Elana Araj

Of counsel, Greenberg Traurig (US)

Elana Araj focuses her practice on patent, trademark, and copyright infringement litigation in district court and post-grant review proceedings before the US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO). Prior to practising law, Araj was a patent examiner with the USPTO for four years. Araj is a participant in the New York University incubator programme Endless Frontier Labs, through which she provides mentoring and pro bono legal services to startups. This includes leading IP workshops, reviewing agreements, drafting patent applications, and developing patent portfolios. The goal is to help member startups obtain at least one patent and progress in their fundraising. She has also volunteered for EXITE camp, a STEM camp for middle school girls with disabilities.

Araj has also co-developed and/or presented multiple continuing legal education (CLE) initiatives in the areas of IP and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). These include a programme for the Association of Corporate Counsel-Philly with tips for in-house counsel following the filing of a patent infringement action against their company; one for Regeneron Pharmaceuticals on DEI; and a CLE for the Young Women’s Committee of the New York Intellectual Property Law Association.

Alex Bistline

Member, Pirkey Barber (US)

Alex Bistline practises trademark, copyright, and unfair competition law, with a primary focus on litigation and policing. She was selected as a 2023 Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) Fellow, reflecting her ongoing commitment to fostering DEI within the legal profession. As an LCLD Fellow, Bistline will take part in an innovative programme aimed at identifying, training, and propelling the next wave of leaders in the legal field. She is among the talented mid-career attorneys handpicked by LCLD member corporations and law firms for this career development opportunity.

Hester Borgers

Associate, Bird & Bird (Netherlands)

Borgers specialises in patent law and life sciences regulation, and works daily on complex cases in the medical devices industry and pharmaceutical sector. She assists a broad range of life sciences clients with their regulatory matters, including litigation. Her regulatory experience also includes advising with regard to all things digital health, from telemedicine to AI. She is a board member of the Dutch association Pharma & Law (Vereniging Farma & Recht), a member of the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI) and Female Intellectual Property Experts (FIPE).

Hannah Burrows

Associate, Appleyard Lees (UK)

Hannah Burrows assists with a variety of trademark and design matters both contentious and non-contentious. She works with many startups as well as multinational companies in a wide range of sectors. Burrows has particular expertise in the fashion, beauty and luxury goods sectors, and has worked with clients in these areas to protect their IP. Burrows has extensive involvement with the Chartered Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys (CITMA)—she has contributed to the CITMA Review publication with an article titled ‘Break Your Silence’ following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, with a call to action to IP professionals and beyond on being anti-racist and being a proactive ally.

She has spoken on a CITMA panel event sharing her career journey with aspiring trademark attorneys. Burrows is also a member of the CITMA D&I committee.

Ana Luíza Calil

Attorney-at-law, Licks Attorneys (Brazil)

Ana Luíza Fernandes Calil joined Licks Attorneys’ Rio de Janeiro office in 2019, and her practice focuses on highly specialised regulatory disputes (both judicial and administrative) and government contracts. Her professional highlights so far include an honourable mention by the Brazilian Congress of Administrative Law, which referred to an article she wrote entitled, Is Advertising the Soul of the State? Spending Control and Enhancement of Advertising Contracts through the Behavioral Economy. She has also addressed DEI issues in regulatory agencies, in her article, Gender Disparity: the Limited Space of Women in Management Positions.

She was a professor of administrative and environmental law at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and still teaches as an invited professor on several courses. She holds a master’s in public law from the State University of Rio de Janeiro.

Lucy Coe

Senior associate, Mewburn Ellis (UK)

Lucy Coe works primarily in the computer software, physics, and electrical engineering sectors. She is involved with all stages of the patent process, including drafting and prosecution of applications, and handling both offensive and defensive European Patent Office (EPO) oppositions and appeals. She also has experience performing freedom-to-operate searches, providing detailed opinions on patent infringement and validity, and advising on proceedings before the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, UK Intellectual Property Office and the EPO.

Coe is a strong advocate for inclusion; she is a member of the Mewburn Ellis Inclusion and Diversity Collaboration group, a founding member of the Women of Mewburn Ellis network (WoMEn), and a committee member for the IP Inclusive Women in IP group.

Andrea Dufaure

Senior associate, Allen & Overy (France)

Andrea Dufaure is a senior associate in the IP team based in Paris. She primarily assists clients in the entertainment sector (video game publishers, media service providers and production companies) and photography and imaging companies in their trademark and copyright disputes before French courts. As both a US and French citizen, she is qualified to practise law in Paris and New York.

Dufaure regularly speaks at trademark and gaming conferences across Europe such as More Than Just a Game in Paris, the Warsaw Gaming Conference and the Games Industry Law Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. She delivered a course on Design Law at Nanterre University and a class on IP protection of video games at the Sorbonne University (2021). Also active in the pro bono field, she has been assisting Café Joyeux (a coffee-shop chain which employs staff suffering from mental disabilities) for several years in its trademark disputes. Dufaure is also involved in various diversity initiatives for the A&O Paris office. She is a member of professional associations such as INTA and AIPPI.

Cathy Fanglin

Partner, HongFang Law (China)

Cathy Fanglin handles disputed matters in relation to trademark infringements, unfair competition and anti-counterfeiting through civil, administrative and criminal law enforcement and by supporting business negotiations from a legal viewpoint.

She has handled large amounts of trademark cases including trademark clearance search, trademark review and opposition, and administrative litigation. Fanglin is experienced in communicating and cooperating with law enforcement authorities including Customs, the Administration for Industry and Commerce and the Public Security Bureau for initiation of law enforcement actions against infringers and counterfeiters. She also represents clients in civil litigations dealing with disputes related to trademark infringements and unfair competition.

Caleb Green

Associate, Dickinson Wright (US)

Caleb Green is an IP strategist and technology attorney in Dickinson Wright’s Las Vegas office. His primary areas of practice include IP law, cyber-security and data protection laws, entertainment law, and technology. His experience revolves around trademark prosecution, intellectual property litigation and enforcement, IP management, corporate due diligence, and data protection compliance. Green advises clients on various emerging technologies, including non-fungible tokens (NFTs), blockchain technology, DAOs (decentralised autonomous organisations), cryptocurrency, and metaverse/virtual reality matters.

In April 2023, he was invited to present on the topic of mental health and diversity in the legal profession by the American Bar Association at its Young Lawyers Division Western States Summit in Fort Collins, Colorado. In 2021, he also authored an article, Patently Unfair: Racial Inequality Through the US Intellectual Property Legal System, for the Clark County Bar Association, which explored how the US legal system has historically oppressed minority communities.

Grace Guo

Counsel, Hogan Lovells (China)

Grace Guo is a counsel in Hogan Lovells’ IP, media and technology (IPMT) practice group who concentrates her practice on advising clients on various contentious and non-contentious matters covering trademark, copyright, domain name, design patent, trade secrets and unfair competition issues. On the contentious side, Guo has represented clients in PRC courts for administrative litigation for trademark prosecution and civil litigation for trademark infringement, design patent infringement and unfair competition cases.

Sunny Kumar

Partner, Ashurst (UK)

Sunny Kumar is the firm’s UK head of IP and is currently a partner within the digital economy team in London with responsibility for the IP transactions, procurement and portfolio management practice group.

Before joining the firm, he was a senior associate at K&L Gates in London, and he has also worked in-house within the BBC’s IP transactions team.

Kumar advises on contentious and non-contentious trademark, copyright, patent, design, advertising, licensing and commercial matters. He has extensive experience in working with clients on their IP projects across multiple jurisdictions with particular experience in the Middle East across the life sciences, technology and media sectors.

He has represented his clients before the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Courts of England and Wales. Additionally, he regularly works with his clients to manage and enforce international trademark and design portfolios and regularly advises on related clearance issues. His broad range of experience includes acting and appearing in contentious trademark opposition proceedings before the UK Intellectual Property Office, the EU Intellectual Property Office and the Court of Justice of the European Union.

Giordana Mahn

Of counsel, Fish & Richardson (US)

With a background in mechanical engineering and a passion for working with female founders and innovators, Giordana Mahn helps inventors patent rights for their consumer products, biomechanical, electromechanical, health tech, and medical device innovations and technologies. Outside of her patent practice, Mahn devotes a considerable amount of time to activism on behalf of women in technology. She has served as the IP legal expert in residence of Women of Wearables and is a member of both Women of SexTech and the FemTech Collective. Her extensive pro bono practice focuses on legal advocacy related to reproductive rights, civil rights, mediation, and clemency and expungement. Mahn is a certified mediator and volunteer with organisations such as Lawyers for Good Government, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Center for Conflict Resolution, Cabrini Green Legal Aid, and the Mass Defense Committee of the National Lawyers Guild.

Palak Mayani

Senior associate, Arnold & Porter (US)

Palak Mayani’s practice focuses on IP law, including the clearance and prosecution of trademarks, coordination of investigations to uncover infringements, and enforcement of IP rights through cease and desist letters, takedown requests, and UDRP complaints. Mayani’s practice covers a variety of industries, including pharmaceuticals, alcoholic beverages, luxury apparel and accessories, and consumer products. Her trademark work also includes the review of licensing, distribution, coexistence, and domain name transfer agreements.

Mayani also has experience in IP litigation, including research, drafting briefs and preparing written discovery for trademark infringement, trade dress infringement, and false advertising cases. In 2019, Mayani spent six months serving on secondment as IP counsel for the in-house legal department of Novartis.

Natasha Rao

Senior associate, Fieldfisher (UK)

Natasha Rao has broad advisory and contentious experience across the full range of IP rights, including trademarks, copyright, design rights, domain names and patents. She advises clients on clearance, brand strategy and enforcement-related issues, and has substantial experience conducting litigation on IP matters in front of the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, High Court, and Court of Appeal, as well as at the UK Intellectual Property Office and EU Intellectual Property Office.

She has a particular interest and experience in the technology and art sectors, including advising on IP issues in relation to non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and data mining by generative AI. Rao has acted for clients across a variety of sectors, and most recently acted as lead assistant in cases on behalf of Peloton and SkyKick, the latter of which dealt with key issues around trademark law and bad faith and will be heard at the UK Supreme Court later this year.

Ari Rollason

Attorney, HLK (UK)

Ari Rollason joined HLK in 2018, after achieving a first class degree in physics at Imperial College London. He has a particular interest in renewable energy generation and recycling methods. Rollason is currently the author of the HLK Green Series, which looks at published patents in and around these areas and their potential impacts. Since beginning his training at HLK, he has worked on cases in a wide variety of technological fields. He is also a member of IP Out. This year, he contributed an article to WIPR Diversity, exploring the importance of using inclusive language in the workplace.

Susie Ruiz-Lichter

Associate, Squire Patton Boggs (US)

Susie Ruiz-Lichter assists clients with technology and intellectual property matters, including technology transactions, trademark and copyright procurement and enforcement, and technology and intellectual property due diligence in financing events. She also advises clients on advertising issues, including social media and FTC compliance and in privacy matters. She is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP). Her work involves managing the IP portfolios of well-known consumer brands, including facilitating global trademark expansions, and enforcing and defending against intellectual property threats. She has litigated two copyright fair use cases in district court and before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

Sanaya Vachha

Senior Associate, Vellani & Vellani (Pakistan)

Sanaya Vachha is a senior associate, enrolled as an advocate of the High Court. Vachha primarily advises on matters relating to corporate and commercial law and IP matters. Additionally, Vaccha advises on contentious intellectual property matters including opposition proceedings in relation to trademarks and copyrights and customs enforcement actions for protection of intellectual property rights. She has participated in litigation proceedings before specialised tribunals, lower courts and High Courts of Pakistan, and has assisted senior counsel in the courts of Pakistan up to the Supreme Court. She is a member of the International Trademarks Association (INTA) Enforcement Committee and co-chairs the association’s Opposition and Harmonization Task Force Enforcement Committee.

She contributes regularly to the Competition and Antitrust Newsletter for the International Law Office and to journals published by the World Bank and International Finance Corporation in connection with cross-border investments in Pakistan.