Navigating intellectual property disputes requires strategic decisions on the most effective resolution paths. This session explores the full range of options available to tech companies—from mediation and arbitration to licensing, opposition, and litigation. Gain insight into when each tool is best suited, how to manage IP portfolios proactively, support innovation teams, and balance the operational and financial impact of disputes on your business.

• Explore the expanding role of mediation and arbitration as faster, cost-effective alternatives to traditional litigation in various IP disputes.

• Understand the potential impact of the new UPC Mediation and Arbitration Centre in Ljubljana, and how it may change dispute resolution for European patent holders and implementers.

• Understand how strategic licensing and portfolio management can help avoid costly conflicts and support innovation.

• Discuss when to escalate matters through opposition proceedings or litigation and how to prepare for large scale enforcement campaigns globally.

Competition authorities are playing an increasingly influential role in shaping SEP and FRAND disputes worldwide. This session examines how regulators—from the European Commission to antitrust bodies in Brazil, India, and the US— are impacting injunction enforcement, licensing conduct, and broader litigation strategies. Panellists will discuss the political and consumer protection pressures driving authority interventions and how these forces interact with ongoing court cases and regulatory reforms.

• Analyse how competition authorities in Europe, Brazil, India, and the US influence injunction policies and SEP licensing practices.

• Discuss key investigations and decisions, including the European Commission’s amicus briefs and Brazilian antitrust probes into preliminary injunctions.

• Understand the evolving intersection of antitrust enforcement with SEP litigation and how it affects parties’ negotiation and enforcement strategies.

Is there a technology emerging more conspicuously than AI? Probably not. This session explores how AI is impacting patenting and patent litigation considerations worldwide. Understand the evolving challenges these technologies present, how patent enforcement strategies are adapting, and the legal frameworks, including the EU AI Act and DSM Directive, influencing IP management today.

• Discuss the intersection of AI development, patent creation, and prosecution, including implications of the EU AI Act and DSM Directive on IP strategy
• Understand why patent litigation remains the IP function’s primary focus amid AI’s rise, and the evolving landscape of trade secrets, copyright, and trademarks
• Discuss the impact of AI upon drug discovery and the inventorship considerations that companies must understand to make sure their products are litigation-proof