Heli Pihlajamaa is the Director of the Directorate of Patent Law at the European Patent Office (EPO) in Munich, Germany. Ms Pihlajamaa studied Law at the University of Helsinki, Finland and completed her postgraduate studies at the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law in Munich.

She worked for the Finnish Patent and Registration Office and for a patent attorney’s office in Helsinki before moving to Munich in 1996 to take up a post at the European Patent Office as lawyer in Directorate Patent Law. Ms Pihlajamaa acts as legal member in opposition cases and advises the EPO higher management on policy issues and amendments.

In January 2011 she became Director of the Patent Law department and is responsible for supporting the EPO policy by developing, strengthening and promoting the EPC. For several years Ms Pihlajamaa taught Industrial Property Law at the Technical University of Helsinki, Finland.

She has written books and newspaper articles on patent law in Finnish and is fluent in English, German, Swedish, Finnish and French.