Judge Kisu Kim is a Presiding Judge of the IP High Court of Korea. He received his B.A. in Mathematics Education from Seoul National University and later earned an LL.M. in Intellectual Property Law from Seoul National University School of Law.

Since beginning his judicial career in 2009, Judge Kim has served in key positions across all major stages of intellectual property litigation in Korea, including the Intellectual Property Division of the Seoul Central District Court, the IP High Court, and the Intellectual Property Research Division of the Supreme Court of Korea. Through these roles, he has gained extensive experience in patent, trademark, copyright, design, and trade secret disputes at the trial, appellate, and Supreme Court levels.

In 2018, he was a Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, where he conducted research on comparative intellectual property law. He currently serves as a Special Committee Member of the Presidential Council on Intellectual Property and as a Board Member of the Korean Patent Law Association.

Judge Kim is also an active speaker at international IP conferences and programs, including the Fordham Intellectual Property Law and Policy Conference, WIPO Judicial Programs, WIPO Masterclasses, and other comparative IP forums involving judges, academics, and practitioners from around the world.

As the only Korean attorney to have established and operated his own law office in Japan, Mr. Lee provides a wide range of legal services to Korean and Japanese companies in the areas of corporate law, dispute resolution, intellectual property, entertainment, sports, and personal information protection.

He began his legal career with Bae, Kim & Lee LLC (BKL) in Korea in 1991 and has devoted more than three decades to two key areas of expertise: IP and JP (Japan). In 1998, he earned an LL.M. from the University of Tokyo. In 2002, he became the first Korean attorney registered in Japan as a Registered Foreign Lawyer and established BKL’s Tokyo Office, where he practiced until 2007.

Throughout his career, he has held numerous leadership positions, including Member of the Korea Copyright Commission, Vice President of the Korea Intellectual Property Lawyers Association, Vice President of the Korea Intellectual Property Society, President of the Korean Entertainment Law Society, and Legal Advisor to the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Organizing Committee. In Japan, he is an active member of the Intellectual Property Lawyers Network Japan, the Japan Trademark Association, and the LES Japan. He is widely recognized as a leading expert on legal and intellectual property issues between Korea and Japan, and has frequently delivered lectures on Korean law and intellectual property matters for organizations such as the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, the Japan Intellectual Property Association, and the Japan External Trade Organization.

After retiring from Bae, Kim & Lee in 2025, he established NOWH Law Office in Seoul and NOWH Registered Foreign Lawyer Office in Tokyo. Leveraging decades of experience in both jurisdictions, he continues to serve as a trusted bridge between Korea and Japan, assisting businesses and organizations in navigating cross-border legal and intellectual property matters.

Wonyoung Chung is a partner at Bae, Kim & Lee LLC. She primarily handles intellectual property (IP) infringement disputes and advises Korean companies on overseas litigation as well as Japanese companies on IP management strategies.

Ms. Chung graduated from the Department of Applied Chemistry, College of Engineering, Kobe University, and earned a master's degree from the Graduate School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at KAIST. Drawing on her technical background and legal expertise, she represents and advises Korean and Japanese companies on intellectual property matters in the fields of chemistry, biotechnology, and pharmaceuticals.

Her practice focuses on cross-border IP disputes and strategic counseling for Korean and Japanese clients, particularly in the chemical, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical industries.

Ronny Thomas studied law at the University of Leipzig, passing his first state law examination in 2004 and graduating top of his year. He then completed his legal traineeship and passed the second state law examination at the Dresden Higher Regional Court in 2006.

After working as a lawyer at the international law firm Lovells, Ronny Thomas joined the judicial service in Düsseldorf in 2007. Prior to joining the UPC, he was a member of one of the panels dealing with patent law at the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court for many years, most recently serving as Deputy Presiding Judge.

Ronny Thomas is the Presiding Judge at the UPC Local Division in Düsseldorf and has held this position since the UPC opened. In this role, he has been involved in numerous landmark decisions of the UPC, including Fujifilm v Kodak and Dolby v Beko. Furthermore, in his capacity as a Presiding Judge, he has played a key role in shaping UPC case law on orders for inspection and the preservation of evidence. The Düsseldorf Local Division has handed down a series of landmark rulings in this area. The same applies to the ordering of provisional measures, particularly with regard to trade fairs and the pharmaceutical sector. Additionally, Ronny Thomas was a member of the UPC's first Presidium, playing a key role in establishing the UPC's organisational framework. 

He is a regular speaker at conferences, where he discusses the latest developments in European patent law and at the UPC. He is also the co-author of several publications on UPC matters.

With more than 25 years of patent litigation experience, Christian advises and represents national and international companies on all aspects of patent law. A focus of his practice is the management and coordination of complex, international patent disputes. Christian specializes, in particular, in developing best litigation strategies for his clients.

Christian represents his clients before all relevant German and European patent courts and patent authorities including the Unified Patent Court (UPC), where he acts frequently for his clients and has extensive expertise. He has long-term experience in advising and representing Asian clients.

Christian headed the German patent practice group of an international law firm for eight years. He is a member of the German Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (GRUR) and the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI), where he acted for many years as Chairperson of the Nominating Committee. He is furthermore a member of the German-Japanese Association of Jurists (DJJV), where he holds the position of spokesman for the state of Bavaria. Christian regularly participates as speaker and moderator in international patent conferences and symposia.

Tim Whitfield is a Partner at Powell Gilbert, a leading European IP law firm, which he joined at its founding in 2007, becoming a partner in 2012. He is an English and Irish qualified solicitor, and specialises in dispute resolution, particularly patent litigation and associated strategic advice. Tim has extensive experience of complex, cross-border patent disputes, and in co-ordinating multinational enforcement and defence campaigns.

Tim appears regularly before the English Courts and the Unified Patent Court (UPC), acting in high-profile disputes spanning pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical devices, consumer products, electronics, telecommunications, and industrial technologies. He holds an MChem in Chemistry from the University of Oxford, and this scientific grounding enables him to quickly grasp complex technical issues and develop commercially effective approaches to litigation.

He has particular expertise in life-cycle management strategies in the pharmaceutical/biotechnology sector, standards-essential patents (SEPs), FRAND licensing, patent pools and pharmaceutical regulatory issues, as well as IP arbitrations and freedom-to-operate assessments. Notable cases include Otsuka v GW Pharma, Microsoft v Motorola Mobility, Philip Morris v Nicoventures/BAT, and Unwired Planet v Huawei.

He also holds a Diploma in Intellectual Property Law and Practice from the University of Bristol, and regularly contributes at international conferences on UK and European patent law and litigation strategy.

Judge Renée Marie Bumb was confirmed by the United States Senate and appointed by President George W. Bush in 2006. She currently serves as Chief Judge of the District of New Jersey, one of the busiest Courts in the country, with 17 authorized District Court Judges, three Senior District Court Judges and 16 Magistrate Judges.
Judge Bumb has served and continues to serve on many panels dealing with
various issues confronted in the litigation of federal cases, both civil and criminal, including patent litigation. She served as the District Judge Representative to the Judicial Conference from the Third Circuit and a member of the Judicial Conference Committee on the Administration of the Bankruptcy System and is currently a member of the Third Circuit's Committee on Model Civil Jury Instructions.
As a United States District Judge, she has authored hundreds of opinions involving all areas of the law, both criminal and civil. Her opinions and decisions have affected thousands of individuals who have come to court seeking justice and fairness. In addition to her criminal docket, her civil docket ranges from constitutional issues to patent infringement cases to complex class actions and commercial disputes.
Judge Bumb attended the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, where she received an undergraduate degree. She majored in Political Science and the Russian language. Upon graduating from the Ohio State University, she attended Leningrad State University, in what is now known as St. Petersburg, Russia. She attended university classes and became proficient in the Russian language, in addition to having already become proficient in the Spanish language as a result of a study abroad program in Peru.
After Ohio State, she attended the University of Chicago where she received her
Masters of Arts degree in International Relations. As part of that degree she interned for the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) in New York. Thereafter, she worked as a paralegal for the law firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver, and Jacobson, in New York, New York. It was there that she was inspired to attend law school.
She attended Rutgers Law School in Newark, New Jersey, where she served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Rutgers Law Review and graduated with honors in 1987. Upon graduation from law school, she served as the law clerk to the Honorable Garrett E. Brown, Jr., of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. She thereafter went into private practice as an associate at the law firm, Riker Danzig Scherer Hyland & Perretti LLP where she focused on bankruptcy and commercial litigation. After private practice, she joined the United States Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey in 1992 where she prosecuted all types of federal crimes, including drug trafficking, fraud, and violent crimes. In 2000, she was appointed by the United States Attorney, Robert J. Cleary, to serve as the Attorney-in-Charge of the Camden Office of the United States Attorney's Office. As the Attorney-in-Charge, she was responsible for the supervision of most federal prosecutions in southern New Jersey. During her tenure as an Assistant United States Attorney, she prosecuted several high profile crimes cases involving public corruption, white-collar fraud, healthcare fraud, narcotic violations, and others.

David Albagli, PhD, is a Local Partner in White & Case's Global Intellectual Property Practice, based in Tokyo since 2010. His practice focuses on intellectual property spanning patent litigation, prosecution, opinion work, patent portfolio development, pre-litigation counseling, and due diligence investigations, as well as technology transactions, license agreements, and trademark matters. Dr. Albagli advises on a wide range of IP and transaction-related matters, primarily in the pharmaceutical, chemical, and biotechnology sectors.

Dr. Albagli has experience advising Japanese and foreign clients on securing and enforcing patent rights in the US and coordinating patent strategies across multiple countries and regions. He has hands-on experience as a patent attorney and scientist in a wide range of fields, particularly in chemistry, nucleic acids, antibodies, in vitro diagnostics, electrochemistry, microfluidics, polymers, and biochemistry.

He earned a PhD in chemistry and held a two-year fellowship at the Research & Development Center of Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation in Yokohama, Japan. He is registered with the USPTO and as a Foreign Attorney in Japan. He is a frequent lecturer, in English and Japanese, on current topics in US patent law to clients, universities and professional organizations, and serves on the Editorial Board of the AIPPI-Japan Journal.

York M. Faulkner is the founder of YMF Law, an independent U.S. patent litigation practice concentrating on U.S.–Japan cross-border disputes. Over more than thirty years, he has litigated high-stakes patent cases through trial and appeal, including before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, with particular depth in pharmaceutical and life-sciences litigation—Hatch-Waxman, ITC Section 337, and the Section 271(e)(1) safe harbor—as well as semiconductor, game console, automotive, genetically modified crops, barcode and iris scanning, medical device, and other technologies.

Mr. Faulkner has periodically lived and worked in Japan since his first residence in the country from 1984 to 1986.  Most recently, he practiced in Tokyo as an equity partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan as a gaiben attorney and member of the Dai-ichi Tokyo Bar Association. He regularly advises Japanese companies on the U.S. dimension of their cross-border patent disputes, working alongside their Japanese counsel, and has designed U.S. trial-advocacy training, including direct and cross examination exercises, for Japanese practitioners.

Previously, he was an equity partner at Finnegan Henderson and a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice, Tax Division. He holds J.D. and B.S. (economics) degrees from Brigham Young University.