The 50 most influential people in IP 2022
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The 50 most influential people in IP 2022

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Managing IP reveals its pick of the top people driving intellectual property law, policy and business this year

This year, our profiles are all published on separate pages.

You can access these pages by clicking on the five tabs at the bottom of this page: industry leaders, IP authorities, public officials, judges, and notable individuals.

The tabs can also be found at the bottom of each profile.

The world of intellectual property is never dull, but this year really took the biscuit.

In the US, the District Court for the Western District of Texas had its wings clipped for patent cases – and by its own chief judge, no less.

The government and legislature published and passed several important bills, including one that might finally deal with the uncertainty created over patent eligibility law in the 2010s.

Not to mention, the USPTO finally got a new director after a record 10 months with no one in the role. She was quick to make an impression too.

In Europe, the Unified Patent Court and unitary patent project got just inches away from completion – although not before one of its chief architects resigned.

The EU made a lot of headway on standard essential patent policy as well, getting ever closer to a stance that it felt would best serve the interests of internet of things and 5G stakeholders.

Meanwhile, incumbent executive director of the EUIPO, Christian Archambeau, surprisingly failed to win a nomination for a second term, meaning he will depart by September 2023.

In Asia, we saw the first concrete ruling on non-fungible token rights from Hangzhou.

On the international front, the World Trade Organization finally passed a COVID patent waiver, spurring ire from pharma counsel across the world.

And let’s not forget, of course, the war in Ukraine, which mobilised IP professionals in a way we’ve never seen before.

IP offices cut their ties with Russia, law firms packed their bags, and businesses fought to maintain their rights after the public officials said they wouldn’t respect Western IP.

We never thought we’d say this but, let’s hope next year is less interesting.

If you would like to compare this year’s list to 2021’s, click here.

Topics

View profiles

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