Speaker Bios
I pride myself on leading with kindness and innovation in all things, but especially professionally, given that the legal world can be seen as inherently contentious and dominated by antiquated ideas, perspectives, and "this is how we've always done it". I've been practicing for 16 years, all in house, at companies ranging from start-ups, one patent troll, established 50 Fortune household technology company, and small to midsized "teenage" companies. This diverse set of work environments has provided insights into diversity, inclusion, and equality in IP and technology environments.
Natasha Walwyn Robinson is Legal Counsel on the Innovation Legal team at Splunk Inc., a Silicon Valley based data and security technology company. At Splunk, she advises various solutions groups and business teams. She works closely with key internal business and technology partners on various strategic and day-to-day legal matters relating to the development and release of Splunk offerings.
Prior to Splunk, she was Senior Counsel at Progress Software where she was responsible for intellectual property, litigation, employment and general business matters. At Progress, she made history as the first Black female legal counsel in the company's 40 year history, she co-founded the Blacks@Progress employee resource group, and she served on the hiring committee for Progress' first ever Chief Diversity Officer.
Holly Chastain Nini is Senior Corporate Counsel and the Corporate Secretary for CITGO Petroleum Corporation in Houston, Texas where she manages the legal affairs for several of CITGO’s multi-billion dollar businesses, including Product Supply, Distribution and Trading; Terminals and Pipelines; Strategic Planning; Government and Public Affairs and CITGO’s international private non-profit foundation and the Corporate Secretary’s office and previously CITGO’s refining operations in Corpus Christi, Texas, Corporate Procurement and other business segments. In addition, Ms. Nini has been appointed by CITGO’s CEOs to serve as the legal advisor to several Executive committees that review and approve high significant matters and strategic projects for the company. Prior to joining CITGO, she was Regional Legal Counsel with Schlumberger where she managed the legal affairs for Schlumberger’s exploration and production oil and gas, technology and meter manufacturing businesses both onshore and offshore in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Her experience includes a broad range of strategic and high level domestic and international transactions, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, complex litigation, corporate governance, compliance, financings, risk management, regulatory matters and other legal areas. Ms. Nini received her Juris Doctor from The University of Alabama School of Law with honors and a B.S. in Commerce and Business Administration with studies in International Business and French from The University of Alabama, graduating Summa Cum Laude and with other high honors, including a Presidential Scholarship and 3 other Scholarships. Ms. Nini also studied at the University of Provence in Aix en Provence, France.
Hannah Lee is an experienced patent litigator, having conducted numerous trials before judges and juries in U.S. district courts, the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board, and the International Trade Commission. She represents clients across a variety of technology sectors including start-up companies and publicly held corporations. In 2020, Hannah was named to Benchmark Litigation’s 40 and Under Hot List. She is a member of Kramer Levin’s Women’s Initiative Committee and Attorneys of Color Affinity Group.
Puja Detjen came to Patterson + Sheridan with a unique skillset that she has since put to good use in her intellectual property law practice. As a former member of GE’s Operations Management Leadership Program, Puja supported corporate strategy objectives across manufacturing, operations, and supply chain management. Today, she leverages her diverse business experience to lead the way for inventors seeking to align their IP efforts with a strategic plan.
Puja’s practice is focused on patent preparation and prosecution, due diligence for IP transactions, and brand protection. She has experience in a variety of technical areas including wireless communications, wearable devices, audio output devices, and neural networks. Puja’s ability to focus on the bigger picture without losing sight of the details ensures that her client’s inventions have the needed protection to thrive across multiple jurisdictions.
Minimizing risk while maximizing value
In addition to preparing and prosecuting patents, Puja provides transactional support for clients engaging in mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures. For Puja, this involves performing IP portfolio due diligence and analyzing assets such as trademarks, patents, and licensing agreements. Puja also collaborates with inventors, in-house counsel, and foreign and domestic associates to manage the myriad of working components and competing interests that accompany these complex transactions. Relying upon a cohesive mix of her legal expertise and management skills, Puja is able to deliver exceptional results that meet each party’s individual needs.
When she isn’t devoting her time to helping clients navigate the patent application process or the intricacies of an M&A deal, Puja enjoys the performing arts, spending time with her husband and children, and pursuing her passion for wellness and healthy living.
Lois Brommer Duquette holds the position of Counsel at McNees Wallace & Nurick in the intellectual property group. She advises clients of all sizes on matters involving intellectual property rights, including licensing, disputes, trademark prosecution and transactions. Before joining McNees, Lois was the Associate General Counsel, Global IP and Regulatory for The Hershey Company. Prior to joining Hershey, Lois litigated a variety of intellectual property cases as an associate at a large Boston law firm.
Rachel Hadrick is a senior associate in the Litigation Group at McNees Wallace & Nurick LLC with experience in intellectual property litigation as well as a variety of other areas including consumer protection and products liability defense, and class actions. Prior to attending law school, Rachel worked in student services at a liberal arts college, focusing on diversity. She is active in several professional affinity and social justice organizations.
Cynthia Parks McCaskill is Leader – Intellectual Property Asset Development at GE Aviation. Cynthia leads a team of IP attorneys, agents, and paralegals to craft and execute strategies for protecting industry-leading aviation innovation technologies. Prior to joining GE Aviation, Cynthia was the founding partner of Parks IP Law LLC, an intellectual property boutique that counseled sophisticated Global 500 / Fortune 500 clients with substantial patent and trademark portfolios
Shayon T. Smith is Chief Counsel, Global Intellectual Property and Litigation at The Hershey Company. She leads Hershey’s IP team, overseeing the management and protection of the company’s global IP portfolio, including over 8000 trademarks. Shayon also leads Hershey’s global litigation portfolio and claims including IP, class actions, employment litigation, consumer protection matters, and commercial disputes. Prior to joining Hershey, Shayon was a partner at Goodell DeVries and served as in-house counsel with Steelcase Inc.
Susie Jones, founding and managing member of Jones Robb, is experienced in a wide array of patent law, including utility and design patent preparation and prosecution; strategic national and international patent portfolio development and management; post-grant proceedings, such as reissue, reexamination, and interference proceedings; and patentability, validity, infringement, and due diligence opinions. She also has been involved in both district court patent litigation and Federal Circuit appeals. Susie’s technical/industry practice areas cover various aspects of biomedical, electro-mechanical, and mechanical engineering, and she has served clients in highly competitive technical areas, including alternative energy, biomedical devices, cosmetic devices, displays, electromagnetics, food sciences, life sciences, optics, packaging, robotics, and business methods. Susie’s experience and expertise most recently have focused on providing a range of patent services to clients and developing patent strategies that complement the client’s business objectives. In particular, she enjoys developing and managing patent portfolios for the world market, for both start-up and larger companies. To this end, she also analyzes competitors’ patent portfolios and products to counsel clients regarding enhancement and enforcement of their patent portfolio, contemplated products, potential design-around, and acquisition of technology.
Kevin Robb is the leader of the firm’s Electrical, Software, and Telecommunication Group. He has more than 20 years of experience representing clients in a wide array of intellectual property areas including domestic and international patent preparation and prosecution, patent infringement and invalidity opinions, intellectual property and software licensing, technology transfers, strategic intellectual property planning, intellectual property standards bodies issues, patent pools and antitrust issues related to patents, and copyright issues involving music licensing. Additionally, he has extensive experience managing and developing patent portfolios for Fortune 500 companies and negotiating commercial agreements involving procurement, sales and equity transactions.
Kevin’s technical expertise includes telecommunication technologies including network architectures, switches, routers, call processors, and enhanced service platforms; wireless technologies including radio access technology network architectures, base stations, antennas, and mobile communication devices; software and information systems including architectures, operating systems, and applications; data processing systems across multiple business and government sectors including healthcare, human resources, transportation, and security; electronics hardware and firmware for input and output devices including printing, scanning and multifunction platforms and digital data storage products, such as CD and DVD drives, and magnetic tape drives media; optical systems including lasers, discrete and distributed amplifiers, switches, and network architectures; Global Positioning System architectures and applications; and microelectronic devices including memory architectures and design.
Prior to joining JONES ROBB, PLLC, Kevin was a partner at a patent boutique law firm and Senior Counsel at Sprint Nextel Corporation.
Rina Wang is Senior Legal Counsel at Endless West, a molecular alcoholic beverage and food start up, in San Francisco. She also trains companies on best practices for managing within the law and respectful workplaces. She previously worked as general counsel of a global software company. Since practicing law for 11 years, she is a broad corporate generalist and her IP practice includes patent and trademark.
Scott Hayden is the Vice President of IP Operations at Amazon. He leads a growing team of 70+ IP professionals in acquiring, maintaining, and enforcing the global intellectual property rights of Amazon.com. For the past 14 years, Scott has contributed to Amazon.com’s rapid growth by supporting the business team’s ability to innovate and delight customers.
By leveraging 30 years of experience as a hiring manager with proactive recruiting, he has assembled a diverse and talented IP operations team.
Scott has written and prosecuted thousands of US and international patent applications and is a co-inventor on five granted US patents.
He is licensed in MO, IL, WA (in-house), and with the USPTO.
Sabiha Chunawala is VP & Deputy General Counsel at Contentful Inc., the global leader in omnichannel content platforms. Sabiha serves as global legal advisor to the Go-to-Market (“GTM”) organizations consisting of Sales, Customer Experience, Partnerships, and Marketing and manages a global team focused on commercial transactions. She also leads development of foundational global policies for Contentful and is a member of Contentful’s Inclusion & Diversity Committee. Prior to Contentful, she held leadership positions at Juniper Networks, Inc. and Portal Software, Inc., later acquired by Oracle Corporation.
Outside of work, Sabiha serves as a mentor for students in the Santa Clara University School of Law: Entrepreneurship Law Clinic, Tech JD program, and ChIPs chapter. She also serves as a Library Commissioner for the Town of Los Gatos Library and as Co-Chair for the South Asian Women Attorney Network (SAWAN).
Nancy Del Pizzo is a member of Rivkin Radler’s Commercial Litigation; Intellectual Property; and Privacy, Data & Cyber Law Practice Groups. She resolves commercial disputes, including intellectual property matters such as trademark, trade dress, copyright and patent infringement, restrictive covenants and domain name disputes, misappropriation of trade secrets and unfair competition, false advertising, defamation and trade libel.
Anne M. Cappella is a partner in Weil’s Silicon Valley office, where she focuses on patent counseling and litigation involving complex and cutting-edge technologies.
Ms. Cappella has a uniquely diverse intellectual property counseling practice, which includes advising clients on pre-litigation patent strategies, technical aspects of patent licensing arrangements, patent acquisitions, and intellectual property due diligence for M&A transactions.
Clients also call on Ms. Cappella to oversee and lead the most technical aspects of patent litigations, including performing technical analysis to ensure solid claim construction, infringement, and validity arguments; overseeing technical experts and interacting with company engineers; and managing post-grant strategy and proceedings. Ms. Cappella has extensive experience representing clients in high-stakes multi-patent and multi-district litigations, as well as trade secret actions. She litigates in federal courts and arbitration proceedings, and has particularly deep experience before the U.S. International Trade Commission.
Ms. Cappella uses her strong technical background, including a B.S. in electrical engineering with minors in computer science and mathematics and prior work experience as an engineer and consultant for IBM, to advise clients on a diverse range of technology. She has represented smartphone manufacturers and wireless carriers in proceedings involving data encoding, memory, multi-touch, WiFi, GPS, data synchronization, 3G/LTE cellular data modulation, and digital camera technologies. She also has represented other technology-focused clients in proceedings involving wireless, integrated circuit design, memory, Ethernet and DSL technology, and semiconductor processing and packaging. Some of Ms. Cappella’s representative clients include leading smartphone manufacturers, Microsoft, Intel, Amkor, and T-Mobile, among others.
Ms. Cappella is widely regarded as a leader in the field. In 2014 and 2017, Ms. Cappella was named to the Daily Journal’s list of the Top Women Lawyers in California. The publication, which recognizes the 100 most accomplished women lawyers in the state, noted that “Cappella uses her background as an electrical engineer and a love for complicated technology to help her clients fend off patent infringement claims.” Since 2016 Ms. Cappella has been recognized as a recommended lawyer for patent litigation by Legal 500. She also has been included in The Recorder’s list of the top Women Leaders in Law and was named a “2016 Women of Influence” by the Silicon Valley Business Journal.
Ms. Cappella is actively involved in a number of initiatives aimed at bettering the careers of women lawyers. She is a member of the Firm’s global Women@Weil leadership board, a Firm affinity group that focuses on supporting women lawyers. Ms. Cappella also is a formal mentor to several senior women associates, and a regular participant in women law student and engineer mentoring programs.
Salumeh litigates intellectual property matters in federal courts around the country, representing a variety of clients, including Fortune 500 e-commerce and software companies. She has represented both plaintiffs and defendants, and multiple clients in joint defense groups and in large multi-defendant litigations. She has extensive experience managing complex patent litigations, including participating in trials, taking and defending depositions, working with experts, and engaging in settlement negotiations.
Salumeh also represents clients in trademark and copyright infringement suits in federal courts and in trademark opposition and cancellation proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.
As a Business Development Executive at IBM, Lorie is responsible for all aspects of monetizing IBM’s patent portfolio. Lorie has a deep technical background, having begun her career as a software developer before moving into management. After managing programs, projects and people, Lorie pursued multiple entrepreneurial endeavors before earning her J.D. from Campbell Law in Raleigh. Lorie received her Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Penn State University and is licensed to practice law in North Carolina.
Ms. Chowdhury is an experienced Seasoned Senior IP Counsel with years of a complete spectrum of strategic global IP experience prosecuting, litigating, licensing, conducting due diligence, & assessing patentability/freedom to operate to support business objectives. She developed and supervised strategic global IP portfolio of companies in line with business objectives considering competitor presence, legal enforceability, and detectability in cost effective manner by saving over $500,000 per year. As first and only in-house patent attorney for last 8 years, established and implemented international trade secret protection plan and managed global IP portfolio of companies. Advised CEO, R&D leaders, and upper management on freedom-to-operate, due diligence investigations, collaboration agreements, in- and out-license deals, joint ventures, and MA matters to assist with business needs.
Samantha recently joined Spark Therapeutics, the dedicated gene therapy subsidiary of Roche Holdings AG (NASDAQ: RHHBY), leading legal support for the corporate functions, including Human Resources, Real Estate & Corporate Facilities, Finance, Information Technology and Corporate Communications. Prior to joining Spark, Samantha served as Executive Director, Corporate Counsel at Incyte (NASDAQ: INCY), helping the S&P 500 Component biopharmaceutical company build and execute strategies required to take the company global, enter new markets, double its annual revenue to ~$2 billion, and increase its headcount to 1,400. A strategic business partner, senior leadership team member, corporate generalist, and prior business unit general counsel, Samantha serves on several of Spark’s corporate leadership teams with responsibility for advising key stakeholders on enterprise-wide initiatives.
Throughout her 20+ years working with multinational, national, and regional companies across sectors, Samantha has always loved sitting down with business leaders to develop and execute business strategies. She has partnered on projects involving numerous countries, including Switzerland, the EU, Brazil, China, Mexico, Russia, Australia, Canada and the U.K.
Samantha attributes much of her success to her commitment to knowing business models, drivers, pressures, and personalities. She learns every step, from R&D to end user. Samantha’s work has touched nearly every aspect of both corporate functions and day-to-day operations, including executive advising, new market entry, corporate initiatives, product development, business development, corporate transactions, securities litigation, compliance, employment law, employee training, intellectual property protection, software and IP licensing, commercial contracts, supply chain, global trade compliance, risk management, construction, commercial litigation, dispute resolution, team management, and budget and resource allocation.
Since business decision-making is very seldom black and white, Samantha strives to give pragmatic legal advice that helps decisionmakers operate in the inevitable shades of gray, while maintaining their commitments to their company, shareholders, the public, and other stakeholders.
Throughout, Samantha and her teams emphasize integrity, equity, fairness, and humility
Perving Taleyarkhan is Legal Counsel at Whirlpool. Her experience includes IP strategy, contract negotiation, as well as litigation. Prior to Whirlpool she served as Legal Associate in the IP legal team at Purdue University. She earned her BSChE in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University and her J.D. from Indiana University Robert H. McKinney, School of Law. Pervin is actively involved in the American Bar Association, where she serves on the Editorial Board of the ABA Journal, and is also Editor-in-Chief of the Young Lawyer Division (ABA YLD)'s flagship The Young Lawyer. She is currently Vice Chair of the IP Law Section of the ABA YLD. In addition, Pervin is active in the ABA IP Law Section in various capacities, including work on the Editorial Board of the ABA IPL Section's Landslide magazine and chairing the Section's In-house IP Committee. She is also serving on the IP Counsel at the State Bar of Michigan and the Board of Directors for the Michigan Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC). At the regional level, Pervin co-chairs the ACC's Southwest Michigan Committee.
IP Law Counsel at IBM. Having first trained in general sciences and then Computer Science, she has wide-ranging experience in protecting and harvesting IP as well as monetising IP through deals, collaborations and licensing. She is also actively involved in policy work in the Data, AI and Copyright fields.
Anita is involved in a number of external organisations in Europe and the UK for policy, give-back and diversity issues: EPI: Examiner for European Qualifying Examinations, Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA), IP Federation and IP Inclusive (founding member of IP&ME, a diversity network for BAME employees and their allies).
Emily is a European patent attorney based in San Francisco, providing on-the-ground European IP support to West Coast companies.
Well-versed in patent prosecution and IP strategy for multinational companies, Emily’s technical expertise includes software, aerospace and medical devices.
Emily co-founded Oxford University’s mental health awareness campaign many years ago and retains a keen interest in mental health. Emily feels strongly about addressing the gender gap in professional services, and has researched female inventorship in worldwide patent filings.
Amanda Swaim is Senior IP Counsel within Broadcom, Inc.’s Intellectual Property and Licensing division. She is responsible for managing offensive and defensive patent litigation, licensing activities, and Broadcom’s worldwide trademark portfolio.
Before joining Broadcom, Amanda practiced intellectual property litigation and transactional law at several national and regional law firms.
Laurie Charrington is the Associate General Counsel at Intel Corporation. Her responsibilities focus on strategy and execution of patent litigation as well as other litigation focused issues. Furthermore she heads up Intel's global patent indemnity program. Laure co-chairs Intel's Black Leadership Counsel as well as being a key member of the leadership team at Leading Edge - Intel's Women Leadership Initiative.
Her experience further includes Associate roles at Jones Day, Day Casebeer Madrid & Batchelder, Sills Cummis Epstein Gross and Fenwick & West LLP. Laure Charrington earned her J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law.
Nicholas Kim is a Senior Attorney at Microsoft Corporation and focuses on IP litigation. Mr. Kim joined Microsoft from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Division, where he was a trial attorney in the Intellectual Property Section. Before that, Mr. Kim was a patent attorney in private practice in Washington, DC.
Uma N. Everett is a director in Sterne Kessler’s Trial & Appellate Practice Group. She concentrates her practice in the area of patent litigation and has represented clients in patent cases in federal courts and before the United States International Trade Commission in the pharmaceutical and electronics industries. She has extensive experience representing clients in the pharmaceutical industry in litigation arising under the Hatch-Waxman Act.
Uma is experienced in the development of all aspects of case strategy and the efficient management of complicated electronic discovery issues. She has served as trial counsel in multiple proceedings, and is experienced in all aspects of litigation from pre-suit investigation through trial and appeal. In addition, she has handled appeals before the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal and Third Circuits.
While attending law school at Georgetown University Law Center, Uma served as the senior notes editor of The Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics. Prior to attending law school, Uma worked at Price Waterhouse as management consultant. Uma received her B.A. in economics from the University of Virginia.
Karen has led teams in patent infringement lawsuits involving agricultural chemicals, human and veterinary pharmaceuticals, biotechnology products, and networking technologies. In late 2012, Chambers USA Women in Law recognized Karen’s work by nominating her for its 2013 Up and Coming Intellectual Property Lawyer of the Year Award and in 2018, BTI Consulting named Karen as one of 326 outside lawyers, and the only Delaware lawyer, as “absolutely best at client service.”
Karen also serves as a member of the Sedona Conference’s Patent Litigation Working Group 10 on Patent Litigation Best Practices and has been a faculty member for various corresponding Working Group Meetings. Karen served as the President of the Delaware Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, the primary liaison between the district court bench and the Delaware federal bar. In 2013, Karen was recognized for her service to the District of Delaware with the Judge Caleb R. Layton, III Service Award.
Taking on pro bono representations is also a regular part of Karen’s practice, including a civil rights action for discriminatory arrest in which the jury awarded compensatory and punitive damages. After the district court judge overturned the verdict on post-trial motions, Karen successfully argued the appeal to reinstate the jury’s original verdict. She has also successfully represented pro bono clients in immigration, family law matters and before the U.S. Court of Veterans Appeals.
Karen has a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from The Pennsylvania State University and worked at GlaxoSmithKline conducting drug discovery research. Karen prosecuted patent and trademark applications during law school and worked on other intellectual property litigation matters at an intellectual property boutique firm in Philadelphia and at one of Delaware’s largest law firms before founding Shaw Keller LLP in 2011.
Gael Diane Tisack is the Global Head of Intellectual Property for Olympus Corporation, managing a patent portfolio of over 25,000 patents and an IP staff of nearly 200 around the globe. Prior to joining Olympus in 2018 Gael founded and led the Technology Transfer Office at Wichita State University. Before WSU she was at Terumo Cardiovascular Systems for nearly 13 years where she started as a patent attorney and worked her way to be the Senior Vice President and General Counsel. She was an Associate Attorney at Brinks, Gilson & Lione after law school. Gael graduated, cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School and is a registered Patent Attorney before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. She is a frequent guest lecturer at several universities including Georgetown Law School, the University of Michigan, the University of Maryland and Wichita State University. Gael has been named an IP Star by Managing IP multiple times and won the Women Leaders in Life Sciences Empowerment Award in 2016 She holds a B.S. and M.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan and was an engineer and manager at Ford Motor Company for 11 years where she was awarded a patent for a shielded circuit module.
Ann is responsible for managing USAA’s growing patent portfolio, supporting Innovation and licensing efforts, and facilitating the integration of intellectual property across the enterprise.
I serve as Associate General Counsel for Aldevron LLC, which is a globally-recognized producer of proteins and RNA, and the world’s largest producer of plasmid DNA. Aldevron’s products are used in vaccine production, diagnostics, and gene therapy and other therapeutics. I report directly to the General Counsel and support all legal matters for our RNA and protein business units. I also handle intellectual property matters for all business units. Prior to joining Aldevron, I spent the previous nine years as an associate and then partner in the Intellectual Property Group at Quarles & Brady LLP. My practice focused on patent prosecution and overall IP strategies for corporate and academic clients in the biotechnology, pharma, and medical device sectors. I earned my undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Madison, WI, my doctorate in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Washington, and my JD from the University of Chicago. I currently reside in Cottage Grove, Wisconsin.
