UPC & EPO-BoA - Inventive Step

Judge on the Court of Appeal of the Unified Patent Court (UPC), Luxembourg

Dr Rombach is a judge at the EPG Court of Appeal. Until the end of 2024, she was also a judge at the Federal Court of Justice. As a judge at the Federal Court of Justice, she sat (at times concurrently) on the 10th Civil Division (responsible, amongst other things, for patent and utility model law) and the Antitrust Division. Prior to her tenure at the Federal Court of Justice, Dr Rombach was President of the Antitrust Division of the Mannheim Regional Court and, before that, of one of the Patent Divisions of the Mannheim Regional Court. Before that, she was, amongst other things, a member of the 6th Civil Division of the Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court, which is responsible, amongst other things, for patent law and antitrust law.

Technically Qualified Judge, Unified Patent Court, Copenhagen (Denmark)

Steven is a Technical Qualified Judge at the Unified Patent Court in the fields of electricity and physics, and also serves as a technical judge at the Maritime and Commercial High Court and the Eastern High Court of Denmark. He is a partner at COPA Copenhagen Patents and holds a Master's degree in electrical engineering and a Ph.D. in optics. His practice covers all aspects of patent prosecution and contentious matters, including oppositions and appeals before the EPO, litigation support, and acting as a court-appointed expert.

Chair of the Board of Appeal 3.5.05, European Patent Office, Munich (Germany)

Dr Kemal Bengi-Akyürek was Chair of the EPO Board of Appeal 3.5.03 from December 2019 to November 2023 and, since 1 December 2023, has been Chair of Board 3.5.05, which is now responsible for the expanded technical spectrum of telecommunications, automation systems, mobile devices, acoustic devices (hearing aids), transport systems, and AI-based biomedical systems. He is also a member of the Enlarged Board of Appeal, the extended Presidium, the Committee for the revision of the Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal (RPBA 2020), and Chair of the Advisory Committee on the application of the Code of Conduct of the Boards of Appeal. He also chairs the AI Group of the EPO Boards of Appeal.

Member of the Boards of Appeal, European Patent Office, Munich (Germany)

Sergio Arrojo has been a Technical Member of the Boards of Appeal at the European Patent Office since 2018. Prior to this role, he served as a European patent examiner and was a member of the EQE drafting committee. He is a frequent speaker at prestigious legal forums, including the Case Law Conference and the expert workshop for BoA and national judges. He holds a multidisciplinary academic background, with a PhD in Chemical Engineering and a degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics.

Presiding Judge, Patent Senate, Federal Court of Justice, Karlsruhe (Germany)

Since 2020 Klaus Bacher is the presiding judge of the 10th Civil Senate of the German Federal Court of Justice, this so-called Patent Senate being primarily responsible for patent cases. Until then he was also a member of the Antitrust Senate. Dr Bacher has dealt with IP and antitrust law since 1995 in the patent litigation chamber of the Mannheim Regional Court and since 2006 in the relevant appeal panel of the Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court. From 2000 to 2003 he was a research assistant at the 10th Civil Senate. In 2009, Dr Bacher was appointed judge at the Federal Court of Justice and in 2016, he was appointed deputy chairman of the 10th Civil Senate.
Dr Bacher is, among other things, co-author of the 'Benkard'- Commentaries on the German Patent Law. Since 2022 he is guest professor at Tongji University, Shanghai.

Conference Moderator,
Attorney, Partner, Hogan Lovells
International LLP, Düsseldorf (Germany)

Dr von Falck has been practising patent law for over 30 years. He represents companies in all contentious matters relating to patent law, from the regional courts right up to the Federal Court of Justice. Before the Unified Patent Court (EPG/UPC), he acts for both claimants and defendants in cases relating to telecommunications, life sciences and consumer goods. He has gained extensive experience, amongst other places, before the local and regional chambers in Düsseldorf, Munich, Mannheim, Milan, Paris and Stockholm, and has represented clients on numerous occasions before the Court of Appeal. He also appears in validity proceedings before the European Patent Office, the Federal Patent Court and the German Patent and Trade Mark Office. Among other things, he was involved in the Federal Court of Justice’s decisions on ‘Pemetrexed’, ‘Raltegravir’, ‘Olanzapine’ and ‘Tadalafil’, and has presented arguments in various proceedings before the Court of Justice of the European Union. In addition, he regularly speaks and publishes on a wide range of patent law issues and is co-author of the Tilmann/Plassmann UPC Commentary and co-editor of the forthcoming 2nd edition.