IP Protection for Plant Innovation 2026

dr. kock consulting,
Basel (Switzerland)

Michael is founder of his own IP and strategy consulting firm. From 2007 to October 2017 Michael was Head Intellectual Property for Syngenta Crop Protection AG based in Basel, Switzerland. He studied chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology in Hamburg, Germany, and Nanjing, China, and graduated with a Diploma in chemistry and has a Ph.D. in molecular biology. Michael Kock is also a qualified Swiss and European Patent Attorney.

LL.M., Partner, Lawyer,
Altius, Brussels (Belgium)

Philippe specialises in intellectual property law, with a particular focus on patents, plant variety rights and parallel import issues. Philippe also has extensive experience in regulatory matters concerning the life sciences and agri-food industries. Other areas of practice include medical law, media law and fair trade practices in a variety of sectors.

Philippe regularly lectures at conferences and seminars. He has also published articles in various leading legal journals relating to his area of expertise. Philippe worked as a consultant for the EU Plant Variety Office and is also an active member of the European Seed Association (ESA); the European Patent Lawyers Association (EPLAW); the Licensing Executives Society (LES) and the International Association of Breeders of Asexually Reproducing Fruit and Ornamental Varieties (CIOPORA).

Secretary, International Treaty on Planet Genetic
Resources for Food and Agriculture, Rome (Italy)

Mr Kent Nnadozie is the Secretary of the International Treaty. Prior to his appointment as Secretary, he was the Senior Officer of the International Treaty, overseeing various technical areas of the Programme of Work of the Secretariat. Over the last decade, Mr Nnadozie has worked on legal and policy matters and intergovernmental processes, with both the International Treaty and FAO’s Commission for Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.
Before joining FAO, Mr Nnadozie was in private legal practice and academic research He has extensive practical experience in related international processes and legal instruments. A lawyer by training, Mr Nnadozie holds a Doctorate in Law (PhD) from McGill University, Montreal, Canada, with a focus on international relations and international legal systemic issues regarding genetic resources. Mr Nnadozie also has a Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA) and a Bachelor’s in Law.

Director of Legal Affairs,
UPOV, Geneva (Switzerland)

Martin Ekvad is UPOV's Director of Legal Affairs since 2023. Before that, he was the President of the Community Plant Variety Office from 2011 to 2021 and then founded his own consultancy on IP and EU regulatory affairs. Prior to this appointment, he has been CPVO‘s Head of Legal Affairs. Before taking up his post at the CPVO, Martin has worked as a lawyer in the law frm Linklaters in Brussels and the law frm Magnusson Wahlin Advokatbyrå in Stockholm. While working as a lawyer he specialized in intellectual property law, competition law and EU law and provided clients with legal advice as well as litigating.

Technically qualified member of the Board of Appeal 3.3.04 of the European Patent Office

In 2014 Dr Chakravarty joined Technical Board of Appeal 3304, which deals mainly with appeals in the field of biopharmaceuticals, especially antibodies and their medical uses, as well as plants. Before joining the BoA, he worked as an examiner for 23 years in diverse areas of Biotechnology. He holds a degree in chemistry and biochemistry and a doctorate in plant molecular biology.

Legal Officer, Biotechnology Unit, DG Health and Food Safety, European Commission, Brussels (Belgium)

Since June 2020 Anna Borràs is legal officer in the Biotechnology Unit of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety. She is responsible for matters relating to the preparation, interpretation and implementation of the EU GMO legislation, including the drafting of the Commission's legislative proposal on plants obtained by certain new genomic techniques and their food and feed.

President, Community Plant Variety Office,
Angers (France)

Mr Francesco MATTINA is President of the Community Plant Variety Office (Angers - France). He graduated in Law and obtained a Master degree in European Union Law and Intellectual Property Law from the European College of Parma and the Magister Lucentinus of the University of Alicante. After his degrees, he worked during several years as a specialized lawyer dealing with infringements of Intellectual Property Rights. He also served as lecturer of Intellectual Property Law in several Italian Universities. Nowadays, his field of practise focuses on plant variety rights.

Secretary General,
CIOPORA, Hamburg (Germany)

Dr. Krieger has extensive experience in the field of Intellectual Property protection for plant innovation and has held the position of the CIOPORA Secretary General since 2004. Before CIOPORA, Dr. Krieger worked as a lawyer at an international law firm specializing in IP protection, particularly Plant Breeder's Rights, advising agricultural breeders in several hundred court cases up to the European Court of Justice. Dr. Krieger holds a Law Degree from the University of Bonn and a Degree in Business Administration from the Aachen University of Applied Sciences. He completed his doctoral dissertation on the topic "Farmers' Exemption in Germany" at the Philipps University of Marburg.

Manager Intellectual Property and Legal Affairs,
Euroseeds, Brussels (Belgium)

Francesca is Italian and holds a Master Degree in Law from the University of Bologna, an LL.M. in International Business Law from the University of Tilburg and an LL.M. in Intellectual Property Law and Knowledge Management from the University of Maastricht. Francesca worked as an IP Law expert in different international organisations and has extensive knowledge in this field. Francesca joined the Euroseeds team in December 2023 as Manager Intellectual Property and Legal Affairs and advises on IP and legal matters.

Lecturer, Queen's University,
Belfast (UK)

Jocelyn is an IP researcher at Queen's University Belfast (QUB) and holds a Future Leaders Fellowship for her project entitled "A Century of Propertising Plants: examining the role of intellectual property law in protecting biodiversity and food security." Her current research explores global plant variety protection, with a particular focus on the naming of plant varieties and its interface with other areas of IP. She routinely writes about plant IP issues for the popular European IP law blog, the IPKat. Jocelyn obtained degrees in Law and Plant Science from the University of Queensland, Australia, where she also completed her PhD in intellectual property law.

Global IP Lead - Vegetables and Flowers,
Syngenta, Basel (Switzerland)

Nicolas Amelot studied genetics and molecular biology at the Toulouse III University and obtained a Ph.D. in plant biosciences in 2010. He started to study Intellectual Property law the same year and holds a Master of Laws from the Toulouse I University. He started his IP career at Syngenta as a patent counsel for the Seeds & Biotechnology Division, working especially on seeds traits and enabling technologies such as RNA interference and genome editing. He took responsibilities of gradual importance within Syngenta over the last 10 years and is currently the Global IP Lead for both Vegetables and Flowers Divisions. In his position, Nicolas has extensive experience in all aspects of plant patent and PVP laws, all the way from drafting to litigation, as well as in advising the business in all collaboration, licensing and M&A deals.

Director of IP & Legal Affairs, Selecta One, Stuttgart (Germany)/CIOPORA Board Member, Chair Crop Section Cut Flowers

Ingrid Slangen is the Director of IP & Legal Affairs at Selecta one, Germany. Originally an English/Spanish translator by trade, during her career at Selecta, Ingrid has gathered extensive expertise in legal and plant IP matters. For over 20 years she has been working for Selecta, a world-leading breeder, producer, and marketer of asexually propagated ornamental plants with headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. As a Director of IP & Legal Affairs at Selecta, Ingrid is responsible for managing the company's global IP portfolio as well as all licensing, contractual, and legal affairs. Right from the beginning, Ingrid represented Selecta in CIOPORA and became the Chair of the CIOPORA Crop Section Gypsophila (now, Cut Flowers) in 2013. In this position, Ingrid participated as an observer in many Board meetings before becoming an official Board member in 2020, and supports CIOPORA pro bono, including the representation of CIOPORA at the EU/CPVO.

European Patent Attorney, Patent Counsel,
Tropic Biosciences, Norwich (UK)

Hazel is the Patent Counsel for Tropic Biosciences. Prior to joining Tropic Biosciences, she worked as European Patent Attorney in in private practice.

Vice President R&D, EMEA Head,
Inari Agriculture, Ghent (Belgium)

Fred joined Inari Agriculture in 2018 as a Senior Science Director and Managing Director of Inari's new Belgian subsidiary, Agriculture NV. In one of his current roles, Fred is the Managing Director of Inari N.V. and thus responsible for the management and the development of the Belgian R&D site. As a member of Inari's Science Leadership team he is also developing the global scientific strategy of Inari Agriculture. Together with a team of experts, Fred designs the blueprints of new corn, soy and wheat products. Furthermore, he is Inari's Head Europea, Middle East, Africa since May 2025. Before joining Inari, Fred was the Head of the Trait Discovery department at Bayer CropScience where he developed and led the early phase research activities. Fred spent a number of years in the US as postdoctoral scholar at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, has a PhD in Plant Genetics from the Vrije Universiteit Brussels and a MBA from the Vlerick Business School.

Attorney, Cooley LLP,
Palo Alto, CA (USA)

Dan has a PhD in microbiology and cancer biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has a JD, with distinction, from Stanford Law School. Before attending law school, Dan was director of intellectual property at Third Wave Technologies, where he managed a large international patent portfolio and licensing and litigation matters. Dan’s practice focuses on life sciences intellectual property litigation. He counsels clients regarding disputes in a wide variety of technology areas, including agricultural technology. He publishes regularly on plant-related patents.

European Patent Attorney, Partner,
Michalski Hüttermann & Partner,
Düsseldorf (Germany)

Ulrich Storz, with a diploma in biology and a doctorate in neurobiology, is a German and European Patent Attorney (since 2006) and partner of Michalski Hüttermann & Partner Patent Attorneys in Düsseldorf. Ulrich's main areas of practice are the prosecution and enforcement of patent applications and patents as well as the preparation of freedom-to-operate analyses and expert opinions. He also advises on patent strategy issues, in particular in the life sciences sector (biotechnology, biophysics, biochemistry and microbiology), especially in the field of therapeutic antibodies. Ulrich Storz is regularly involved in major antibody opposition proceedings before the European Patent Office. He also has extensive experience in gene editing technologies including CRISPR, TALEN and ZFN, and also works in the fields of CAR-T cells, stem cell technologies, plant biotechnology and enzymes.
In addition, in recent years he has supported a large number of extensive due diligence projects in the pharmaceutical/life sciences sector with volumes of between 500,000 and 100 million euros.

Attorney-at-law (NY), Solicitor (England & Wales), Barrister & Solicitor (Victoria, Australia), Head of IP Strategy, Enforcement & Trademarks - Greater China, Gowling WLG, Shanghai (China)

Elliot has been advising Global companies on IP strategies for almost 26 years, the last 16 of these from Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai, where he currently lives and works. He specialises in China patent and trade secret litigation. He represents Europe's leading companies in enforcing their patents and utility models and over the last 7 years or so has developed a reputation for defending them against patent infringement lawsuits brought by Chinese competitors.

Attorney, Dannemann Siemsen Advogados,
São Paulo (Brazil)

A partner of Dannemann Siemens Advogados, Gustav is an attorney at law licensed in Brazil and has a degree in Electronic Engineering. His practice areas include amongst other litigation, patents and plant varieties. He is also IP law professor at the São Paulo Law School.

Ph.D., FNASc, Director & Head Life Science Group at the IP Division, New Delhi (India)

Malathi has more than 30 years of experience in the field of biochemistry and Molecular Biology with an expertise in plant genomics, DNA fingerprinting and genetic transformation. She has more than 100 publications to her credit in various International and Indian journals. Prior to joining the firm, she served as the Head, Centre for Bioresource & Biotechnology Division in The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI) for a period of 17 years. At present, she serves as a Director and heads the life science group at the IP division of the firm. She is a registered patent agent and has been actively engaged in preparing, filing and prosecuting of patent applications, both in India and abroad. She mainly works on pharmaceutical, chemical and biotechnological patent applications. She advises clients on plant variety protection and registration. She is actively involved in the area of Biodiversity and Traditional knowledge.

Head of Legal / Human Resources Development,
Authorized Signatory, NPZ, Hohenlieth (Germany)

Christoph serves as Head of Legal and HR Development and is an Authorized Signatory at Norddeutsche Pflanzenzucht Hans Georg Lembke KG (NPZ), where he has been a member of the Management Board since 2015 with accountability for Legal, HR Development and Government Affairs. After beginning his career as an attorney at law, Christoph moved early into the life science sector. He held senior leadership positions with the German Plant Breeders' Association (BDP) and later with Syngenta. His areas of expertise include IP, seed marketing law and technology regulation, including genetic engineering. Christoph has been active in committees at national, European and global levels, including the ICC IP Committee, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Euroseeds in Brussels.

Research Associate,
Chair of Environmental Sociology,
University of Augsburg (Germany)

Veit studied political science, sociology and environmental studies in Vienna and Munich. He wrote his PhD thesis in sociology on the role of property and its recent crises in plant breeding, published as "At the End of Property: Patents, Plants and the Crisis of Propertization". After studying how biobanks collect and organise genetic resources of threatened animals as part of the CRYOSOCIETIES project, he is now PI of the research project "More and Less," which seeks to understand the double life of nitrogen as a valuable resource and an environmental pollutant. Veit's research interests range from ecology to economic theory to the significance of property for social life.