LES Silicon Valley Chapter Webinar:
IP Year 2021 in Review
Thursday, February 3, 2022
12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. (PST)
Presentation
Program:
The LES Silicon Valley Chapter is pleased to host its annual IP year-in-review program in which leading experts will review key IP-related developments during the calendar year 2021.
Key areas will include:
- USPTO update from the Silicon Valley regional director
- Notable international developments
- Important cases affecting IP licensing law and practice
- Important cases affecting IP litigation law and practice
Panelists:
Stephen Koziol, Acting Director, Silicon Valley United States Patent and Trademark Office
Nick Aries, Partner, Bird and Bird
Joseph Yang, Tech & IP Transactions Partner, PatentEsque Law Group. LLP
Michael Zachary, Partner, Bunsow DeMory LLP
About our panelists:
Stephen Koziol, Acting Regional Director, Silicon Valley United States Patent and Trademark Office
As the Acting Regional Director, Steve carries out the strategic direction of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO and is responsible for leading the USPTO's West Coast regional office in Silicon Valley. Focusing on the region and actively engaging with the community, he ensures the USPTO’s initiatives and programs are tailored to the region's unique ecosystem of industries and stakeholders. He also serves as the Managing Regional Assistant Director for the Silicon Valley Regional Office. In this role, he leads the coordination of stakeholder outreach efforts at the Silicon Valley Regional Office, ensuring the equitable distribution of USPTO services and resources across the western region. Steve has served the USPTO for nearly 15 years, starting as a patent examiner and working through various management roles as a supervisory patent examiner at headquarters, the Rocky Mountain Regional Office, and the Silicon Valley Regional Office. While at the USPTO, he has led or contributed to numerous projects impacting patent operations, including the AIA Post Grant Outcomes program, AIA First Inventor to File implementation, AIPLA Partnering in Patents, and patent operations cost and fee modeling. As a supervisory patent examiner, he has managed teams of patent examiners in the computer graphics and digital imaging fields. He has received two distinct Department of Commerce Bronze Medal Awards. Steve received his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Bradley University.
Nick Aries, Partner, Bird and Bird
Nick co-heads Bird & Bird's representative office in San Francisco, advising on and coordinating European and UK IP law matters from a US time zone. Nick coordinates multi-jurisdictional IP litigation and strategy. His litigation experience includes trade mark infringement and passing off, breach of license/coexistence agreements, software copyright, trade secrets, and designs. He also specializes in identifying and advising on IP issues in the digital economy, including copyright and trade mark questions in a wide range of online services. In addition, Nick covers transactional IP work such as licensing and the IP aspects of corporate restructures and reorganizations. Nick has been recognized more than once by WTR as one of the 'World's Leading Trademark Professionals'. He is an advisory Board Member of the San Francisco IP Law Association, a member of INTA's Enforcement Committee and of IPOA's European Practice, Copyright, and International Trademarks Committees.
Joseph Yang, Tech & IP Transactions Partner, PatentEsque Law Group. LLP
Joe is a partner at PatentEsque Law Group, LLP where he specializes in technology/patent transactions and strategic partnerships. He has led hundreds of deals worth billions of dollars, for IT, electronics, entertainment, consumer goods, healthcare, manufacturing & energy clients, especially cross-industry (e.g., JVs, SaaS, IoT, cloud and “big data” deals). Joe was formerly General Counsel of Cryptography Research, and handled its IP licensing (10+ billion devices/year) and eventual M&A ($400M+). Earlier, Joe co-founded and later led the “IP Strategy & Transactions” practice at Skadden, Arps (Palo Alto). Intellectual Asset Management (IAM) publications has named Joe one of the “World’s Leading IP Strategists” and “World’s Leading Patent Professionals," and lists Joe as 1 of 10 “highly recommended” transactional attorneys in California.
Michael Zachary, Partner, Bunsow DeMory LLPMichael focuses his practice on intellectual property litigation and licensing, and regularly represents clients in patent infringement, trade secret, trademark and other intellectual property litigation cases. He also counsels clients on a variety of technology and intellectual property agreements, including collaboration, patent purchase and sale, and patent license agreements. He has represented large, mid-size, and start-up companies based in the United States, Japan and Europe, including Volkswagen, Bradium, Skype, Amazon, Wacom, PRISM Pharma and Boston Scientific. In 2016 and 2017, he was recognized as a California “IP Star” by Managing Intellectual Property. Michael is a board member for the Silicon Valley Chapter of the Licensing Executives Society.
LES-SVC CLE Credit: 1.5 hours MCLE credit available (California).
