Simon Cheetham is the Team Leader of the China IPR SME Helpdesk. He is a China IPR Enforcement expert with over 30 years' experience in commercial investigations, due diligence and IPR enforcement in China and internationally. He has lived and worked in China and South-East Asia for over 17 years. He is also the Managing Director of ERINYES INTERNATIONAL LTD, a firm he founded to capitalise on his extensive experience of international investigations, loss prevention and enforcement work. He manages and directs the operations of the Company from Europe to the Far East.

Simon began his career with the Hong Kong Police, where he was responsible for the detection and prosecution of a wide variety of crimes, including fraud and homicide. While in South-East Asia Simon was Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce Intellectual Property Committee and acted as an advisor to the International Anti-Counterfeiting Task Force on China. He has lectured frequently around the world on security issues and IPR and has written articles and papers on a variety of related topics, including a chapter in 'Intellectual Property Law and Practice in the People's Republic of China' published by Kluwer Law International B.V. He is fluent in English and Cantonese.

Clifford Borg-Marks is a member of Bird & Bird's Intellectual Property Group in China. His focus is on portfolio management, licensing, due diligence and lobbying. Cliff was regularly consulted by the Office of the USTR on IP issues in the run-up to China's entry into the WTO, and in the 1990's Cliff developed a pioneering IP practice and executed a remarkable number of IP 'firsts' in China. These include the first:

• enforcement campaigns against software piracy at the retail level and against hard-disk loading (for the Business Software Alliance and Microsoft Corporation);
• computer software case to be accepted by the National Copyright Administration (for Sega Enterprises);
• administrative review of a decision of the State Pharmaceutical Administration for pipeline protection for a pharmaceutical product;
• the first cyber-squatting dispute decided by CIETAC (for PepsiCo).

David Chen joined Ropes & Gray in 2011 having worked previously for Hogan Lovells for three years. He specialises in IP-related transactions, licensing, IP-risk assessment and in areas of trademark, copyright, patent, trade secrets, and unfair competition. His practice focuses on contentious and non-contentious IP matters in China, including litigation matters, patent infringement analyses, patent landscape and freedom to operate, and technology transfer and licensing. The clients he represents are from a wide range of industries including energy, chemical, manufacturing, technology, software, telecommunications, and consumer products. David has a J.D. and M.A. in International Relations from Boston University, USA and an LL.M. in Chinese Law from Tsinghua University, China. David has a B.A. in Business Economics and Sociology, and previously worked as a financial analyst for 3 years. David is fluent in English and Mandarin.

Jingjing Cao joined Taylor Wessing in 2009. She is a member of the Intellectual Property Practice Group and the China Group as well. She specializes in China related intellectual property and unfair competition legal affairs. From 2009 to 2010 Jingjing worked in the Munich office. In January 2011, she relocated to the Beijing office of Taylor Wessing. Jingjing studied law in China and Germany. After finishing an LL.M. program at the University of Munich, she was a Ph.D. candidate at the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law in Munich for three years and wrote her doctoral thesis concerning the enforcement of patent rights in China, which has been published in October 2010. In September 2009, Jingjing passed her bar exam in China. Jingjing speaks Mandarin, English and German.

Alessandra is a senior associate of S&F INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, and Head of the Firm's Beijing Office. She holds a magna cum laude law degree from the University of Bari-Italy, an LLM in International and European Business Law from Anglia Polytechnic University, Cambridge-UK, and a Master in IP Law with special focus on Chinese IP Law from Milan Polytechnic University in collaboration with Tongji University- Shanghai. Alessandra has advised and assisted European companies from a wide range of industries on various aspects of IP prosecutions and enforcement in China, evaluating intellectual property rights portfolios and providing guidance on strategies. She also collaborated with the EU-China Project for the Enforcement of IPR (IPR2) where she served as co-editor of IP related publications.

Georgia has wide experience handling contentious intellectual property matters including patent and trade mark litigation and anti-unfair competition actions in China. Georgia's experience also includes non-contentious intellectual property matters such as providing freedom to operate opinions in a wide number of fields and counselling on intellectual property portfolio management. Georgia has substantial experience in advising clients on technology transfer matters.

Georgia is currently acting for multi-national companies in respect of intellectual property matters in China, including contentious matters involving patents, designs and anti-unfair competition lawsuit for power and automation technologies, electrical appliances, toys, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and household products. A native of Shanghai, Georgia speaks Mandarin, Shanghainese and Cantonese as well as English.

Michele Ferrante is Managing Partner of S&F Intellectual Property. hehas worked for over twelve years in London, Lyon and in Milan. During the last eight years he has assisted Italian, Swiss, Spanish and French clients in all aspect of intellectual property protection all over the world. Since starting SCHMITT ZUR HOHE & FERRANTE Michele has focused his activity on IPR protection in Asia. Michele regularly speaks at international IP conferences and has written articles on IP issues published in different international magazines. He speaks Italian, English, French and Spanish.

Philippe Girard-Foley has been Of Counsel to Wanhuida since November 2008. He obtained his first law degree from the Jean-Monnet Law School in Paris in 1973, then two advanced law degrees from the Sorbonne in 1974 and 1976. He is also a graduate of the Paris Institute of Political Sciences (1985) and a LL.M. of the University of Pennsylvania Law School (1983). From 1976 until 1993, Philippe Girard-Foley practiced as in-house attorney with successively Procter & Gamble, Ford, IBM and Remy Cointreau in Paris, London and Hong Kong. He is now back in Paris, but remains focused on Asian issues, and has been a pro-bono member of the National Import Food Hygiene Supervision and Inspection of the People's Republic of China. He is the co-author of 'Intellectual Property Rights – Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Vietnam – Acquisition, Scope and Enforcement' for the European Union programme Asia Invest.

Bertram Huber, a principal of IP*SEVA, is an international intellectual property expert based in Backnang (near Stuttgart), Germany. As former Senior Vice President of Robert Bosch GmbH, Stuttgart, Germany, and Head of Corporate Intellectual Property he is known and recognised as an expert in the relevant corners of the world. From 2000 until 2009 his responsibility included global intellectual property strategic development and management of the patent portfolio and licensing activities of the Bosch Group. Before joining Bosch in 1995, Dr Huber headed the Legal and Patents Department of the telecommunications company ANT Nachrichtentechnik GmbH since 1983. He began his professional career in 1978 at AEG-Telefunken AG. He is active in a number of Intellectual Property organizations: AIPPI (Chairman Special Committee Q198 - IP and Environmental Technology/Climate Change (green technology), 2004 - 2010 Member of the Programme Committee), Munich Intellectual Property Law Centre (Chairman of the Board of Trustees), Past President of LES (Licensing Executives Society) Germany, and others.

Mr Hurvitz obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Arizona in 2003, and his Juris Doctorate from the University of Tulsa College of Law in 2007. He received his LL.M. in International Business and Trade Law from the John Marshall Law School in Chicago in 2008. Mr Hurvitz first started his Intellectual Property experience when he was hired as the sole law clerk on an antitrust and illegal patent tying case that was heard before the United States Supreme Court. He then drafted technology transfer agreements and worked on enforcement matters for an international law firm in Beijing, China. At Kangxin, Mr Hurvitz currently advises the firm's North American, European, Indian, and Australian clients on different aspects of Chinese Intellectual Property Law. He specifically focuses on how best to introduce technology into China, and how to effectuate positive enforcement of IPR.

Dr Huang Hui is Senior Partner of Wanhuida. He is a scholar, lawyer, trademark attorney, Research Fellow of Intellectual Property Centre of China Academy of Social Sciences and the Arbitrator of Domain Name Dispute Resolution Centre of CIETAC. Prior to joining Wanhuida, Dr Huang served 12 years at the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC). He also studied international industrial property law and graduated from the Centre of International Study of Industrial Property (CEIPI), Robert Schuman University in France. After graduation, Dr Huang conducted academic research on the protection of well-known trademarks within the China Academy of Social Sciences ("Legal Protection of Well-Known and Famous Marks") (Law Press, 2001), where he was awarded the degree of doctor at law. Dr Huang is also an active practicing attorney who represents clients before the People's Courts of China in a wide variety of litigations, some of which have become landmark decisions in the industry.

Michal Klaczynski has over ten years experience in both Polish and international practices and now runs his own consulting firm specialising in international transactions and regulatory matters, including assistance in Chinese business and IP related matters. His experience includes assisting companies establishing business in China, advising on foreign direct investment regulations and negotiating joint venture agreements. He also advises on various aspects of Chinese copyright law, trade secrets, trademarks, as well as negotiating licensing, manufacturing and distribution agreements related to operations in China. Michal graduated from Harvard Law School (LL.M.) and Jagiellonian University; Poland. He studied at Sichuan United University (Chengdu, China), and is currently working on his doctoral degree in international law.

He Jing is a senior consultant at ZY Partners and has extensive experience in IP litigations and IP advisory matters. He regularly advises clients on IP licensing and negotiation related to transactions and IP disputes. He Jing is lead counsel and has handled a number of high profile cases. He Jing also advises corporate clients and industry associations on regulatory and government policy issues. He is a fellow affiliated with the School of Intellectual Property of Renmin University. He graduated from Peking University with B.Sc in Physics and obtained his law degree from the University of Notre Dame in 2000. He passed the State Bar of California in 2000 and the USPTO patent exam in April 2001.

Horace Lam is Partner at Jones Day and previously held the position of Managing Partner at Hogan Lovells in Beijing, China. Horace practices in all areas of intellectual property work, contentious and non-contentious.

He has handled a large number of contentious trademark, patent and copyright cases in China and Hong Kong, for multinational companies from all industry sectors. He has assisted many Fortune 500 companies to develop intellectual property and brand protection strategies across Asia. He has experience in negotiating and advising on licensing, franchising and assigning of patents, confidential information, technology and know-how transfer, trademarks, copyright and design rights.

Horace was the previous Chairperson of the China Subcommittee, Anti-Counterfeit & Enforcement Committee (ACEC) of the International Trademark Association (INTA) and is a member of the Asia Patent Practitioners Association (APPA). He is fluent in English, Mandarin and Cantonese.

Mai is U.S. qualified lawyer admitted to the State Bar of California and holds a juris doctor (J.D.) from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. She graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Ethics, Politics & Economics.

Mai has advised multinational enterprises in various industries on a range of contentious and non-contentious intellectual property issues, primarily in anti-counterfeiting, commercial transactions, IP licensing, unfair competition, trademark and brand protection in China, recordation of copyrights in China, customs protection of IP, technology licensing, trademark licensing, and contracts for manufacturing and technology transfers, supply chain management and distribution. She has participated in lobbying efforts to promote reform in China's intellectual property legal system.

Yuqing Lin is senior partner of F&S Intellectual Property firm in Beijing. With more than 12 years' experience as a Chinese patent attorney, he has been involved in various aspects of patent-related domestic and international matters, including: prosecutions, litigations, licensing, invention disclosures and evaluations for patentability for major companies. He is also a Chinese qualified lawyer. He is a regularly speaker in China and has published a number of IP related articles for IP focused magazines, such as Landslide Magazine of IP Law Section of the American Bar Association (ABA).

Dr. Toby Mak is a registered Chinese Patent Attorney and has a PhD degree in Chemistry. Toby has over 10 years of experience in the patents and designs industry, with substantial exposure to the handling of both contentious and non-contentious matters. Before joining Tee & Howe, he worked at one of largest Hong Kong law firm on IP matters for more than 8 years. His clients include investors, local and overseas research institutes, multinational power tool company, manufacturer of adhesives and elastomers, universities, video-on-demand company, and companies specialized in gene detection and pharmaceutical compositions development. He is a member of the All-China Patent Agents Association and AIPPI, and a foreign member of the UK Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys.

João Miranda de Sousa is Head of Garrigues' worldwide Intellectual Property practice. Before joining Garrigues, Mr. Miranda de Sousa was Director of General Affairs and External Relations at the European Trademark & Design Office (OHIM), where he coordinated OHIM's relations with its counterparts in other countries, other EU institutions, the press, the business community and the world of industrial property professionals.

During his 12-year long career at the OHIM, the agency saw its international standing improve dramatically. Only in 2007, the agency received some 90,000 trademark registration applications, making it the EU's largest Registry Office. In recognition of his work, he received the Business Outstanding Achievement Award last year in London at the Managing Intellectual Property (MIP) Awards.

Edouard Schmitt zur Hohe has been advising on intellectual property rights in Asia for over 12 years. He has worked on a wide range of cases throughout Asia including both contentious and non-contentious work. Edouard specialises in providing clients with comprehensive IP strategies throughout the region based on their needs and IP issues. He speaks English, French, Russian, Chinese and Italian.

Thomas Pattloch specialises in industrial property rights and technology transfer with a particular focus on China. He provides comprehensive assistance and advice with regard to all aspects of Chinese industrial property law, covering inter alia strategic establishment of industrial and intellectual property rights in China, enforcement of rights and assisting clients in particularly sensitive fields of technology, competition-related aspects of license agreements, drafting of software and technology license agreements, designing R&D projects as well as IP transactions. His remit also comprises assistance in fighting product piracy in China and Asia. Thomas went to law school in Munich. Afterwards, he did his doctorate at the University of Passau, with a thesis on Chinese IP rights, and was a research assistant with the Asia department of the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Patent, Copyright and Competition Law. After obtaining his doctorate degree, he practised law in Shanghai. Before joining Taylor Wessing he was the European Commission's IP Officer in Beijing, China.

Paul Ranjard is a seasoned IPR lawyer from France with extensive experience dealing with IPR infringements in China. He has spent more than 10 years working with China IPR issues. He is the chair of the IPR Working Group of the EU chamber of commerce in China and represents UniFab (Union des Fabricants). He is also the vice chair for the quality brands protection committee and is lawyer of counsel for the Wanhuida intellectual property agency. He has represented large companies such as Lacoste in carrying out IPR enforcement in China. Paul Ranjard is an active speaker at academic seminars and international conferences.

Jannik Skou has ten years of experience within the domain name and brand protection industry. He has worked with a number of Fortune500 and Europe Top 500 companies in the areas of domain name strategy, domain name management, brand protection, investigation, domain name audits and business process optimization.

Mr. Skou is a partner at the Swiss consulting company, Thomsen Trampedach GmbH, who work with large international corporate clients to implement either best practice or client specific strategies and solutions. He holds a Master of art from Copenhagen University and an executive MBA from Copenhagen Business School. He is on the Internet Committee at INTA, and is engaged at the IP Constituency at ICANN.

Tim is Deputy Head of Rouse's Dispute Resolution Team in China. Tim advises international companies on IP protection and enforcement in China, and has particular experience in copyright and IP litigation in China.

Tim trained at Ashurst in London, qualifying into the IP litigation team where he handled trade mark, design, copyright and patent work, including copyright enforcement programmes for retail and media-owning clients. Before joining Rouse in 2008, he was Senior Legal Adviser at IFPI, the international trade body for the recording industry. At IFPI he was responsible for a number of high-profile litigation cases, including the groundbreaking action for the industry against Yahoo! China. Tim has managed litigation in more than 20 jurisdictions in Europe, South America and Asia.

Beata is a Polish patent attorney and European trademark attorney.
She holds a master degree in law from the University of Warsaw and obtained a LL.M degree in IP Law in Spain. Beata has worked for more than three years in law firms in Poland and in Spain where she dealt with international IP portfolios including IP rights prosecutions, enforcement actions and drafting contracts. Afterwards she joined the European IPR Helpdesk, where she advised on IP and in particular on technology transfer under the European Commission's funded projects (the 7th Framework Programme and Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme). Beata joined the China IPR SME Helpdesk in June 2011.

Nicolai Wiegand specializes in IT/E-commerce, data protection, and Media & Entertainment. He also advises on competition law, advertising law and sponsoring, copyright law, publishing law, the registration of industrial property rights, and the resolution of industrial property rights conflicts in China. Dr Wiegand studied law in Munich where he passed both state examinations, before receiving an LL.M. degree at New York University School of Law. He then obtained a doctor's degree in copyright law in Germany and worked as a scholarship holder at the Max Planck Institute for foreign and international patent, copyright and competition law. He regularly publishes articles on topics of software law and is a co-author of an IT law handbook for specialised lawyers. He is a lecturer at the IT course for specialising lawyers and a member of DGRI, the German Computer Law Association.

Martin is head of his own consultancy firm in Beijing. He has over ten years of experience advising European SMEs and scientific institutions on China IP issues. His specialties are enforcement of IP rights and hands-on IP strategies for foreign enterprises, as well as licensing and IP registrations in China.

Martin is a German qualified lawyer, holding a doctor's degree in constitutional law and a LL.M. degree in international and European economic law. He has in-depth experience on different IP approaches between China and Europe, and resulting conflicts. He is fluent in written and spoken Chinese. Examples of his daily business are: IP enforcement through Chinese authorities, coordination of IP litigations, representation in arbitration (CIETAC, BAC) and mediation, drafting of IP related contracts (licensing, technology transfer, cooperation), and management of IP portfolios in China.

Serena Tierney is a consultant for Wragge & Co LLP as well as the director of Pandion IP, her own Intellectual Property consultancy firm. She specializes in IP rights related to international business and focuses on IP development strategies for topics such as capture of innovation, risk management, tax planning, portfolio prosecution, participation in standards organisations (SDOs), licensing of IPR and judicial enforcement. Serena practices internationally, having conducted litigation, patent, trade mark and design prosecution globally. From 2006 – 2010, she was the Vice Chair of the Intellectual Property Committee of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), is a founder and board member of the International IP Strategists' Association (INTIPSA) and was named one of the Intellectual Asset Management Magazine's top 250 leading IP Strategists in 2011.

Christine is an associate in the Intellectual Property Group and is based in Bird & Bird's Shanghai office. Owing to her science background, Christine has specialised in technology-related work in China since 2004. She has handled a number of contentious patent, copyright, registered design, and trade mark cases, with considerable experience in the mobile telecommunications field. She has also advised clients on non-contentious matters such as brand management and technology transfer. Christine has been a member of the expert panel of the China IPR SME Helpdesk since May 2010.

Stacy has advised on anti-counterfeiting strategies, civil and criminal actions, conducted IP audits, and drafted assignments and licensing agreements in commercial transactions. Her experience includes advising on strategies of enforcing trademarks, copyrights and designs in the PRC, including domain name disputes and internet security matters in China, and assisting companies on China branding strategy, including investigations and negotiations on acquisition of multi-million dollar IP assets.

Stacy studied at Hei Longjiang University in China for her LLB, with the last year spent in England with University of Leeds for European Union law. She obtained her LLM, in Senior Status of Common Law at the University of Leeds, UK and joined legacy Lovells Beijing IP in March 2005. Stacy obtained her second LLM at Boston University for American Law, and passed the New York Bar Exam.

Jiancheng Zeng is a Chinese patent attorney with over 5 years of experience in patent prosecution and litigation in China. He studied at the University of Technology Darmstadt, Germany and started his career as a patent engineer in a local German company and later in a IP law firm. At present Jiancheng Zeng is a partner heading Tee & Howe's European Office in Hannover, Germany where he advises on IP matters both in Europe and in China. He is a member of the All-China Patent Agents Association and Association of Patent Professionals in Industry in Germany (VPP).