50 most influential people in IP 2022: MIP recognises Patrick Leahy at the US Congress

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50 most influential people in IP 2022: MIP recognises Patrick Leahy at the US Congress

Patrick Leahy is a senator for Vermont at the US Congress

Patrick Leahy.jpg
Patrick Leahy, senator, US Congress

The soon-to-be-retired senator for Vermont made waves this year when he essentially abandoned his Restoring the America Invents Act for more middle-ground legislation.

In June, Leahy, Senator Thom Tillis and Senator John Cornyn introduced the PTAB Reform Act – a 27-page document that would codify a director review process, stop patent challengers from filing simultaneous or repeated inter partes reviews, and do away with Fintiv, if enacted.

The bill was met with disdain from patent owners, which wanted the Fintiv rule to be preserved at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. Nonetheless, it was a decent attempt at compromise.

Leahy and Tillis also introduced the Patent Examination and Quality Improvement Act earlier this year. The legislation, if enacted, would compel the government to evaluate prior and current initiatives and pilot programmes related to the quality of patents.

The bill would also make the government examine the need for greater clarity in terms of what constituted patent quality, the setting of patent quality metrics, and how the quality of work product performed by patent examiners was measured within the USPTO.

Leahy, the longest-serving US senator, will leave the government in January.

His track record on intellectual property – including his work on the America Invents Act – probably makes him the most influential US politician in IP of all time.

Profiles for the 50 most influential people in IP 2022
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The list is in five categories, which you can navigate by selecting the appropriate section below.

19 Industry leaders
10 Public officials
9 IP authorities
7 Judges
5 Notable individuals
 
Kasim Alfalahi is CEO at Avanci in the US
Shannon Thyme Klinger is chief legal officer at Moderna in the US
Jim Sullivan is a director at Shazam Productions in the UK
Ben Horowitz and Marc Andreessen are founders at Andreessen Horowitz in the US
Robert Devonshire is a partner at MML Capital in the UK
Jack Randles is head of legal at Manolo Blahnik in the UK
Audrey Lee is general counsel at Starz Entertainment in the US
Craig Wright is a computer scientist in Australia
Mattia Fogliacco is president of Sisvel International in Luxembourg
Joyce Ang is senior vice president for IPR protection at Lazada in Singapore
Niall Trainor is senior director of brand protection at eOne in the UK
Scott Frank is CEO of IP at AT&T in the US
Stephen Wurth and John Scott are legal counsel at Qualcomm in the US
Juliette Rouilloux-Sicre is vice president of legal and intellectual property at Thales in France
Nader Pazirandeh is president at Unicolors in the US
Clemens Heusch is global head of dispute resolution at Nokia in Germany
René Claude Metomo is the president of the Association of Penja Pepper Producers in Cameroon
Beat Weibel is chief IP counsel at Siemens in Germany
Daniel Zohny is head of IP at FIFA in Switzerland
 
Jacob Rees-Mogg is the former secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy in the UK
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is the director general of the World Trade Organization in Switzerland
The investigation lead at the Spanish National Police asked to remain anonymous
Edwin Tong is the second minister for law in the Singapore government
Kerstin Jorna is director general of DG Grow at the European Commission in Belgium
Thom Tillis is a senator for North Carolina at the US Congress
Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan is the former president of the United Arab Emirates
Vladimir Putin is president of Russia
 
Alexander Ramsay is former chair of the UPC Administrative Committee in Sweden
Insil Lee is the commissioner at KIPO in South Korea
Christian Archambeau is executive director at the EUIPO in Spain
Tim Moss is former CEO of the UKIPO
Shen Changyu is the commissioner of the CNIPA in China
Shira Perlmutter is register of copyrights at the US Copyright Office
Kathi Vidal is the director of the USPTO and under secretary of commerce for IP in the US government
Konstantinos Georgaras is CEO of the Canadian Intellectual Property Office
António Campinos is president of the EPO in Germany
 
Wang Jiangqiao is a judge at the Hangzhou Internet Court in China
Prathiba Singh is a judge at the Delhi High Court in India
Klaus Grabinski is president of the UPC Court of Appeal in Germany
Len Stark is a judge at the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in the US
Orlando Garcia is the chief judge at the District Court for the Western District of Texas in the US
Colm Connolly is the chief judge at the District Court for the District of Delaware in the US
Suzanne Barnett was the interim chief judge at the Copyright Royalty Board in the US
 
Amber Kotrri is the founder of House of Zana in the UK
Taras Kulbaba is a partner at Bukovnik & Kulbaba IP Guardians in Belgium
Lynn Goldsmith is a celebrity photographer in the US
Ankit Sahni is the owner of the RAGHAV Artificial Intelligence Painting App in India
Ed Sheeran is a pop star in the UK
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