The panel of tutors is made up of very experienced patent professionals from Australia, Canada, Europe and the United States of America, supported by the FICPI Training and Education Commission.
Geoffrey de Kleine (Canada) Course Coordinator
Geoff is a partner in the national firm of Borden Ladner Gervais in Canada. He is a Registered Patent Agent in both Canada and the United States. Geoff works with a range of clients in the materials and metallurgical, mechanical and electrical fields. He has extensive experience drafting and prosecuting patent applications in the electronic packaging, electronic device and material processing and metallurgical fields. Geoff has acted as a tutor on the Patent Drafting Course since 2004 and has been Course leader since 2011.
David Carmichael (Australia)
David (who is now retired) was a partner of the Australian firm Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick where he practiced in the firm’s Electronics, Physics and Information Technology Group and was Chairman of the firm’s Patent Practice Committee. He has extensive experience in the training of patent attorneys/agents both in Australia (at Monash University and at POF) and overseas (throughout SE Asia). He is a Distinguished Fellow of the Australian Institute of Patent and Trademark Attorneys and a Member of Honour of FICPI. He has been a tutor for all of FICPI’s Asian Patent Drafting Courses (formerly known as SEAD courses) and was Course Leader until 2011.
Dennis Drehkoff (USA)
Dennis has been practicing patent and trademark law for over 40 years and is the founder of Dennis IP Law Group LLC in Chicago, Illinois. He is involved in the procurement of domestic and international patents in diverse areas including food technology, pharmaceuticals, biological sciences, chemical processing, packaging, and medical products. He has litigated patent, trademark, copyright and unfair competition matters before various federal and state courts. He has also presented arguments before state appellant courts and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He is a frequent lecturer on patent and licensing matters and served as an adjunct professor for 12 years at The John Marshall Law School. Dennis has received an AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rating (Highest Rating) from Martindale-Hubbell since 1986. Dennis has been a tutor on the Patent Drafting Course since 2005.
Scott Gordon (USA)
Scott is primarily focused on fostering client relationships and building successful collaborations. Beyond that, he has experience in procurement and analysis of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), and has a unique level of experience in international IPR protection. Scott handles patent protection in the electronics, optics, semiconductor, information systems, telecommunications, computer software and medical device technology sectors, because of his strong technical background in electrical engineering. Scott has advised Fortune 500 companies, universities, foreign governmental research institutes, small to medium sized businesses, and technology startups regarding patent portfolio development and management. He has experience in IP dispute resolution and IPR procurement. Scott has lived and worked in Hong Kong and Singapore, and has an extensive network of contacts and relationships in Asia.
Dr. Karl Rackette (Germany)
Karl Rackette is a patent and trademark attorney and the senior partner of the RACKETTE Patentanwalte PartG mbB in Freiburg, Germany. He is also a professional representative before the German Patent and Trademark Office, the European Patent Office, WIPO as well as EUIPO (formerly the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs)). Karl has travelled to five continents, where he has presented workshops on various aspects of patent and trademark law in more than 30 different countries. Since 1992 he has been a tutor at the Center for International Intellectual Property Studies (CEIPI) in Strasbourg, France. Karl has been a tutor for all of the Patent Drafting Courses.
Simon Roberts (United Kingdom)
Simon is a European Patent Attorney and Chartered Patent Attorney (UK). Formerly Director of Patents at British Telecommunications (BT) in London, Simon is now a freelance consultant aiming to base himself in Thailand. His primary specialism is opto-electronics and optical communications, but he has worked extensively on most telecommunications technologies. Until he left BT at the end of 2015, Simon was chair of the Patents Committee of the IP Federation. He has, since 1989, been principal tutor in the London group of the CEIPI basic training course. Simon has been a tutor for all of the Patent Drafting courses.