Speakers

Center for Intellectual Property x Innovation Policy | Senior Fellow for Copyright Research and Policy

Sandra Aistars is Senior Fellow for Copyright Research and Policy and a Senior Scholar at the Center for Intellectual Property x Innovation Policy (C-IP2). She also leads the law school’s Arts & Entertainment Advocacy Program. Professor Aistars has over twenty years of advocacy experience on behalf of copyright and other intellectual property owners. She has served on trade missions and been an industry advisor to the Department of Commerce on intellectual property implications for international trade negotiations; worked on legislative and regulatory matters worldwide; frequently testified before Congress and federal agencies regarding intellectual property matters; chaired cross-industry coalitions and technology standards efforts; and is regularly tapped by government agencies to lecture in U.S. government-sponsored study tours for visiting legislators, judges, prosecutors, and regulators.

Ali, Emil

McCabe & Ali, LLP | Partner

Emil J. Ali provides legal representation of professionals across many regulated industries to limit, defend, and deflect liability in regulatory and professional conduct investigations, enforcement actions, arbitrations, and court cases.

Beasley, Tony

Microsoft | Senior Corporate Counsel

Tony is Senior Corporate Counsel at Microsoft, supporting the Dynamics 365 team and business applications related to sales and industrial metaverse and advising on issues such as privacy, competition, intellectual property, regulatory compliance, and responsible AI. Prior to his role at Microsoft, Tony was at several law firms, representing both plaintiffs and defendants in intellectual property litigation in the semiconductor, consumer electronics, medical device, software, and other industries. Tony is also active in pro bono work and serves as pro bono lead for the Microsoft Hispanic and Latinx in-house lawyers network.

Beck, Russell

Beck Reed Riden LLP | Founder

Russell Beck is a business, trade secrets, and employee mobility litigator, nationally recognized for his trade secrets and noncompete experience. He was invited to the Obama White House to develop guidelines for the proper use of noncompetes, and has been cited as an expert on trade secrets and noncompetes by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the White House, the Treasury Department, National Public Radio, the BBC World News Service, PBS Newshour, Le Monde, and many others.

Candido, Amy

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati | Partner

Amy Candido is a trial lawyer who focuses on high-stakes, complex intellectual property matters. She has extensive experience litigating patents, trade secrets, copyrights, and other IP in “bet the company” cases nationwide on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendants. Amy has tried numerous jury and bench trials, securing courtroom victories in a variety of difficult cases. Her trial victories include The National Law Journal’s Top Verdict of 2014 and three complete defense verdicts in the Eastern District of Texas.

Carlson, Sonja

Microsoft

Sonja Carlson is Principal Corporate Counsel supporting Microsoft’s Cloud + AI engineering groups. She is lead counsel for the Azure Databases group, including Azure SQL (cloud) and SQL Server (on-premises), and the Dynamics 365 Customer Service group, advising on a range of cutting-edge technologies and issues, including data use and privacy, Artificial Intelligence, Intellectual Property, and Competition Law.

Chatterjee, Neel

Goodwin Proctor | Partner

Neel Chatterjee is a partner in Goodwin’s Intellectual Property practice. An internationally recognized technology litigator and trial lawyer, Neel has a proven track record of wins in hard-to-win technology cases. Neel has a passion for representing entrepreneurs and disruptive technology companies, even at their earliest stages. His cases often break new ground in undefined areas of the law. Neel has substantial expertise handling disputes related to patents, trade secrets, copyrights, internet law, and complex commercial technology issues. Neel also has a fascination with legal issues in pop culture, science fiction and fantasy.

Cuffman, Timothy

Debevoise & Plimpton LLP

Timothy Cuffman is an associate in the Intellectual Property Litigation Group at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, based in its New York office. He received a J.D. from Columbia Law School, where he was a James Kent Scholar and an executive editor of the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law.

Duong, Vi

Adswerve | VP of Legal

Vi currently VP of Legal at Adswerve, a data, analytics, and media consultancy. She began her legal career at Invention Law Group and Intellectual Ventures, where she focused on negotiating research and development contracts, intellectual property licenses, and joint venture agreements. Vi describes herself as a startup attorney with a diverse background that ranges from negotiating complex transactions to IP to advising executives on legal operations and strategies.

Elisabetta Papa

Societa' Italiana Brevetti S.P.A. | Partner, BoA Member, Head of Patents

Elisabetta teaches European Patent practice and strategies in courses leading up to European Patent Attorney qualification exams organised by the Centre d’Etudes Internationales de la Propriété Industrielle (R. Schuman University, Strasbourg). She is a former member of the EPO’s EC-III examination committee in charge of marking D papers during the qualifying examination for European Patent Attorneys (EQE).

Gadde, Sreekar

Blue Tree Capital Group | Executive Director

Venture Capitalist & US Patent Attorney. Sree invests in and helps grow early-stage, high-growth companies. Sree specializes in finding early stage companies seeking investment, evaluating those companies as investment opportunities, formulating an IP strategy, and advising/mentoring those companies that to help them achieve a profitable exit.

Gerber, Seth

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius | Partner

Seth M. Gerber is a partner with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP in Century City, California. His trial practice focuses on trade secrets and non-compete litigation. Mr. Gerber has practiced extensively in both state and federal courts, and he has jury and bench trial, arbitration, and appellate experience.

Huusko, Elisa

Berggren Oy | Partner

Elisa Huusko is a licensed legal counsel in Finland and an EU trademark and design attorney. Elisa is a partner at a Finnish IP law firm Berggren Oy and provides legal assistance especially in relation to intellectual property and brand protection strategies, copyright, litigation, contracts, and trademark matters.

Jordan, Christina

Tune Therapeutics | Senior Director, Intellectual Property

Christina is Senior Director, Intellectual Property at Tune Therapeutics, where she leads IP portfolio strategy, development, and management for various programs including epigenome editing. Prior to joining Tune, she managed global IP portfolio strategy for various programs including cell therapy and gene editing at Juno Therapeutics/Celgene/Bristol Myers Squibb. Previously, she was in-house patent counsel at CoMotion, the University of Washington’s Technology Transfer Office, where she managed all aspects of the life sciences and chemistry patent portfolios for the University of Washington.

Köhler, Martin

Hoyng ROKH Monegier | Partner

Martin Köhler has been an attorney since 1998. He is specialized in patent infringement litigation. Martin regularly represents clients in the areas of electronics, telecoms, mechanical and chemical engineering, automotive technology, pharmaceuticals and medical devices. He has been lead counsel in numerous patent litigation proceedings including parallel proceedings in other EU countries, the US and in China, Korea and Japan.

Krall, Noreen

Apple, Inc. | Former Vice President and Chief Litigation Counsel

Noreen is the former Vice President and Chief Litigation Counsel for Apple Inc. She was responsible for all aspects of Apple’s global commercial and intellectual property litigation. She lead a team that handled one of the largest litigation dockets in the industry, including competitor and NPE patent litigation in venues across the globe, class actions, competition law cases, commercial disputes, mass tort, small claims and subpoenas.

Lezama, Mark

Knobbe Martens | Partner

Mark Lezama is a litigation partner in Knobbe Martens Orange County office specializing in patent disputes. Mark represents patent owners and accused infringers alike, in jurisdictions all across the country. He approaches litigation thoughtfully, working with clients to position their cases for meaningful victories. In a recent contract case involving a patent license, Mark obtained for his client a court-ordered injunction requiring the licensee to honor its agreement and withdraw its challenges to his client’s patents at the Patent and Trademark Office. When the licensee appealed, Mark obtained an affirmance from the Ninth Circuit for his client. In another case, Mark obtained key evidentiary rulings for his client early on, laying the groundwork for the court to rule that his client did not infringe just six months into the case.

Li, Shui

Microsoft | Corporate Counsel

In her role as Corporate Counsel at Microsoft, Shui advises the Cloud + AI division (Azure) on areas including M&A, strategic partnerships, data privacy, cyber security, regulatory compliance, and intellectual property. Shui also serves on the Venture Center Business Advisory Group at the University of Minnesota, which helps entrepreneurs to vet new ideas and assists with technology commercialization.

Lin, Mai

SIPS | Senior Associate

Mai has over 15 years’ experience in advising multinationals on a broad range of intellectual property issues in China, including trademark portfolio management, IP enforcement and commercial IP matters. Mai’s clients operate in a wide range of industries, including cosmetics, software, toys, wine & spirits, automotive, entertainment, fitness, skincare and fashion. She has assisted scores of clients in reclaiming their trademarks in China from registry pirates and provides practical solutions for navigating the IP landscape in China. Over the course of her career, Mai has worked with major international law firms out of Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Lytle, Rob

Microsoft Corporation | Assistant General Counsel

Robert B. Lytle is an Assistant General Counsel at Microsoft Corporation. His practice focuses on patent litigation. Mr. Lytle currently serves as the Finance Officer of the ABA IPL Section.

Martinez, Michelle

eBay | Senior Counsel, Global Product

Michelle Martinez is Senior Counsel, Global Product at eBay. Michelle began her legal career as a federal judicial clerk in the District of New Mexico and then later in the Middle District of Tennessee. After clerking, Michelle worked for several national law firms with a focus on intellectual property law, including patent prosecution, copyright, and trademarks. Her experience living and working around the country (as well as a summer spend living in Venezuela) has allowed Michelle to see and value many different perspectives. At eBay, Michelle initially put her engineering background to good use in her role as Senior Counsel for Patents and Open Source. Most recently, she serves as Senior Counsel for Global Product, where she supports many initiatives including Artificial Intelligence, Identity, APIs, Structured Data, and eBay’s Seller Experience.

Nelson, Dale

Donaldson + Callif | Partner

Dale is a partner at Donaldson + Callif, a boutique firm that specializes in documentary and independent film production, clearance and fair use, championing the free speech rights of filmmakers, podcasters and other artists to tell their stories, their way.

Siders, Benjamin J.

Lewis Rice, LLC | Member

Benjamin J. Siders practices in intellectual property and technology licensing and compliance, with a focus on helping small businesses, entrepreneurs, and startups develop and protect their IP assets, such as patents, trademarks, and copyrights.

Stanton, Brian

Stanton Consulting | Principal

Brian R. Stanton, Ph.D. trained as a molecular geneticist specializing in cancer research. After post graduate work utilizing embryonic stem cell technology to study animal development, he joined the US Patent and Trademark Office where he spent 12 years working in biopharmaceutical patenting.

Tittemore, Lisa

Sunstein LLP | Partner

Lisa is a partner at Sunstein LLP, a Boston-based intellectual property law firm. As Chair of the firm’s Litigation Practice, Co-Chair of the DEI Committee, and a member of the Management Committee, she is regularly engaged in matters involving innovation. Lisa is an experienced litigator, serving as lead counsel in patent, trademark and copyright litigation in federal courts throughout the United States. Lisa has extensive experience in intellectual property matters, providing strategic counsel to clients on both domestic and international issues and guiding the firm’s efforts in protecting and enforcing clients’ valuable brands and ideas.

Van Voorhis, Kim

Nike | Assistant General Counsel, Global IP LItigation

Kim is Assistant General Counsel, Global IP Litigation & Director of IP Europe at Nike, Inc. She is a committed IP professional, bringing nearly 20 years of experience litigating, managing portfolios, and providing strategic counseling on all aspects of global intellectual property rights, including patents, trademarks, design, copyright and trade secrets, in both elite law firm and Fortune 100 corporate settings.

Weibust, Erik

Epstein Becker & Green, P.C. | Partner

Erik Weibust is a Partner in the Boston office of Epstein Becker & Green, P.C., where he is Vice Chair of the firm’s Trade Secret & Employee Mobility practice group. Many of the world’s leading pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device, technology, financial services, staffing, and insurance companies look to Erik for thoughtful and practical advice concerning how best to protect their trade secrets and customer relationships from misappropriation by former employees, ex-business partners, competitors, and hostile actors in the United States and abroad, and to avoid liability when hiring from competitors. When necessary, clients rely on Erik for aggressive representation in litigation, where he has won substantial victories in court and at the negotiating table, including broad-reaching injunctive relief and multimillion-dollar payouts, in trade secret misappropriation, unfair competition, and breach of restrictive covenant cases.

Yaquinto, Giulio

Pirkey Barber | Attorney

Giulio Yaquinto practices trademark, copyright, and unfair competition law. He represents clients in federal courts across the country and at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He also devotes a significant portion of his practice to policing infringements and developing enforcement strategies. Giulio has experience in all stages of litigation, from the filing of pleadings through trial and appeal. He regularly authors winning briefs in federal district courts, and recently obtained a reversal for a client in a published decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He has also obtained favorable judgements for clients in proceedings at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board and domain-name disputes at the National Arbitration Forum. In addition to litigation, Giulio advises clients on strategies to enforce their rights without resorting to a lawsuit, particularly in the online context.

Keynote Speakers

Noreen Krall

Lance Lopes

Speakers