The IP Strategy Summit: Chicago
The IP Strategy Summit
Chicago | November 5, 2025
Chicago’s unique blend of manufacturing, healthcare, finance, and emerging tech makes it a key battleground for IP protection and innovation strategy. In an environment shaped by AI disruption, trade secret risk, and complex litigation, legal teams must adapt faster and think more cross-functionally than ever before.
The IP Strategy Summit: Chicago brings together senior in-house counsel, IP leaders, and legal operations professionals to examine how companies are evolving their IP strategies to meet today’s challenges and tomorrow’s uncertainty. From aligning patent and trade secret portfolios with business growth to managing internal education, enforcement, and cross-border risk, this event is designed for professionals responsible for protecting enterprise value in dynamic industries.
Through a mix of expert-led panels, real-world case studies, and peer-driven discussion, the program delivers actionable insights across patents, trade secrets, copyright, AI-generated content, and global brand enforcement. Attendees will leave better equipped to strengthen their protection frameworks, navigate litigation complexity, and lead innovation strategy with confidence.
+ CLE Pending Approval IL
- Portfolio Management & IP Strategy: Aligning Business Goals
- Copyright in the Streaming and Content Boom
- Patent Litigation Trends
- AI, Generative Content, and IP — Who Owns What?
- Global Brand Protection: Winning Strategies Across Jurisdictions
- Trade Secrets in 2025: Prevention, Protection & Internal Education as Core Strategy
- Patent Enforcement: Balancing Risk, Value, and Business Impact
- Chief IP Counsel
- Chief Legal Officer / General Counsel
- Deputy, Associate, or Assistant General Counsel
- VP or Director of IP Strategy
- Head of Intellectual Property or Licensing
- Patent Counsel / IP Counsel
- Trade Secret Counsel / Confidential Information Officer
- Trademark & Brand Protection Counsel
- Copyright or Digital Rights Counsel
- Director of Business and Legal Affairs
- Director or VP of Legal, Product, or R&D Counsel
- Head of Litigation / Litigation Counsel
- Corporate or Commercial Counsel
- Legal Operations Leaders Supporting IP Strategy
- Innovation or Technology Counsel
Agenda
One-to-One Meetings begin. If interested in participating, email info@centerforceusa.com
A strong IP portfolio doesn’t just protect innovation—it drives strategic growth, competitive advantage, and long-term business value. Legal teams are evolving their patent and trade secret strategies to better align with corporate priorities, R&D investment, and global expansion. As innovation cycles accelerate and budgets tighten, IP leaders are rethinking how to measure value and make tradeoffs across portfolios. From early-stage idea capture to monetization and divestment, portfolio management is becoming more integrated with corporate planning.
This panel will discuss:
- How to assess and adjust portfolio strategy based on evolving business needs
- Balancing patenting, trade secret protection, and licensing in a resource-constrained environment
- Governance models that improve visibility across R&D, legal, and commercial teams
- Metrics and tools that help IP leaders demonstrate value to the business
With the explosion of digital content creation, licensing, and distribution, copyright law is being tested like never before. Streaming platforms, user-generated content, and AI tools have upended traditional content ownership and royalty models. This panel will unpack current copyright challenges facing companies that create, license, or distribute media and content. Panelists will explore recent legal disputes, legislative developments, and enforcement trends that in-house counsel must stay ahead of. Topics include derivative works, platform liability, international rights management, and AI-generated works. Whether you’re in media, tech, or entertainment, this session offers practical insights into managing copyright in the age of rapid creation and consumption. Expect real-world takeaways from leaders in the field.
This panel will discuss:
- Copyright risks and considerations in streaming and digital content
- Enforcement trends and platform responsibilities
- Strategies for rights management and licensing in global markets
- The role of AI in content creation and implications for ownership and infringement
If interested in participating, email info@centerforceusa.com
Patent litigation remains a moving target, shaped by venue preferences, new case law, litigation funding, and shifts in global enforcement. This panel will explore how in-house counsel are preparing for and responding to litigation threats amid increasing complexity and cost. From NPEs to competitor suits to ITC actions, litigation strategy now demands faster decision-making, budget transparency, and collaboration across teams.
This panel will discuss:
- Top patent litigation risks and emerging venue trends in 2025
- Strategies to reduce exposure and increase leverage in active litigation
- The impact of litigation funding and how to prepare internally
- Key legal developments and decisions shaping patent litigation outcomes
The rise of generative AI has shaken foundational assumptions about intellectual property ownership. When AI models produce text, images, inventions, or code who owns the output? This panel will dissect the intersecting challenges across copyright, patent, and trade secret law, with a focus on how in-house counsel are navigating uncharted territory. From employee use of AI tools to vendor contracts and internal model development, new questions are emerging about authorship, originality, and protection. As the law lags behind the technology, corporate IP leaders must define their own playbook.
This panel will discuss:
- Legal theories of ownership for AI-generated content across IP types
- Internal policies for managing employee and third-party use of generative AI
- Risks to trade secrets and confidential information in AI training and outputs
- Contract clauses and governance strategies to future-proof IP rights
If interested in participating, email info@centerforceusa.com
Protecting your brand across global markets has never been more critical or more complex. From counterfeit enforcement to online infringement to navigating local trademark regimes, brand protection requires coordination between legal, compliance, and marketing teams. We will explore how companies are evolving global brand protection strategies in response to regulatory shifts, ecommerce challenges, and enforcement gaps. With brand equity increasingly tied to IP enforcement, this session delivers timely insights for cross-border success.
This panel will discuss:
- Trends in global brand enforcement and jurisdiction-specific risk factors
- Online enforcement strategies and platform collaboration models
- Working with customs, local counsel, and global enforcement teams
- Building a scalable and proactive brand protection program
As threats to confidential information grow more complex, trade secret protection is becoming a top priority for in-house legal teams. From employee mobility and hybrid work to increased vendor access and generative AI, the risk of trade secret leakage has never been higher. In 2025, prevention is the new defense, with leading organizations embedding trade secret awareness across engineering, product, and business units. Legal teams are also strengthening internal policies, training programs, and cross-functional collaboration. We will examine the real-world strategies companies are using to map, label, and protect proprietary know-how.
This panel will discuss:
- How to operationalize trade secret protection with internal stakeholders
- Legal and technical controls to mitigate risk across distributed workforces
- Real-world lessons from recent trade secret litigation and investigations
- Embedding trade secret education and accountability into employee workflows
As threats to confidential information grow more complex, trade secret protection is becoming a top priority for in-house legal teams. From employee mobility and hybrid work to increased vendor access and generative AI, the risk of trade secret leakage has never been higher. In 2025, prevention is the new defense, with leading organizations embedding trade secret awareness across engineering, product, and business units. Legal teams are also strengthening internal policies, training programs, and cross-functional collaboration. We will examine the real-world strategies companies are using to map, label, and protect proprietary know-how.
This panel will discuss:
- How to operationalize trade secret protection with internal stakeholders
- Legal and technical controls to mitigate risk across distributed workforces
- Real-world lessons from recent trade secret litigation and investigations
- Embedding trade secret education and accountability into employee workflows
Patent enforcement is no longer just about legal wins—it’s about protecting competitive advantage, justifying investment, and aligning with business priorities. As budgets tighten and litigation risks rise, in-house counsel must assess which patents are worth enforcing, where to enforce them, and how to maximize impact without overextending resources. Panelists will share how companies are building smarter patent enforcement strategies by aligning business objectives, potential outcomes, and reputational risk, while sharing real-world approaches to portfolio segmentation, litigation readiness, enforcement venues, and evolving trends in damages, injunctions, and litigation funding to help shift enforcement decisions from reactive to strategic.
This panel will discuss:
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How to identify and prioritize patents for enforcement based on business value and risk
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Strategic use of enforcement venues: district court, ITC, and international jurisdictions
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Evolving trends in remedies, settlements, and litigation outcomes
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When and how to leverage litigation funding or other alternative models to support enforcement
If interested in participating, email info@centerforceusa.com
Rotating, 20-minute discussions hosted by a topic expert
RT 1: Competitor vs. Competitor IP Litigation: Offensive and Defensive Strategies
Speakers
Richard Brophy has a proven track record of trying and winning complex intellectual property cases across the United States. His practice encompasses many areas of complex civil litigation, but he focuses primarily on disputes involving patents, trademarks, copyrights, and antitrust violations. Drawing on his expansive background as an aerospace engineer and computer scientist, Richard stands out by distilling complex technical and legal issues in ways that judges and juries can easily understand. In addition to providing strategic defense to clients who become litigation targets, Richard has demonstrated a talent for accomplishing the challenging task of enforcing his clients’ intellectual property.
Sponsors
Armstrong Teasdale
Armstrong Teasdale, one of the nation’s largest 200 law firms with offices in the United States and China, provides essential business related legal services to clients across a wide range of industries. Intellectual property, our fastest growing practice area, is one of the firm’s core strengths. Our team of more than 80 IP professionals, including 45 attorneys who are registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, provides both administrative and litigation counsel in all key areas including copyright, trademark, patent, and trade secrets. In addition to law degrees, many of our IP attorneys have advanced degrees and work-related experience in scientific areas and understand clients’ complex inventions and ideas. We are particularly known for our patent infringement litigation successes, many of which have been obtained in “hotbed” federal districts where high stakes patent suits often land.
Venue
TBA
Chicago, IL
Pricing
| Register By | In House Counsel | Law Firms & Vendors |
|---|---|---|
| October 29, 2025 | $0.00 | contact info@centerforceusa.com |
| November 5, 2025 | $0.00 | contact info@centerforceusa.com |
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