Karsten Cremer
Founder | Managing Partner
European Patent Attorney | PhD in Pharmaceutics

Karsten is an IP expert and pharmaceutical scientist with a significant industrial background. He has more than 25 years of professional experience in new technology & product development and all related IP issues.
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Kurt Schellhaas
Senior Associate
European Patent Attorney | PhD in Chemistry

Kurt joined Pharma Patents in 2016 as a Senior Associate on the basis of almost 20 years of professional experience in academia and industry. He completed his studies in Chemistry at J.W. Goethe University, Frankfurt and holds a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Technical University Berlin. After his postdoctoral studies at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California he joined BASF SE as a medicinal chemist. In 2002 he decided to focus his professional career on the field of Intellectual Property and joined the BASF Global IP department where he worked as a European Patent Attorney and Senior Patent Counsel in the field of vitamins and precursors thereof, APIs and pharmaceutical intermediates as well as aroma chemicals covering a broad range of technologies from lab to world scale applications. In 2009, Kurt joined Roche Diagnostics broadening his area of IP practice to consumer medical technology and devices in the area of Diabetes Care as a Senior Counsel and finally as Head of Patents Diabetes Care.

Diego Vergani
Senior Associate
European & Swiss Patent Attorney

Diego joined Pharma Patents in 2018 as a Senior Associate. He received his PhD in Chemistry from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, and he further holds a Diploma in European Patent Litigation from the University of Strasbourg (CEIPI). He is admitted to practice in front of the European Patent Office and the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property. Recently he was also appointed as a part-time Judge at the Swiss Federal Patent Court. Diego is a business-oriented intellectual property advisor with more than 20 years of professional experience, mostly spent as in-house counsel in the pharma and chemical industry, including F. Hoffmann-La Roche and DuPont where he was heading the EMEA IP department. Diego's expertise includes the drafting, prosecution and enforcement of intellectual property rights. He has extensive experience in preparing and negotiating IP-related contracts. Moreover, he supports clients in M&A projects and due diligences, or by providing expert opinions on the validity of IP rights and on freedom-to-operate. Diego develops and conducts corporate compliance trainings covering all aspects of intellectual property including trade secret protection. He regularly cooperates with the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in educational programs for IP practitioners. Diego works in English, German, French and Italian.

Lily Ackerman
Senior Associate
US Patent Attorney & Attorney at Law | PhD in Chemistry

Lily Ackerman is a U.S. Patent Attorney, registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and an Attorney at Law, registered to practice before the State Bar of California. Her educational background includes studies at Illinois State University (Bachelor of Science in chemistry), the California Institute of Technology (Ph.D. in chemistry), the University of Amsterdam (Post-Doctoral studies in chemistry), and the University of California Berkeley School of Law (Juris Doctor in law). She has over 10 years of experience in Intellectual Property matters, having worked at Morrison & Foerster LLP and Genentech, Inc. / F. Hoffmann La Roche. Her areas of expertise include patent drafting and prosecution, patent portfolio analyses and strategy development, freedom to operate analyses, validity and infringement analyses, and patent licensing transactions.

Xiao Yin Mak
Senior Associate
European Patent Attorney | PhD in Chemistry

Xiao Yin is a European Patent Attorney specialised in pharmaceutics, life sciences and chemistry. She received degrees in Biochemistry (B.S.) and Chemistry (B.A.) from the University of Rochester and completed her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She also holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Intellectual Property from Bournemouth University. Xiao Yin has been working with Pharma Patents since 2011.

Alexander Albrecht
Associate
European Patent Attorney | PhD in Chemistry

Alexander joined the team in 2016 after he had passed the European Qualification Examination. He is a European Patent attorney specialized in biochemistry. Alexander received his diploma and PhD in chemistry at the Philipps University of Marburg in the Group of Professor Marahiel. After a short Post-Doc period, he started his training as a European Patent Attorney. During his training, he focused on Life Sciences and Pharmaceutics. His main fields of expertise were sequencing technologies, pharmaceutical compositions and biomarkers. During his training, Alexander co-authored articles on the case law of second medical use claims, in particular relating to novel dosage regimens and specified patient groups, as well as the case law on second medical use of medical devices.

Katrin Steiner
Associate
European Patent Attorney | PhD in Pharmaceutics

Katrin is a European Patent attorney specialized in pharmaceutics. Prior to joining Pharma Patents as a trainee in 2011, Katrin studied pharmacy at the Freie Universität Berlin and obtained a PhD in Pharmaceutical Technology from the same university in the working group of Prof. Bodmeier. She worked extensively in the field of controlled release dosage forms, including oral, injectable, transdermal and transmucosal dosage forms. In addition, Katrin is experienced in the fields of medical devices, processing technology and food chemistry.

Barbara Guggenmos
Of Counsel
Attorney at Law | M.Sc. in Chemistry

Barbara is an attorney-at-law admitted to the German courts. She received a degree in chemistry from the Technical University of Munich and studied law at the Ludwig- Maximilians-University of Munich to specialise in Intellectual Property. She has more than 20 years of professional experience in IP. Her main field is trademark law with a focus on the pharmaceutical field, and she regularly advises and represents clients on global trademark strategies.

Sam Sokhansanj
Of Counsel
U.S. Patent Attorney Contract | MSc. in Electrical & Biomedical Engineering

Sam is a US-based Patent Attorney licensed to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and in the State of Texas. Sam holds a J.D. in law, B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering, M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, and M.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering. He brings over 15 years of experience in IP law and has successfully prosecuted patents to issuance in various technologies and industries, including biomedical & therapeutic devices, health & beauty products, mobile device & web-based software, and nutritional formulations. Sam is also experienced in counseling clients on patent portfolio development, offensive and defensive IP strategies, freedom-to-operate, and validity opinions. He is also a former contract Patent Examiner for the USPTO where he conducted searches and provided written reports on patentability in various arts.

Andreas Blecha
Of Counsel
European and German Patent Attorney

Andreas is a German and European Patent Attorney with 13 years of professional experience as in-house patent counsel in a pharmaceutical enterprise (Sandoz Austria). He has studied biology and biochemistry at the University of Dresden and was trained in patent matters from 2006-2009 in the Munich law firm Weickmann & Weickmann. His areas of expertise include prosecution, litigation, license agreements as well as freedom to operate analyses in the biotechnology, medical device and pharmaceutical field. Further, Andreas has trained scientists to become a European patent Attorney and has advised various clients in Germany and Austria in inventor law aspects.