Alanna Rennie

Associate, Baker McKenzie, Australia

Alanna Rennie is an Associate at law firm Baker McKenzie in Sydney (Australia), where she practices Mergers and Acquisitions and plant Intellectual Property. She graduated with a Bachelor of Laws with honors from Bond University, Gold Coast, and a Masters in Chinese Law from Tsinghua University, Beijing. Alanna’s Master’s thesis was on Plant Breeder’s Rights in China, where she engaged closely with China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the State Forestry and Grasslands Administration, international plant breeders active in or looking to enter the Chinese market, and other stakeholders. Alanna worked with CIOPORA in 2018, where she assisted the association with its activities in China, and continues to assist CIOPORA on various projects in Australia and China in a pro bono capacity. In her capacity at Baker McKenzie and through her work with CIOPORA, Alanna has worked closely with breeding companies on their commercial and intellectual property strategies in China and Australia as well as on novel enforcement issues.

Partner at
Panitch Schwarze Belisario & Nadel LLP

Travis Bliss counsels a variety of clients ranging from individual inventors to small businesses to Fortune 500 companies in nearly all aspects of Intellectual Property law. Travis prepares and prosecutes patent applications; litigates patent, Trademark, and other IP disputes in federal and state courts; represents clients before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Patent Trial and Appeal Board; counsels clients in a variety of IP issues, including due diligence, FTO, infringement, and patentability; and prepares and negotiates IP licenses. From a technology standpoint, Travis’s practice falls largely within the life sciences field and also includes a large focus on novel plant varieties in the agriculture, horticulture, and cannabis/hemp industries. Travis has been a lawyer member of CIOPORA since 2014.

Patent Agent
Panitch Schwarze Belisario & Nadel LLP

Stephany G. Small, Ph.D., is a Patent Agent at CIOPORA lawyer member Panitch Schwarze Belisario & Nadel LLP (USA). Stephany works with clients ranging from large life science companies to individual inventors to protect their valued Intellectual Property. She prepares and prosecutes the U.S. and foreign patent applications for inventions related to all aspects of life science. She is involved in FDA Orange Book submissions and Patent Term Extension Applications and also assists clients with preparing opinions relating to patentability and freedom to operate. Stephany collaborates in patent interferences and inter partes review proceedings before the U.S. Patent Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).

Director of International Affairs on Plant Variety Protection
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan (MAFF)

Minori Hagiwara, is Director of the office for International Affairs on Plant Variety Protection at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan (MAFF) and is the Vice-Chair of the UPOV Administrative and Legal Committee. With a decade of experience in planning and implementing various legal amendments in the agricultural and food sector, she has expertise in reflecting policy needs into legal amendments. In 2013, she paneled in the International Association for the Study of Commons where she presented her paper on “International Treaty Designs and Resilience for Climate Change.” As the head of the Japanese delegation to UPOV, she has been raising concerns to the current interpretation of the UPOV convention and has been advocating for the need to increase the effectiveness of the PVP systems, on topics such as harvested material and Essentially Derived Varieties.

Intangible Asset Manager
Zespri International

Heidi is the Intangible Asset Manager at Zespri International Limited, based in New Zealand.  Zespri is the world’s largest marketer of kiwifruit, selling in more than 50 countries. Heidi manages the global portfolio of intangible assets for Zespri, from creation through to protection, commercialisation, maintenance, and enforcement.    Although Plant Breeders’ Rights form a significant part of the portfolio, Heidi leverages a broad set of assets to optimise value including Trade Marks, Data, Trade secrets, and Regulatory approvals. Heidi has extensive experience with the protection and enforcement of Plant Breeders’ Rights globally, particularly in China following unauthorised propagation and sale of fruit from Zespri’s proprietary cultivar marketed as Zespri SunGold™.

With broad experience in New Zealand’s primary industry sector and having completed a Masters of Commercialisation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Auckland, Heidi is passionate about leveraging multiple commercialisation approaches to provide strategic value.  She contributed to the submissions and workshops to improve New Zealand’s PVR legislation, which resulted in the PVR Act 2022, a positive step forward to encourage plant breeding innovation.

General Manager Plant Varieties
The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research

The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited is a Crown Research Institute. Our purpose is to enhance the value and productivity of New Zealand’s horticultural, arable, seafood, and food and beverage industries, to contribute to economic growth and the environmental and social prosperity of Aotearoa New Zealand. Plant & Food Research operates a wide variety of plant breeding programmes in the fruit, arable, and ornamental sectors with breeding programmes located both in Aotearoa New Zealand and offshore.

As General Manager Plant Varieties, Emma leads the strategic protection and commercialisation of intellectual assets leveraging plant varieties from Plant & Food Research’s breeding programmes together with our commercialisation partners, joint ventures, and licensees. She completed an MSc in Horticultural Science at Massey University and went on to become the inaugural graduate of the CIOPORA Academy with a certificate in IP Competence.