The Association of European Patent Practitioners

APEB organizes numerous projects and public events to promote patent law, an essential tool for protecting and advancing innovation.

APEB Governance

Drawing on its expertise in intellectual property, the APEB Board of Directors aims to promote patent law, both in France and abroad.

The APEB Bureau and Board of Directors are composed as follows:

Presidente : Pauline Debré

Bureau : Pauline Debré (Présidente), Marianne Gabriel (Secrétaire), François Legrand (Trésorier), Denis Monégier du Sorbier, Muriel Morel-Pécheux, Cyra Nargolwalla, David Por

Board of Directors :

Industry College :

  • Béryl Méreaux
  • Jeanne Mercier
  • Léa-Marie Rogemont
  • Laurent Teyssedre
  • Pape Mbacké
  • Réda Bouchenak
  • François Rivière

Attorneys’ College:

  • Anthony Berton
  • Stéphane Bezac
  • François Legrand
  • Cyra Nargolwalla
  • Jérémie Palacci
  • Hélène Stankoff
  • Morgan Torchy

Lawyers’ College:

  • Florence Jacquand
  • Gwendal Barbaut
  • Pauline Debré
  • Benjamin May
  • Konstantin Schallmoser
  • Marianne Gabriel
  • Thomas Cuche

Members

Members are divided into three categories.

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members
0
lawyers
0
patent attorneys (CPI)
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industry professionals

History

The Origins

The idea of creating APEB was born on 20 March 2003, following a roundtable held at Lovells by Dominique Ménard on the topic “Evidence in Multi‑Jurisdictional Patent Litigation.”

It was Jean‑Yves Plaçais who, a glass of Champagne in hand, famously remarked:
“It is quite unfortunate that no association exists in the patent field bringing together, as APRAM does, the three groups of practitioners—patent attorneys, industry professionals, and specialized lawyers.”

Recognizing the obvious relevance of this statement, Dominique Ménard replied: «That is a brilliant idea, and this patent association—well, we are going to create it together!”

The Birth of the Project

The implementation of the project was not immediate, as it required imagining, convincing, building, and above all financing what would eventually become APEB.

The association’s bylaws were filed in 2005 by nine founding practitioners who agreed to embark on this adventure, namely:

For the industry group:
Alain de Péna, then Head of IP at IBM France (deceased in 2014),
Elie Srour, former Head of IP at Renault, and Christian Nguyen, former Head of IP at Thales.

For the Patent Attorneys (CPI) group:
Thérèse Lepeudry, then partner at Armengaud Jeune,
Michel Moncheny, then partner at Lavoix,
and Jean‑Yves Plaçais, partner at Netter.

For the Lawyers group:
Denis Monégier du Sorbier, then partner at Freshfields,
Pierre Lenoir, partner at Allen & Overy,
and Dominique Ménard, then partner at Lovells, which became Hogan Lovells in 2010.

Nothing would have been possible without them.

The Evolution of APEB

Subsequently, the domain names prod.sentice.com/apeb and apeb.info were registered, and the trademarks “APEB” and “IP Few” were filed—one as a French trademark and the other as a Community trademark.

On 7 January 2007, a very pleasant launch cocktail for APEB was held on Avenue Kléber. At the time, we had nine registered members, in other words, the nine founders, and a little over 150 guests.

Six Chairmen of the Board of Directors have succeeded one another: Dominique Ménard, Christian Nguyen, Jean‑Robert Callon de Lamarck, Thierry Sueur, Denis Monégier du Sorbier, David Por and Pauline Debré.

APEB Today

APEB now brings together around one hundred French and foreign practitioner members, which is significant in our niche field.

APEB is very frequently consulted and heard by Government Authorities and Parliament on technical matters, such as the protection of trade secrets. APEB is also often consulted by the INPI on draft amendments to directives or international treaties.
A great deal of work has been carried out by our Committees and numerous public events have been organised, enabling APEB to give the floor to recognised European practitioners, as well as to our specialised European judges, and to representatives of major institutions (INPI, EPO, INSERM, etc.)..
Membership
Any individual belonging to one of the three groups represented within the association (patent attorney, industry, lawyer) may be admitted as a member, provided that they:
  • are registered on the list of accredited representatives before the EPO or a national patent office,
  • meet the requirements to sit the qualifying examination for accredited representatives before the EPO,
  • hold the CAPA diploma or an equivalent qualification and have devoted a substantial part of their professional activity, for more than three years, to representing, advising, assisting or providing services to individuals or companies in order to ensure the acquisition, exploitation, or defence of their patent rights.
    d) Any individual who has devoted, for more than seven years, a substantial part of their professional activity to representing, advising, assisting or providing services to individuals or companies in order to ensure the acquisition, exploitation, or defence of their patent rights may also be admitted as a member.