Steve Gong, Patent Counsel and the Head of Data and Science, Technology and Operations, Google

Steve runs the data science, technology, and operations team inside Google Global Patents, one of the largest in-house patent operations in the world. His team builds AI and machine learning tools that help Google manage its patent portfolio across every stage: filing new patents, working with patent offices to get them approved, analyzing them, and enforcing them against infringers. He is also a Patent Counsel at Google, an affiliate fellow at Stanford's CodeX Center for Legal Informatics, and a co-founder of ADAPT.legal, a group that includes Microsoft, Amazon, Uber, Google, Cruise, and Disney and works to make the patent profession more inclusive.

Steve has a law degree from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, a master's degree in computer engineering from Santa Clara University, and a bachelor's degree in bioengineering with a minor in computer science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He has also completed executive leadership programs at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. He started his career at Convergence Intellectual Property Law, a San Jose IP boutique, then led product management at MaxVal Group in San Francisco before joining Google in 2017 as Head of Technology for Global Patents. He was named to the World IP Review Diversity Top 100.
about.google

Samir Rayani, Founder and CEO, IP Author

Samir is the founder and CEO of IP Author, an AI company he started in 2023. IP Author helps law firms and corporate patent teams use AI to draft patents, respond to office actions, search prior art, and build evidence of use charts. Before IP Author, he founded Dolcera in 2007, an IP analytics company that was one of the first to apply data science to patents.

Samir has a master's degree in computer science from Stanford University, and earlier in his career served as a Director at SAP Research. He is also a named inventor on more than a dozen US patents. For twenty years he has focused on the same thing: patents. First he built a company that analyzed them at scale (Dolcera), and now he runs one that uses AI to write them (IP Author). That makes him one of the most credible voices on where AI is taking the patent profession.
ipauthor.com

Bob Stefanski, Co-Founder & Managing Director, eLab Ventures

Bob is a co-founder and Managing Director eLab Ventures, an early-stage AI-focused VC fund based in Silicon Valley and Ann Arbor. Prior to founding eLab, Bob was on the founding management team of TIBCO Software, where he helped lead its growth from startup to one of the leading enterprise infrastructure software companies in the world. He previously served as the Director of Intellectual Property for Reuters, the largest private network financial information provider in the world, where he helped the company navigate its transition to the Internet.

Bob began his career as an attorney with Weil, Gotshal & Manges in New York City, where he represented technology, media and entertainment companies in a broad range of matters. He was also previously a partner in the Silicon Valley office of international law firm Reed Smith, where he served as the chair of its Venture Capital and Emerging Company practice.
elabvc.com

Moderator:  Efrat Kasznik, President, Foresight Valuation Group

Efrat is an IP valuation and strategy expert with more than 25 years of consulting experience assisting clients with the valuation, strategic management and monetization of their intellectual property and technologies. She is president of Foresight Valuation Group LLC – a Silicon Valley-based IP valuation and litigation consulting firm – as well as a start-up advisory firm.

Efrat is also an appointed lecturer on IP management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB), as well as a lecturer in accounting at Stanford Law School. She also lectures on IP issues at the GSB’s various local and international executive education programs. Efrat specializes in analyzing IP and technology portfolios for a range of business transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, financial reporting, technology commercialization and business liquidations. She frequently testifies as an expert witness in legal cases involving damages or valuations of intellectual property and start-ups, as well as in high net worth divorce cases involving the valuation of intangible assets and technology startups. Efrat has been listed on the IAM 300 list of World Leading IP Strategists every year since 2013. She is actively involved in leadership roles with LES USA-Canada, where she currently serves as a board member, in addition to serving as Chair of the LES Silicon Valley chapter.

foresightvaluation.com