Dr. Xuting Huang is IP manager at ZF Group responsible for the company’s patent portfolios in the fields of electrification and autonomous driving functions/ADAS. He is a qualified German and Global Patent Attorney and has passed the Chinese Patent Attorney bar. He also serves as advisor for the company’s China-related IP issues and spends several months yearly in Shanghai. Being a native speaker in Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), he is fluent in English, German and understands French. Prior to joining ZF, he worked on prosecution and litigation of patents covering a broad technical spectrum at a renowned patent law firm in Stuttgart. He has studied physics at TU Munich and EPF Lausanne as well as obtained his PhD in quantum electronics at MPI Stuttgart (supervisor: Prof. Klaus v. Klitzing, Nobel Prize for physics 1985).

“Nikhil Patel is an Indian qualified advocate with an LL.M. in Corporate and Commercial Law from the University of London and an M.B.A. from the University of Warwick. An experienced corporate and commercial lawyer with a passion for IP and Anti-trust law he has previously worked in The Hague with Centrient Pharmaceuticals as Associate General Counsel – Global Commercial, in Cape Town as Chief Legal Officer - Southern Africa for Cipla Medpro and with Biocon in Bangalore. While his expertise is primarily in the pharmaceutical industry, recently he has taken on the exciting challenge of branching out into the FMCG industry as Chief Legal Officer – Asia, Middle East and Africa and Global Anti-Trust Counsel at Upfield Europe B.V., based at their headquarters in Amsterdam. Upfield is the largest plant-based product company, selling products in over 95 countries with 17 manufacturing sites throughout the world and employing over 3000 Associates.”