Webcast: Prior Use before The UPC, The EPO, German, Chinese And U.S. Courts

Dr. Tobias Wuttke is a partner of Bardehle Pagenberg since 1st January 2023. Each year, he deals with over 30 in-court IP litigation cases and far more out-of-court disputes. He is recognised by JUVE, Legal 500, Chambers and IAM as a leading patent litigator in Germany.

In 2000 he started as a judge at the District Court in Munich (Chamber for Patent Litigation). From 2001 to 2004 he worked in the Copyright Department of the Federal Ministry of Justice in Berlin. In 2004 he was public prosecutor at the public prosecutor’s office in Munich. After another stage as judge at the District Court in Munich from 2005 to 2012 (Intellectual Property Rights, especially Patent Litigation), he served as judge at the Higher Regional Court in Munich from 2012 to 2016. From 2016 until January 2022 he was Presiding Judge of a patent litigation chamber at the District Court in Munich. Since February he leads the chamber for antitrust law. He is appointed as a legally qualified judge to the Local Division of the UPC in Munich. Tobias Pichlmaier is author of various publications (Patent Law, Copyright Law, Law of Trade Secrets) and lecturer in Germany and abroad.

Having served as a judge at the European Patent Office for many years, Dr. Albert Lindner has extensive knowledge of EP patent prosecution, opposition, and appeal proceedings. After completing a degree in pharmacy and a doctorate in organic chemistry, he worked at the European Patent Office (EPO) for more than three decades, most recently as chairman of a Technical Board of Appeal in the field of life sciences and as a member of the Enlarged Board of Appeal. He is also a member of the team of authors of the Singer-Stauder-Luginbühl EPC commentary.

Dr Roman Söchtig studied law at the Technical University Dresden and the University of Heidelberg. From 2001 to 2003, he worked as a lawyer in a major law firm in Frankfurt/Main, after which he was a judge at Hamburg Regional Court until 2015, where he mainly worked in chambers specialising in unfair competition and trademark law proceedings. Since 2015, he has been a judge at the Federal Patent Court in Munich. His activities there include work in a trade mark appeal panel and currently in a nullity panel. Since 2022, he has also been Deputy Chairman of the Examination Board for Patent Attorneys and co-author of the overview of the case law of the Federal Patent Court in trade mark matters (Annual Report of the Federal Patent Court and GRUR).

Dr Franziska Greiner-Wittner is a judge at the District Court in Munich. She has been working as a member and deputy chair of a patent litigation chamber. Dr Franziska Greiner-Wittner is author of various publications, i.a. on the Unified Patent Court. She holds a doctorate in the field of patent law. For the time of her docorate Dr Franziska Greiner-Wittner was funded by the Max Planck Institute for Competiton and Innovation. She also held a lectureship at the Ludwig Maximilian University.

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.

Amanda provides patentability opinions, prepares new patent applications, prosecutes U.S. and foreign applications, and represents appellants before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the USPTO. She has experience in prosecuting inter partes and ex parte reexamination applications, reissue applications, and patent term extension applications for approved pharmaceuticals, including obtaining supplemental protection certificates in Europe. In addition to her patent counseling and prosecution practice, Amanda also routinely represents petitioners and patent owners in inter partes review (IPR) and post grant review (PGR) proceedings before the PTAB. As part of that practice, Amanda works with experts to develop technical and legal bases for challenging or defending issued patents, and manages the preparation of substantive written submissions. She also provides strategic advice and pre-litigation analysis and prepares FTO, enforceability, and infringement opinions.