The IP Federation is pleased to announce that Sonia Cooper has been elected as the new President of the Federation, effective 9 July 2021.

Sonia is a UK Chartered Patent Attorney and European patent attorney with over 20 years of practical experience in all aspects of intellectual property, gained both in private practice and in industry. Sonia specialises in the fields of software, artificial intelligence and telecommunications and has a degree in physics from the University of Bristol, a master’s degree in the management of intellectual property from Queen Mary University of London and a graduate diploma in law from the University of Law.

Sonia is responsible for IP policy in Europe at Microsoft and works closely with Microsoft Research in Cambridge. She has represented Microsoft on the Council of the IP Federation since 2017 and chairs the IP Federation data & copyright committee.

Outside work, Sonia enjoys spending time with family, friends as well as hiking and camping with her Labrador, “Sunny”.

Sonia will be assisted by Immediate Past President, Scott Roberts.

Scott is a UK Chartered Patent Attorney and European patent attorney with 20 years of experience in patents gained in both industry and private practice. Scott joined the patent profession after 10 years’ experience as a software engineer and a period lecturing in computer science. He has worked in-house at both British Telecommunications and IBM specialising in comput­ing and telecommunications technologies. Scott has represented both BT and IBM at the IP Federation since 2008 and chaired the IP Federation patent committee from 2016 to 2019.

Scott is a member of the Standing Advisory Committee of the European Patent Office (SACEPO) and also sits on the SACEPO working party on rules. In addition to these roles, Scott is a member of the UK Government Department for International Trade’s IP thematic working group. He also represents UK industry at the Business­Europe patents working group. Since 2009 he has been a member of the Examination Committee of the European Qualifying Examination (EQE) for professional representatives. He is also a co-author of the CIPA European Patents Handbook.

Originally from South Wales, he now lives in the South of England with his wife and three children where he tutors maths, science and computing. He volunteers at a local NHS trust where he works with nurses to address the challenges in their professional practice. In his down-time he can be found indulging in dystopian literature.

He was President of the IP Federation from 2020 to 2021.

They will both work with newly elected Vice-President, Matthew Hitching.

Matthew has been working for 30 years as a UK Chartered Patent Attorney and European patent attorney. For the first half of his career he was in private practice in central London, working in the fields of telecoms, data processing and microelectronics. Matthew’s clients at that time included many Japanese companies, and it was this, and a hope of educating himself about the broader aspects of managing IP in a company, that led him to join Canon at its European headquarters just outside London in 2007. Matthew has represented Canon at the IP Federation since 2018.

Since joining Canon, Matthew has been involved in oppositions, appeals, and patent litigation in the major European countries, as well as US patent litigation, which is increasingly affecting Canon’s group companies in Europe. His IP work also includes aspects of brand management, competition law, anti-counterfeit activities, standardisation activities and contractual IP issues.

Married with two children, Matthew’s passions outside work are watching football, his ever-expanding collection of wines, and travel, especially to vineyard areas or Japan.