The IP Federation is pleased to announce that Kevin Scott has been elected as the new President of the Federation, effective 10 July 2026.
Kevin is a UK Chartered Patent Attorney, European Patent Attorney and UPC representative with over 25 years of experience in IP matters. He joined Philips in the UK after completing a degree in Natural Sciences, where he worked for 12 years as a research scientist (also obtaining a PhD in electrical engineering). He then moved to the IP department where he has spent most of his time licensing Philips’ patents to third parties.
He is now a Licensing Program Leader in Philips Intellectual Property & Standards, leading a global team of licensing professionals in technical areas including telecommunications and television. He has extensive experience in multinational litigation of standard essential patents.
Kevin has an (almost) grown up family, and outside work enjoys spending time with them, cycling, dog walking, travelling and genealogy.
Kevin will be assisted by Immediate Past President, Sarah Vaughan
Sarah is a UK Chartered Patent Attorney, European patent attorney and UPC representative with over 15 years of experience in IP matters. She joined the profession after completing her PhD in mechanical engineering. After spending some time in private practice, Sarah joined Rolls-Royce’s in‑house IP department.
Sarah is a Senior Patent Attorney at Rolls-Royce and has represented Rolls-Royce in prosecution matters and oppositions at the European Patent Office. Sarah takes the lead on projects involving multiple patent families with multi‑disciplinary teams. She also focuses on process developments and improvements.
Sarah has two young children, and outside of work likes nothing more than exploring the outdoors with her family.
She was President of the IP Federation from 2025 to 2026.
They will both work with newly elected Vice-President, Sarah Palmer
Sarah is Global IP Policy Lead at Syngenta, where she has worked for more than 25 years. Being a dual UK and European qualified Patent Attorney, she also serves as IP Team Lead in the UK with extensive experience in patent drafting & prosecution, contentious issues, and IP aspects of licensing and agreements in the fields of chemistry and biotechnology.
Before joining Syngenta in 2001, Sarah worked as Postdoctoral Researcher at Zeneca Agrochemicals before moving to IP as a Technical Assistant, for Celltech Chiroscience Ltd.
Sarah holds a PhD in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology from the University of Leeds and a BSc (Hons) in Biotechnology from King’s College London.
Directors of the IP Federation
All three members of the presidential troika will also serve as directors of the IP Federation from 10 July 2026.
