Speaker Bios

Erin Collins is an intellectual property attorney at The Clorox Company. Her responsibilities include: patent portfolio strategy, trade secret processes and protection, patent drafting and prosecution management, freedom to operate opinions, Intellectual Property (IP) training and guidance for technology partnerships, licensing, and IP litigation support and IP due diligence. Prior to joining Clorox, Erin worked as a Patent Examiner at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. During her time at the USPTO, she worked in the Chemical Technology Center working on applications for semiconductor coatings. After working at the USPTO, Erin spent for a couple of years in the patent prosecution group with Carr & Ferrell in Palo Alto.  While she was working at Carr & Ferrell, she attended law school and became a registered patent agent. She received a J.D. from Santa Clara University and a B.A. in chemistry and political science from Wesleyan University, in Middletown, Connecticut.  Erin is an active member of ACC, NextUp and LCLD. Erin enjoys working on pro bono programs and community service activities, including with the Junior Achievement, SF Opera and Ballet, Family Violence Law Center, Clean Slate and the Safe Surrender Program with East Bay Children’s Law Offices.

Brad Lawrence focuses his practice on intellectual property counseling including the protection of clients' inventions through carefully planned patent procurement. His practice also includes analysis of the IP and product positions of others and the development of licensing strategies as well as performing product clearances in the form of non-infringement and/or invalidity opinions. He also has significant prior litigation experience that includes many aspects of patent, trademark, and trade secret litigation as well as licensing and other extrajudicial resolution of IP disputes.https://www.cantorcolburn.com/professionals-Brad-Lawrence.html

Technology innovators call on Marina for assistance in building and managing their patent portfolios, from identifying technical advantages to implementing programs that capture these advantages as patents.

She provides a broad spectrum of patent-related services, including the preparation and prosecution of patent applications (both U.S. and international), invention mining, patent validity and infringement analysis and opinions, freedom to operate analysis, IP due diligence work, IP licensing, and strategic IP counseling. 

Jonathan Tuminaro, Ph.D. is a director in Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein and Fox's Trial & Appellate and Electronics Practice Groups, and focuses his practice on patent litigation at the United States International Trade Commission (ITC), the U.S. district courts, and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). 

Chuck has 30 years of IP experience representing clients in both law firm and corporate settings in patent and other intellectual property matters.  He is currently Vice President, Intellectual Property at Nutcracker Therapeutics and co-teaches a Biotechnology Law seminar at Santa Clara University School of Law. Prior to Nutcracker, Chuck was Director, Biosimilars, and Manufacturing IP Lead at Genentech, heading up a team of patent agents and attorneys supporting Genentech’s cell culture, process development and manufacturing organizations.  While at Genentech, Chuck was a member of the team managing Genentech’s response in the JHL trade secrets misappropriations case. Before Genentech, Chuck served as Vice President, Intellectual Property at Coherus Biosciences, a biosimilars company, where he developed FTO positions for potential new products and managed both BPCIA patent and biosimilars-related trade secrets litigation.  Prior to Coherus, Chuck spent 8 years as an IP attorney at Amgen in a number of roles, including Large Molecule Team co-lead, Neuroscience Therapeutic Area IP Team Lead, and supporting one of Amgen’s biosimilars programs. Chuck earned a B.S. in Cell & Molecular Biology and a B.S.E. in Engineering Science (Bioengineering) from the University of Michigan, a Master’s degree in Physiology from Yale University, a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Stanford University, and a J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law.

Daniel Richards is a counsel in the Ropes & Gray’s intellectual property group. He focuses his work on patent litigation involving a variety of technologies, including mobile device, semiconductor, computer software, RF, networking, LCD display, content distribution, signal processing, and telecommunications technologies. Daniel is experienced in all stages of district court and ITC litigation from pre-suit investigations, discovery, claim construction, pre-trial proceedings, trial, and post-trial briefing, and appeals. Daniel also has extensive experience in all stages of proceedings before the patent office. His experience spans all aspects of both bringing and defending against inter partes review petitions, as well as preparing ex parte reexamination requests.

Mindy Morton is a partner in Procopio’s Silicon Valley Office, and she focuses her practice on high-stakes litigation in the areas of trade secrets, health care, technology and internet law. She leads Procopio’s Trade Secrets practice as well as its Health Care practice.  She also leads Procopio’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, and is proud of the firm achieving Mansfield Rule Certified Plus status two years running. Mindy serves as the co-chair for the ABA IP Section’s Trade Secrets Committee and also serves on the Steering Committee for the Sedona Conference Trade Secrets Working Group.  Mindy helps clients resolve disputes involving trade secret, privacy, trademark, copyright, computer fraud and other contentious issues. She represents healthcare providers throughout California in civil lawsuits and judicial review hearings. Mindy also litigates cutting-edge cases at the intersection of technology and free speech issues, defending internet companies against defamation, copyright, trademark and related claims on First Amendment, Communications Decency Act (CDA) Section 230, Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and US SPEECH Act grounds. Mindy earned her law degree from Yale Law School, serving as an editor on the Yale Law Journal, after a Political Science BA from UC Berkeley, graduating Phi Beta Kappa.  She was recognized as a Silcon Valley Woman of Influence in 2016 by the Silicon Valley Business Journal and as the Diversity Award Winner in 2019 by the Santa Clara County Bar Association.

David has helped clients achieve victories in both pursuing and defending against claims of trade secret misappropriation and infringement of patents, copyrights, and trademarks, as well as disputes concerning IP licenses, employment restrictive covenants, and other commercial matters. He has led multiple IP and commercial suits through trial and appeal and in international arbitrations. He also counsels on IP and employment issues in the transactional context, including mergers and acquisitions, licensing, and capital markets transactions.

David’s first-chair successes for clients include winning a groundbreaking cross-border trade secret suit in the International Trade Commission for Korean pharmaceutical Medytox, translating into a highly valuable settlement (and receiving recognition in Litigators of the Week); defeating contract claims for more than $150 million against leading South American airline LATAM by securing victories in the Bankruptcy Court and District Court in the SDNY and a precedential decision by the Second Circuit (also receiving recognition in Litigators of the Week); representing Nortel Networks, Inc. in defeating claims exceeding $120 million for copyright infringement and breach of license as to software in the District of Delaware Bankruptcy Court; representing People’s United Bank in defeating trademark infringement claims by other “People”-named banks as it expanded throughout the Northeast, culminating in victories in the First Circuit and Second Circuit; and representing a Taiwan semiconductor manufacturer in defeating claims under a patent license in the Northern District of California.

In the pro bono sphere, David led the team that represented Tennessee death row inmate Ndume Olatushani (formerly known as Erskine Johnson), overturning his wrongful conviction and winning his freedom. This work was recognized with the New York City Bar Association’s inaugural Norman Redlich Pro Bono Capital Defense Award and in Am Law Daily and the New York Law Journal and was featured in the ABA’s Pro Bono Publico Award to Cleary Gottlieb. He continues to be active in the death penalty field on the global level, including partnering with organizations to challenge capital punishment on human rights grounds. David has chaired the firm’s pro bono committee and currently serves on the Advisory Board of Directors of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law.

David’s speaking engagements include PLI’s Advanced Trade Secrets 2023: New Challenges, New Solutions, and New Opportunities and Strafford’s Google v. Oracle: Implications for Fair Use Doctrine, Developing, Copying, and Licensing Software API and Copyright Fair Use and the Warhol Decision: Navigating the Evolving Landscape, Minimizing Infringement Risks. His publications include Why Arbitrate International IP Disputes? for Global Arbitration Review’s The Guide to IP Arbitration and Provisional and Final Remedies for Juris’s Arbitration of International Intellectual Property Disputes.

David joined the firm in 1991.

Peter Jovanovic is a Legal Director, IP at Dell Technologies, providing support for several business units.  At Dell, he is responsible for patent portfolio development, patent litigation, open source management, and license drafting and negotiation.  Before joining Dell, he was an associate patent attorney providing prosecution, litigation, and licensing services.  Prior to becoming an attorney, Peter was a software engineer, having experience in computer security, satellite communications, and logistic planning software.  

Peter has bachelor’s degrees in computer science and mathematics from UC San Diego, a master’s degree in computer science from San Diego State, and a juris doctorate from UC Hastings College of the Law.  He is registered to practice before the USPTO and is a member of the California Bar.

Peter is also an adjunct law professor at Golden Gate University School of Law.

Rakesh Michael is a Director on the IP Team at Uber. Rakesh leads various IP functions at Uber, including the Uber IP Team's conflicts practice (which covers both IP litigation and pre-litigation IP disputes), the Uber Open Source Legal team, and all patent portfolio development for Uber's mapping and AV platform businesses. Rakesh also has significant in-house experience with IP issues that arise in the context of M&A, tech transactions, licensing agreements, compliance, employment, and corporate tax matters. Rakesh is passionate about exploring innovative approaches to reducing IP risk for business clients, and increasing diversity among IP professionals and inventors. Rakesh earned his JD from the University of Michigan Law School and his Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan College of Engineering.

Heath Briggs is Co-Chair of Greenberg Traurig's Global Patent Prosecution Group and has more than 19 years of patent prosecution experience and 10 years of AIA trial experience.  Heath has handled over 120 inter partes review proceedings (IPRs) across a wide variety of technologies, with significant experience in LEDs, telecommunications, and medical devices.  Heath has regularly been ranked as one of the most active and successful IPR attorneys in the country, and Heath’s briefing in Becton, Dickinson & Company v. B. Braun Melsungen AG, resulted in the precedential Becton factors.  Since 2005, Heath has served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he teaches engineering students a self-designed course on intellectual property law.

Derrick’s practice encompasses advising and assisting clients during all phases of the patent life cycle, from prosecution strategy and freedom to operate analyses, to litigation and “alternatives to litigation” such as USPTO post-grant proceedings, to patent acquisition, licensing, and settlement. Leveraging his skill as both a registered patent attorney and experienced patent litigator, he has prosecuted and litigated patents in mechanical and software-related fields. Derrick has represented clients in intellectual property disputes in district courts nationwide, from California to Massachusetts to Puerto Rico, and points in between, and on appeal to the Federal Circuit. He also has extensive experience in preparing and defending inter partes reviews, reexaminations, and other USPTO post-grant proceedings, routinely arguing before the Patent Trials and Appeal Board (PTAB).

Malgorzata “Gosia” Kulczycka is an experienced attorney in the firm’s San Jose office with a broad-based IP law practice. With more than 15 years of legal experience, Gosia works to protect and support her client's intellectual property through patent preparation and prosecution and by employing trademark and brand protection strategies for and against infringement claims. Inventor herself, Gosia practices in various IP areas and technologies, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, communication technologies, complex software, and more. Gosia has a great deal of experience in the areas of computer graphics and computer networks. She has been procuring and managing large IP client accounts in the fields of computer graphics and artificial intelligence.   

Dr. Hongming Liu is a Senior IP Counsel at Tencent America.  He formerly worked at Nokia Technologies, a business group of Nokia Corporation, which also includes HERE and Nokia Networks. At Tencent America, Hongming’s primary function is patent portfolio management and invention harvesting. Prior to Nokia Technologies, Hongming worked as a software developer and software architect. Hongming has taught graduate and undergraduate computer science and software engineering courses at DePaul University, Chicago. Hongming received his juris doctorate and doctorate in Computer Science from DePaul University, and his undergraduate degree from University of Science and Technology of China.

Siddhi Shah is senior patent counsel at Micron. Her areas of expertise include IP strategy, IP portfolio management, and counseling on issues related to patent, licensing, confidentiality, open source licensing, and cybersecurity. Siddhi is also passionate about supporting Micron's legal diversity programs such as Women in IP. Prior to becoming an attorney, Siddhi worked as Technical lead/Engineer in the Aerospace industry. Siddhi received her BS in Computer Science, BSE in computer Engineering, and MS in computer science. Further, she received her JD from the George Washington university law school.

Harry heads our San Francisco liaison office and focusses on the European needs of our clients in the Silicon Valley. With a background in physics, he primarily works on software, automotive and autonomous driving technologies. His practice involves advising on filing strategies across the globe, particularly for Silicon Valley companies, with a focus on balancing efficiency with strength of IP protection. While Harry’s expertise relates primarily to software and borderline eligibility technologies, a core part of his practice is working closely with companies on European strategy, management/processes and urgent advice relating to European or UK patent protection. Harry has particular expertise in risk assessment (freedom to operate) and patent portfolio strength analysis as companies approach IPO.
 
Harry also advises on a variety of technologies, such as healthcare, as they move over into the software and AI sectors. Recent work has involved drafting an application for the use of AI in predicting patient responses to DMARDs, and providing patentability opinions for machine learning technologies applied to a variety of life sciences technologies.
 
Due to his Pacific time zone, Harry serves as a first port-of-call for any quick advice or matters that require urgent attention on Pacific time.

Dr. Jiaping (Charlene) Liu is an intellectual property lawyer with an extensive knowledge of patents and a focus on patent prosecution and assertion matters. Charlene performs client counseling, portfolio development and management in various technological fields, and in particular focusing on AI and deep learning, medical devices, semiconductors, integrated circuits, financial service, and network security. Charlene also frequently counsels clients on assertions and licensing disputes, such as in the realm of standard essential patents.

Before her legal career, she obtained her Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Princeton University, and was a Gordon Wu fellowship recipient. Her doctoral work focused on stochastic modeling of data networks, and she worked on wireless transmission protocols for ad hoc networks at Bell Labs during graduate school.

Katie has over a decade of experience in the EC/VC space, and specializes in strategic partnering, intellectual property and technology licensing and protection, product counseling, data and privacy strategy, and the commercialization of intellectual property, software, data and other technology assets. Katie represents technology and venture-backed companies in nearly every industry, including artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, consumer products, health tech, financial technology, insurance technology, supply chain technology, SaaS, cloud, blockchain and web3.

She is a strategic thought partner for her clients in all types of commercial arrangements; acquisitions, spin-outs, software/SaaS licenses, intellectual property and confidentiality counseling, reseller, referral, manufacturing and distribution, support and maintenance, promotion and marketing, collaboration and development, evaluation and beta testing, and a variety of other in- and out-licensing deals and services arrangements pertaining to the creation, distribution and commercialization of products and services. Katie also advises the leading venture capital firms on their investments in these companies.

Katie had led Gunderson's leadership in the artificial intelligence space, and is a frequent speaker on the cutting edge issues companies are facing as they raise money and develop innovative products.

Katie negotiates commercial and corporate transactions across from the world’s largest technology companies, including Alphabet, Apple, Adobe, Amazon, Google, Oracle, Meta, Microsoft, Twitter, the largest retailers, including Target and Walmart, telecoms, including Comcast and Verizon, financial companies and banks, including Stripe, Mastercard, American Express, and Visa, major hospitals and health systems, universities, media companies, and other parties in the technology and venture ecosystem.

Katie founded the firm’s privacy practice. As a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP), she leverages her expertise with the international privacy regulation framework to counsel clients on risks and opportunities with respect to use and exchange of personal data in their business transactions and product development, including machine learning models.

Katie is also a member of the firm’s Management Committee and previously served on the firm’s Governance Committee and as a partner sponsor of the Women’s Affinity Group.

Victoria Friedman is an IP attorney specializing in client counseling, procurement and management of intellectual property. Her technical background is in Computer Information Systems and her patent practice primarily focuses on software, telecommunications, computer, search, email and social network arts.

In her trademark practice, she manages international portfolios for top global brands in various industries. Friedman is one of a handful of attorneys who have been successful in registering a color mark. She enjoys developing and implementing efficient, practical solutions to her clients' IP challenges.

Victoria Friedman speaks English and Russian and has been active in the field of IP since 2003.

Elana B. Araj focuses her practice on patent, trademark, and copyright infringement litigation in district court and post-grant review proceedings before the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Elana has experience in all stages of litigation from pre-litigation diligence through trial and appeal. Elana also advises with respect to patentability, provides freedom to operate analyses and opinions, and prepares and prosecutes domestic and foreign utility and design patent applications. In addition, Elana has experience in the licensing and transfer of intellectual property, as well as experience with privacy-related issues. She counsels clients across a range of industries, including consumer products, health care, medical devices, and software technologies. Prior to practicing law, Elana was a patent examiner with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for four years.