD with a Certificate in Intellectual Property Law from Chicago-Kent College of Law. A political science graduate from Northwestern University, he has a passion for policy development, both at the domestic and international level. Also, he was a DJ many years ago; through this experience, he developed a strong interest in copyright and its effect on the creative process. You can learn more about Thomas here.

Peter Ling

Grown up in Budapest and Geneva before joining Lenz & Staehelin’s IP practice in Zurich, Peter holds a Master of law of Fribourg University (Switzerland) and an LL.M. of Columbia Law School. Peter is mostly active in IP litigation and arbitration, as well as in life sciences and healthcare regulatory issues. Peter also periodically teaches civil procedure to patent attorney candidates at the Federal Institute of Intellectual Property and copyright law to students in Information Studies at the University of Applied Sciences of Western Switzerland. As a true Swiss IP practitioner, he has a strong interest in watchmaking patents, cheese trademarks and is reported to have a secret drawer full of chocolate in his office. You can read more about Peter 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 trainee at Hannes Snellman in Stockholm, where he tackles a variety of legal matters. 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.

Mathilde Pavis

Mathilde is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Exeter. Before joining Exeter Law School, Mathilde was a research fellow at the US Library of Congress in Washington DC. She co-founded in 2014 a network ‘New IP Lawyers’ gathering early career researchers and practitioners in intellectual property law. Mathilde’s interests in IP focuses on comparative copyright, performers’ rights and the regulation applicable to the cultural heritage sector and creative industries more generally.

Tosshan Ramgolam

Tosshan is currently a Brand Advisor at Incopro. As an International Legal Studies Graduate (LLB) from the University of Southampton, including a year abroad at Singapore Management University, he has previously worked as a Trade Mark Researcher and as a Brand Protection Analyst. Using his experience, Tosshan continues to enjoy the application of his IP knowledge to the online brand protection field. Further information about Tosshan can be found here.

Alex Woolgar

Alex is an English-qualified solicitor, and a Senior Associate at Fox Williams LLP. A series of serendipitous events led him to IP law, and he now specialises in IP disputes, mostly those of a “softer” nature. Alex is a reformed geographer, perhaps leading to his interests in IP policy, comparative law and the legal aspects of sustainability (they do exist). Alex grew up with family Kats but (whisper it) is now more of a dog person.

SpecialKats

Verónica Rodríguez Arguijo

Verónica has the honour of being the first TechieKat. She holds an LL.M. from Maastricht University and Specialization from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, both in IP Law. She was also selected to attend the Summer School organized by the World Intellectual Property Organization and the Academy of European Public Law in Greece. She has extensive experience in the prosecution, enforcement, and litigation of IPRs. Before joining Pointer Brand Protection, she provided legal advice to multinational corporations, associations, and SMEs in Mexico and other countries. Verónica also contributes to the IPTango blog, is a member of the editorial board of The Trademark Lawyer Magazine and IP mentor at HighTechXL. More details on Verónica here.

Hayleigh Bosher

Hayleigh is a Lecturer in Intellectual Property Law at Brunel University London. She is founder of World IP Women (WIPW), Director of the Intellectual Property Awareness Network (IPAN), Deputy Editor of the European Trade Mark Reports (E.T.M.R) and a 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 enforcement, copyright infringement, and copyright education. 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 in 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. During by now the 9 years living in the Netherlands, Tian has gained rich and diverse IP-related experiences fortunately from the well-known MNCs with strong global reach. Her keen-to-learn mindset has driven her expertise to the interactions between GDPR and IP as well - in May 2019 Tian was certified as a Data Protection Officer in the Netherlands. Out of "Liefde voor het vak (love for the profession)", Tian has happily been a prolific author regularly publishes law and society related articles in the international press.

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

Riana Harvey

Riana is a recent LLB Law graduate from the University of Southampton. Whilst in the early stages of her career in Intellectual Property Law, she has gained experience through intern work at the University of Southampton’s Small Business clinic, looking at trade mark and copyright issues faced by start-ups (amongst others), as well as through research for Incopro’s recent White Paper on the role of search engines in online IP infringement and counterfeits. Riana’s interests lie in copyright law and online IP infringement, and enjoys the fast-paced nature of IP! More information can be found here.

Kan He

Kan is an IP practitioner specialized in IP in EU, Germany and China and an IP researcher implementing the comparative and empirical methodology on topics related to the copyright, entertainment, patent laws in EU, US and China. Currently, he works in a boutique patent firm. At the same time, he pursues his PhD study. His PhD research concerns the copyright policies for online music sector in China. He received his bachelor of laws in IP from Shanghai University and master of laws in IP and Competition Law in Munich Intellectual Property Law Center (MIPLC). And he also worked as an assistant prosecutor in Shanghai. More on Kan He, here.

Lucy Isaev

Lucy is a research assistant at the Emily C. and John E. Hansen Intellectual Property Institute, where she assists Professor Hugh Hansen with research on all things IP and help the team organise the Fordham Intellectual Property Law and Policy Conference, humbly also known as the “Davos of IP”. In a previous life, Lucy worked in the art world for the better part of a decade in New York and Moscow. More information about Lucy can be found here.