The IP Federation is pleased to announce that Scott Roberts has been elected as the new President of the Federation, effective 10 July 2020.

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 the UK industry representative at the Standing Advisory Committee of the European Patent Office (SACEPO) and also sits on the SACEPO working parties for Rules and Guidelines. In addition to these roles, Scott sits on the UK Government Department for International Trade’s Expert Trade Advisory Group (ETAG) for Intellectual Property. 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.

Scott will be assisted by Immediate Past President, Suzanne Oliver.

Suzanne is a UK Chartered Patent Attorney and European Patent Attorney, as well as a Chartered Engineer. She has over 15 years of experience in patents, having entered the profession after working for a number of years as an engineer for Nortel Networks; she has a master’s degree in electronics from the University of York.

Suzanne has represented Arm on the Council of the IP Federation since 2013 and she supports a wide range of IP strategy, patent and trade mark management issues for Arm. Suzanne was involved in Arm, becoming a founder member of ORoPO, the world’s first open patent register. In 2016, Suzanne joined the launch panel for the inaugural “Women in IP” networking event, as a part of the UK’s “IP inclusive” initiative. She is also one of Managing Intellectual Property’s Corporate IP Stars for 2019.

Before joining Arm in 2012, Suzanne worked in a private practice law firm in Cambridge, UK.

Outside of work, she likes to travel, as well as spend time with her family and friends. She is also a keen rambler.

She was President of the IP Federation from 2019 to 2020.

They will both work with newly elected Vice-President, Sonia Cooper.

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 recently formed IP Federation data & copyright committee.

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