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Speakers
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Anoff, Ali
Procter & Gamble | Director & Assistant General Counsel - Patents
Ali Anoff is Director and Assistant General Counsel at Procter & Gamble. She is the primary patent attorney for renowned brands such as Olay® skin care, as well as Old Spice®, Secret®, and Native® antiperspirant and deodorants. Ali provides strategic legal counsel to the business to create and protect global intellectual property assets. Her practice focuses on IP strategy development, preparation and prosecution of global patent applications, conducting freedom-to-practice assessments and enforcement. -
Bajaj, Raghav
Latham & Watkins | Partner
Raghav Bajaj is a partner in Latham & Watkins’ IP Litigation group and serves as co-chair of the firm’s PTAB practice. Raghav focuses on high-stakes patent litigation and contested proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, including inter partes reviews, post-grant reviews, and related appeals to the Federal Circuit. He represents both petitioners and patent owners across a range of technologies and industries, drawing on his technical background to develop effective strategies in complex intellectual property disputes. -
Banner, Brian
Slayden Grubert Beard | Shareholder
Brian Banner is the managing shareholder of Slayden Grubert Beard in Austin, Texas. He focuses on patent litigation and has nearly two decades of experience in district courts, the Federal Circuit, and before the PTAB. Brian served as lead IPR counsel in the first-ever sua sponte Director Review of an institution decision in 2022 and has since closely tracked the rise of Director authority. His practice draws on more than seven years of prior industry experience in semiconductors, processor architecture, and software design. -
Boundy, David
Potomac Law Group | Partner
David Boundy is a Partner in our Intellectual Property and Administrative Law practices, advising clients in strategic development of intellectual property as an integrated asset of the business, and synergizing intellectual property with legal, R&D, finance, and marketing. Mr. Boundy is listed as one of the 300 leading intellectual property strategists in the world. He has represented and counseled inventors, investors, startups, and established companies in intellectual property matters. The scope of representation includes patent prosecution, licensing, counseling to avoid litigation, opinions, financing and public offering transactions, due diligence, acquisitions, and spinoffs. His special expertise is in structuring startups’ IP portfolios to maximize financing. -
Burgy, Adriana
Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP | Partner
Adriana Burgy, a partner in Finnegan’s Washington DC’s office, specializes in patent opinion work, client counseling, prosecution, portfolio management, and litigation within the chemical, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology sectors. Combining legal and technical expertise, she is recognized by Intellectual Asset Management (IAM) and The Legal 500 U.S. for her accomplishments in patent matters across a broad array of technologies. -
Chin, Brad
Duane Morris, LLP | Partner
Brad Y. Chin is a partner in Duane Morris' Intellectual Property Practice Group. He represents clients in intellectual property litigation and counseling matters, with a focus on patent and trademark-related disputes and transactions for companies operating in the energy, technology and high-tech sectors. -
Collin, Sean
Elastic NV | Vice President Legal for Innovation
Sean Collin is Vice President Legal for Innovation (Product, IP, Marketing) at Elastic NV, the world's largest B2B and B2G search, observability, and security software company. He was educated at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand (BCom. LLB (Hons)) and at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. (LLM (Dist.)). He has been called to the Bar in New Zealand, New South Wales, Australia, and in both New York and California in the United States. He has lectured at Universities, Institutes and Global Conferences in 20 countries on international IP law and technology business. -
Cooper, William
Cooper Legal Group | President
William Cooper is a US Patent Attorney and the founder of Cooper Legal Group, LLC, an IP boutique. William handles many aspects of intellectual property, with a focus on patent preparation and prosecution, including filings into and out of the US in many different technology areas. William is a seasoned practitioner with nearly 30 years of experience and has been actively involved with several different AIPLA committees for many years. -
Curcio, Stephanie
NLPatent | CEO and Co-Founder
Stephanie Curcio is a recognized leader at the intersection of artificial intelligence and patent law, with a focus on modernizing patent practice through workflow-aligned AI. She is the CEO and Co-Founder of NLPatent, where her work centers on applying proprietary AI models to support established patent research and intelligence workflows by automating high-friction tasks, surfacing conceptually relevant context, and reducing manual review - while preserving practitioner judgment, legal rigor, and explainability. -
Curtis, Anthony
Schwegman Lundberg & Woessner | Principal
Tony Curtis is a Partner at Schwegman Lundberg & Woessner. His practice includes patent procurement, portfolio management and strategic counseling in a wide range of electrical, software, and mechanical technologies. Tony previously worked as senior counsel in patent operations and portfolio management in the communications field at Verizon and Motorola Solutions. He has worked on diverse technology, including short and long-range telecommunication devices, semiconductor devices, materials, and processing, software (including AI), healthcare-related software and devices, big data analysis and usage, Internet-related software including advertising, and business methods. -
Davis, Theodore
Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, LLP | Partner
Ted Davis is a partner in the Atlanta office of Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP, where he has practiced trademark, copyright, false advertising, and unfair competition law since 1990. He is a past member of the American Intellectual Property Law Association’s Board of Directors and currently serves as an editor of the A.I.P.L.A. Quarterly Law Journal. He also has served on the American Bar Association’s Board of Governors and the International Trademark Association’s Executive Committee. He frequently serves as an expert witness in trademark-related matters and is an adjunct professor at the Emory University School of Law. His articles on intellectual property subjects have appeared in such general-purpose journals as the Minnesota Law Review, the Ohio State Law Journal, the Wake Forest Law Review, the University of Illinois Law Review, the Washington & Lee Law Review, the Florida Law Review, and the Akron Law Review, as well as in specialized publications like the Trademark Reporter, the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, the Journal of Intellectual Property Law, and the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal. -
Eichner, Sam
Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP | Senior Counsel
Sam Eichner, a member of Pillsbury’s Intellectual Property practice, focuses on copyright and trademark disputes in federal court and before the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB). As a copyright and trademark litigator, Sam represents clients across industries—from fashion e-tailers and blockchain developers to universities and non-profit organizations. Sam has litigated cases to trial, and resolved many disputes through settlement and mediation, invariably seeking practical business solutions for his clients. -
Fink, Karl
Fitch Even | Partner
Karl R. Fink has been a partner at Fitch Even since 1995 and is co-chair of the Litigation Practice Group. His practice includes all aspects of commercial litigation and intellectual property litigation, creation, management, enforcement, and licensing, with particular emphasis on patent litigation. Karl has been a full-time first-chair trial lawyer since 1981, handling hundreds of lawsuits in state and federal courts across the country, both at trial and on appeal, as well as in the International Trade Commission. His litigation practice also includes the handling of inter partes reviews in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. -
Gale, James A.
Cozen O'Connor | Co-Chair, Intellectual Property Litigation
James A. Gale is the co-chair of Cozen O’Connor’s Intellectual Property Litigation Practice. He is a registered patent attorney with more than 40 years of experience and is Chambers Band 1 ranked in Florida, Martindale AV Preeminent© rated, Board Certified in Intellectual Property by the Florida Bar, and the former inaugural chair of Florida's IP Board Certification Committee. Jim has handled hundreds of cases involving patents, theft of trade secrets, restrictive covenants, trademarks, unfair competition, and internet disputes. He has appeared in over 400 federal cases in more than 48 federal district and circuit courts, as well as handled hundreds of injunctions in over 35 different states around the nation. An accomplished intellectual property litigator, Jim’s client list includes national and international high-technology manufacturers, as well as traditional brick-and-mortar clients. -
Garberg, Morten
Hoffmann Eitle | Partner
Morten Garberg is a partner and co-head of HOFFMANN EITLE’s Chemistry and Pharmaceuticals practice group. Since starting his patent law career in the firm’s London office in 2002, Morten has gained extensive experience in representation of clients at the European Patent Office, specializing in opposition and appeal work. Now based in Munich, his expertise with patent work spans a wide variety of technical fields, including pharmaceuticals, polymers, foods and medical devices. -
Goldberg, Joshua
Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP | Partner
Joshua Goldberg, partner in Finnegan’s Washington, DC office, is a former leader of Finnegan’s PTAB trials section, focusing on inter partes review (IPR), post grant review (PGR), and ex parte reexamination (EPR) proceedings before the USPTO, as well as related appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He has served as lead or backup counsel in more than 350 PTAB proceedings across a wide range of technologies, representing both petitioners and patent owners. -
Harris, Phil
Holland & Hart | Partner
Phil Harris is a partner, registered patent attorney, and patent practice group leader at Holland & Hart. His practice focuses on client counseling along with preparing and prosecuting U.S. and foreign patent applications (with special focus on cutting-edge technology) for clients of various structures and industries, including wireless communications, network design, machine learning and artificial intelligence, memory and computer architecture, circuit and chip design, methods of manufacturing, medical devices, and other complex technologies. -
Herman, Michele
JusTech Law, PLLC | Founder
Michele’s practice at JusTech Law focuses exclusively on legal and business issues affecting technology development and commercialization such as technology standards, open source software, and intellectual property transactions. -
Irving, Thomas L.
The Marbury Law Group, PLLC | Senior Partner
Tom Irving is Senior Partner at the Marbury Law Group with some 50 years of experience in the field of intellectual property law. My practice emphasizes patent law experting, due diligence investigations, Orange Book listings, and counseling and opinion work, particularly on ODP and MPF. I successfully reissued the patent for the drug Lovenox®, a blockbuster product, and represented targets Agouron, Principia Biopharma, and Endocyte in patent work resulting in deals respectively garnering $2.1, $3.68, and $2.1 billion USD, as publicly reported. I filed an expert report and was cross examined on prosecution laches for CureVac against BioNTech /Pfizer. In settlement, CureVac received $740 million and a running royalty on Covid-19 vaccine sales in the U.S. I have also filed two expert reports dealing with inequitable conduct and one on duty of care in patent filing and prosecution. -
Jungreis, Rivka
Teva Pharmaceuticals USA | Patent Litigator
Rivka Jungreis is a patent litigator at Teva Pharmaceuticals USA. She handles an extensive docket of pharmaceutical patent litigation involving Teva’s generic, branded, biologic, and biosimilar products. Rivka also advises the company on a variety of trade secret, FDA regulatory, and antitrust issues in the pharma space. -
Landy, Barry
Ciresi Conlin, LLP | Partner
Barry Landy is an accomplished trial lawyer at Ciresi Conlin, renowned for his expertise in complex commercial litigation, with a particular focus on trade secrets, breach of contract, fraud, financial services litigation, and class actions. He represents businesses and individuals nationwide in high-stakes disputes in federal and state courts, and brings extensive experience in appellate advocacy, having appeared before multiple federal and state appellate courts. -
Marrone, Matthew
Dennemeyer & Associates | Senior Patent and Trademark Attorney
Matthew is the Lead Intellectual Property Attorney in Dennemeyer & Associates Chicago office. Matthew is a strategic leader committed to building the US practice, leading and managing legal teams to deliver high-value IP counsel to clients. A skilled legal strategist and a business-minded leader, Matthew is energized by building and protecting client's innovations, as well as managing client relationships, and mentoring attorneys. -
McCrackin, Ann
AI-Enabled Attorney, LLC | Founder
Ann McCrackin is a patent attorney, Adjunct Professor at the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law, and founder of AI-Enabled Attorney LLC. She provides practical AI training and IP operations consulting for law firms and legal teams, with a focus on helping professionals use AI effectively in real patent and trademark workflows. -
McDermott, Mary
CNA | Risk Control Consultant
Mary is a Risk Control Consultant for CNA’s Lawyers Professional Liability Program. In this role, she is part of the CNA team helping insureds practice better by providing risk control services. Mary helps craft risk control publications, and she provides direct assistance to insureds when insureds reach out with a concern about their practice. Mary also presents on risk control and best practices for addressing the latest troubling issue. -
Pennington Rhodes, Tammy
Supercharger | Principal
Ms. Tammy Pennington Rhodes currently serves as Principal at Supercharger. She is a registered patent attorney with over 20 years of experience in patent litigation, drafting, and prosecution. She holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering and began her legal career at a general civil litigation firm in Atlanta, Georgia. -
Pool, Ryan
Millen, White, Zelano & Branigan, P.C. | Partner
Ryan Pool is a Partner at MWZB who specializes in chemical and life sciences patent prosecution. He is experienced in patent drafting, patent prosecution, and portfolio management. His practice has involved considerable work in the international patent sphere and he is the current Chair of the AIPLA IP Practice in Europe committee. Mr. Pool is interested in using data to find patent prosecution advantages for is clients to increase both prosecution effectiveness and efficiency. He has authored a number of papers to that end. His works have published in both US and international patent law industry publications. He will be discussing one such work today. -
Potter, Karen
Morrison Foerster | Partner
Karen Potter, Ph.D., J.D. is a nationally recognized patent attorney and a leader of Morrison Foerster’s Cell and Gene Therapy Patent practice, based in San Diego, California. With more than 20 years of experience in life sciences intellectual property, Karen advises biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies on patent strategy, prosecution, and global portfolio management for advanced cell, gene, and immunotherapy products. -
Rattray, Adam
WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center | Head of the External Relations and Planning Section
Adam Rattray is the Head of the External Relations and Planning Section of the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center. He works closely with the WIPO Center’s IP Disputes Section to facilitate the provision of efficient ADR services and to provide training on mediation and arbitration for IP and technology-related disputes. Before joining WIPO he worked at the Geneva office of the law firm White & Case as a member of the WTO and international trade law practice. -
Richmond, Douglas
Lockton Companies | Senior Vice President
Doug Richmond is a Senior Vice President with the Lockton Companies, where he advises Lockton’s law firm clients on professional responsibility and liability issues. He joined Lockton after retiring as a Managing Director of Aon’s Professional Services Practice, where he led Aon’s loss prevention services across all professions. Before joining Aon, Doug was a partner with Armstrong Teasdale LLP in Kansas City, Missouri (1989–2004), where he had a broad civil trial and appellate practice. He is a former member of the ABA’s Standing Committee on Lawyers’ Professional Liability (2020–2023) and the ABA’s Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility (2016–2019). Doug earned his J.D. from the University of Kansas.. -
Sebor, Angela
Tolmar | Director Intellectual Property
Angie Sebor is the Director Intellectual Property at Tolmar, Inc., a Colorado-based, fully integrated pharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative, specialty pharmaceutical products in the areas of urology, oncology, pediatric endocrinology and men’s health. Angie is a registered U.S. patent agent with a Ph.D. in Immunology and more than 27 years’ experience in patent law, both as an in-house practitioner and in private practice, primarily in the areas of biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. -
Sheppard, Christal A.
University of Nebraska College of Law | Law Professor
Dr. Christal Sheppard has over 3 decades of science, intellectual property law and policy experience covering a large proportion of the IP ecosystem. Her experience includes serving as chief counsel of patent and trademarks in the United States House of Representatives, as the first Director of the first USPTO Regional Office, as a member of the Administration's Public Patent Advisory Committee, and in the International Trade Commission’s General Counsel’s Office. Currently she is Lecturer at University of Nebraska College of Law, and has served as a Distinguished Fellow at the Nebraska Governance and Technology Center. -
Smalley, Laura W.
Harris Beach PLLC | Partner
Laura W. Smalley is a partner in the Intellectual Property Practice Group of Harris Beach PLLC, one of the leading law firms in New York State as ranked by the National Law Journal. She was selected as one of the Best Lawyers in America and represents clients in patent licensing, litigation and prosecution. Laura focuses on protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights and clients’ development of their technology. She has litigated numerous patent infringement suits involving medical devices, electronic components and imaging technology, including acting as trial counsel in a patent infringement action over key components for pacemakers and implantable defibrillators that resulted in a $27 million judgment. -
Smythe, Alexandra
IDE Group | Director of Regulatory Affairs
Alexandra Low Smythe is Director of Regulatory Affairs for IDE Group, a global medical device commercialization firm building meaningful medtech ventures. She has nearly a decade of experience deeply involved in all phases of the medical device product lifecycle, managing both global regulatory and the intellectual property strategy for multiple employers and clients, including a major innovator in the radiotherapy and diagnostic imaging industry. With a unique background combining engineering and law, Alexandra carefully balances maintaining regulatory compliance and respecting and protecting intellectual property rights with achieving strategic business objectives. -
Szweras, Melanie
Bereskin & Parr LLP | Partner
Melanie’s practice focuses on drafting and prosecution of applications relating to biologics, diagnostics, biotechnology, food and pharmaceuticals. Melanie offers strategic advice and expertise to her clients, provides validity and freedom to operate opinions and is involved in related patent litigation and licensing. -
Till, Mary
Finnegan Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP | Of Counsel
Mary C. Till is of counsel in Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP’s Washington, DC office. She leverages her over 30 years of experience in patent law to provide patent prosecution counseling services to a broad range of clients. Drawing on her insider’s perspective with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), her capabilities range from the representation of large corporations to startups and universities needing patent procurement, portfolio evaluations, and portfolio management and strategy services. -
Townes, Nicole
Friedland Cianfrani LLP | Partner
Nicole Townes is a partner in the Irvine office of Friedland Cianfrani LLP. Nicole has represented a wide range of clients in trademark, trade dress, copyright and licensing counseling and litigation, as well as false advertising, unfair competition, trade secret and patent litigation. Her practice includes domestic and international trademark selection and clearance, prosecution, and procurement. -
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.

