Conference Chairs
Chaired by two leading experts in intellectual property and regulatory strategy for biological crop protection.
Filip De Corte leads the IP team at Syngenta Crop Protection, with staff based in Switzerland, the United Kingdom, China, the United States, Brazil, and the Netherlands. Prior to joining Syngenta in 2013, he served as Chief IP Counsel Europe at Cargill and held various roles in the Johnson & Johnson patent department, including positions with Janssen Pharmaceutica in Beerse, New Brunswick, and Brussels. Filip holds a PhD in organic chemistry, is a qualified European Patent Attorney, has passed the US patent bar exam, holds the qualification of European Patent Litigation from the University of Strasbourg, and earned an MBA from the Vlerick School of Management. He is a lecturer in the CEIPI European Litigator Course, focusing on multi-national litigation.
Michael Kock is the founder of Dr. Kock Consulting and has worked at the intersection of innovation, technology acceptance, and intellectual property for over 25 years. With two decades of leadership experience at multinational companies including BASF and Syngenta, he assists businesses as an "IP Architect" in developing and executing comprehensive IP, freedom-to-operate, and value capture strategies. He frequently lectures on IP topics and has published numerous papers in peer-reviewed law journals. He holds a Dr. rer. nat. in Chemistry/Molecular Biology from Hamburg University and a Dr. jur. from Humboldt University (Berlin).