Partner, Jackson Walker
Arthur offers clients a winning combination of trial and appellate experience gained as a federal prosecutor and more than 20 years of experience in handling patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secrets litigation.
While his practice concentrates on intellectual property litigation, Arthur also has significant experience in internal investigations, False Claims Act suits, partnership and breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, and employment litigation. Arthur also has represented clients testifying before Congressional committees.
Arthur writes and speaks frequently on topics ranging from the case against Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to patent litigation reform.
Prior to joining Michael Best, Arthur served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he was the lead prosecutor in criminal trials, including federal intellectual property crimes. He also argued numerous appeals.
Partner, Knobbe Martens
Philip Nelson counsels clients in all stages of growth, from startups to established public companies. To jump-start young portfolios, Mr. Nelson pioneered use of special programs to cut through red tape for rapid patent allowance. For those wanting to preserve options at minimal cost, he has a tested protocol. He especially enjoys laying sophisticated patent minefields, protecting core assets with an eye to the future concept and product pipeline. No matter when he joins the team, he quickly grasps the technology and points to the best options to support the business.
Mr. Nelson builds value for investment and acquisition by working with company visionaries and scientists to describe and protect their ideas. Although the patent office likes to say “no,” he works through the objections, often speaking to patent examiners in person to negotiate for better claims. Collegial persistence and technical tutorials tend to persuade examiners, getting them to “yes.”
Mr. Nelson drafts and negotiates technology agreements and advises on big-picture strategy. When opposing diligence counsel is just pasting in a pat phrase from a template, he uses his experience from the trenches (prosecuting, negotiating, and litigating) to correct the meaning and serve his clients.
Mr. Nelson advises on contested matters, drafts litigation briefs, and works closely with litigator colleagues. He negotiates with his clients’ adversaries to avoid suit or improve litigation positions. When a competitor claimed to own his client’s invention in chemistry lab instruments, he won two patent office “interferences”—and a Federal Circuit appeal—to preserve his client’s ownership rights. He handles complex patent office trials such as interferences, derivations, and inter-partes reviews. He did reexaminations and inter-partes reexaminations back before they were cool (before the America Invents Act popularized Board proceedings).
His physics background and widely varied experience at a top intellectual property boutique for almost 20 years has created a sophisticated advocate for his clients. Mr. Nelson looks forward to helping you assess the field, build your defenses, close your deal, and rain fire on your IP problems and adversaries.
Chief Policy Officer and Counsel, The Council for Innovation Promotion
Jamie Simpson is Chief Policy Officer and Counsel for The Council for Innovation Promotion (c4IP), which is a bipartisan coalition dedicated to promoting strong and effective intellectual property rights that drive innovation, boost economic competitiveness, and improve lives everywhere.
Simpson has almost 20 years of experience in policy and a specific focus on IP-related issues. She previously served as Chief Counsel on the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, IP, and the Internet; Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee while on detail from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office; and Associate Solicitor at the USPTO.
A graduate of Harvard Law School and, previously, a law clerk at the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Simpson has extensive expertise in intellectual property law and policy, as well as an earlier background of working on patent litigation and licensing disputes.
Founder and Owner, RPT Legal Strategies PC
Bob Taylor is the founder and owner of RPT Legal Strategies PC in San Francisco and Palo Alto, providing legal and business advice to companies and investors with respect to all aspects of intellectual property and related fields of endeavor. He also serves as a Venture Advisor to New Enterprise Associates and as a patent law expert for the National Venture Capital Association.
He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, a former chair of the Antitrust Section of American Bar Association, and a Lifetime Member of the American Law Institute.
Bob has written and lectured extensively on the business and legal problems associated with both intellectual property protection and the laws related to competition.
Bob holds a J.D degree from Georgetown University Law Center and was a member of the editorial board of the Georgetown Law Journal. He holds a B.S.E.E degree from the University of Arizona.
Partner, Jackson Walker
Arthur offers clients a winning combination of trial and appellate experience gained as a federal prosecutor and more than 20 years of experience in handling patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secrets litigation.
While his practice concentrates on intellectual property litigation, Arthur also has significant experience in internal investigations, False Claims Act suits, partnership and breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, and employment litigation. Arthur also has represented clients testifying before Congressional committees.
Arthur writes and speaks frequently on topics ranging from the case against Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to patent litigation reform.
Prior to joining Michael Best, Arthur served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he was the lead prosecutor in criminal trials, including federal intellectual property crimes. He also argued numerous appeals.
Partner, Knobbe Martens
Philip Nelson counsels clients in all stages of growth, from startups to established public companies. To jump-start young portfolios, Mr. Nelson pioneered use of special programs to cut through red tape for rapid patent allowance. For those wanting to preserve options at minimal cost, he has a tested protocol. He especially enjoys laying sophisticated patent minefields, protecting core assets with an eye to the future concept and product pipeline. No matter when he joins the team, he quickly grasps the technology and points to the best options to support the business.
Mr. Nelson builds value for investment and acquisition by working with company visionaries and scientists to describe and protect their ideas. Although the patent office likes to say “no,” he works through the objections, often speaking to patent examiners in person to negotiate for better claims. Collegial persistence and technical tutorials tend to persuade examiners, getting them to “yes.”
Mr. Nelson drafts and negotiates technology agreements and advises on big-picture strategy. When opposing diligence counsel is just pasting in a pat phrase from a template, he uses his experience from the trenches (prosecuting, negotiating, and litigating) to correct the meaning and serve his clients.
Mr. Nelson advises on contested matters, drafts litigation briefs, and works closely with litigator colleagues. He negotiates with his clients’ adversaries to avoid suit or improve litigation positions. When a competitor claimed to own his client’s invention in chemistry lab instruments, he won two patent office “interferences”—and a Federal Circuit appeal—to preserve his client’s ownership rights. He handles complex patent office trials such as interferences, derivations, and inter-partes reviews. He did reexaminations and inter-partes reexaminations back before they were cool (before the America Invents Act popularized Board proceedings).
His physics background and widely varied experience at a top intellectual property boutique for almost 20 years has created a sophisticated advocate for his clients. Mr. Nelson looks forward to helping you assess the field, build your defenses, close your deal, and rain fire on your IP problems and adversaries.
Chief Policy Officer and Counsel, The Council for Innovation Promotion
Jamie Simpson is Chief Policy Officer and Counsel for The Council for Innovation Promotion (c4IP), which is a bipartisan coalition dedicated to promoting strong and effective intellectual property rights that drive innovation, boost economic competitiveness, and improve lives everywhere.
Simpson has almost 20 years of experience in policy and a specific focus on IP-related issues. She previously served as Chief Counsel on the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, IP, and the Internet; Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee while on detail from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office; and Associate Solicitor at the USPTO.
A graduate of Harvard Law School and, previously, a law clerk at the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Simpson has extensive expertise in intellectual property law and policy, as well as an earlier background of working on patent litigation and licensing disputes.
Founder and Owner, RPT Legal Strategies PC
Bob Taylor is the founder and owner of RPT Legal Strategies PC in San Francisco and Palo Alto, providing legal and business advice to companies and investors with respect to all aspects of intellectual property and related fields of endeavor. He also serves as a Venture Advisor to New Enterprise Associates and as a patent law expert for the National Venture Capital Association.
He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, a former chair of the Antitrust Section of American Bar Association, and a Lifetime Member of the American Law Institute.
Bob has written and lectured extensively on the business and legal problems associated with both intellectual property protection and the laws related to competition.
Bob holds a J.D degree from Georgetown University Law Center and was a member of the editorial board of the Georgetown Law Journal. He holds a B.S.E.E degree from the University of Arizona.
Nonresident Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
Jim Harper is a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he focuses on privacy issues, and select legal and constitutional law issues.
A lawyer by training, Mr. Harper has served as counsel for the Subcommittee on Commercial, and Administrative Law of the US House Committee on the Judiciary and as counsel for the Senate Committee on Government Affairs. More recently, he worked at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Cato Institute, where he wrote on the intersection of business, technology, and public policy, including privacy, surveillance, data security, telecommunications, and cryptocurrencies. He also served as global policy counsel for the Bitcoin Foundation. Mr. Harper was a founding member of the Department of Homeland Security’s Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee. Early in his post-Hill career, he represented companies such as PayPal and Verisign before Congress.
Mr. Harper is the co-editor of “Terrorizing Ourselves: Why U.S. Counterterrorism Policy Is Failing and How to Fix It” (Cato Institute, 2010) and the author of “Identity Crisis: How Identification Is Overused and Misunderstood” (Cato Institute, 2006). He has written several amicus briefs in Fourth Amendment cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and has published scholarly articles in a variety of law journals. In the popular press, Mr. Harper has been published in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, among many other publications.
Mr. Harper has a law degree from the U.C. Hastings College of the Law, where he was editor-in-chief of the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly, and a BA from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Professor of Law, Stanford Law School
Orin S. Kerr is a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, where he teaches and writes in the areas of criminal procedure and computer crime law. Kerr earned mechanical engineering degrees from Princeton University and Stanford University before graduating with a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a former law clerk to Justice Anthony M. Kennedy at the United States Supreme Court and Judge Leonard I. Garth of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Legal Fellow, Center for Constitutional Studies, Cato Institute
Brent Skorup is a legal fellow in the Cato Institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies.
Before joining Cato, he was a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at the George Mason University. His research areas include free speech, technology law, Fourth Amendment protections, regulation, and property law. Skorup has published pieces in economics and law journals and in popular media, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Bloomberg Law, Reuters, and Wired. He’s appeared as a TV and radio interview guest for news outlets like C‑SPAN, NPR, CBS News, ABC News, and CNBC Asia.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court, a dissenting opinion at the Illinois Supreme Court, and the ALI's Restatement of the Law of Property have cited his legal research and he has testified as a technology and legal expert in legislative hearings in several states. Skorup has been appointed to several federal and state advisory bodies and he is currently a member of the Texas Advanced Air Mobility Advisory Committee.
Skorup has a BA in economics from Wheaton College and a law degree from the George Mason University School of Law, where he was articles editor for the Civil Rights Law Journal. He was a legal clerk at the FCC’s wireless bureau and Office of General Counsel and at the Energy and Commerce Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Charles Yates is an attorney in Pacific Legal Foundation’s environmental practice group, where he litigates to defend private property rights and uphold the structural protections guaranteed by the Constitution’s separation of powers.
His inspiration to focus on environmental law comes from the special case of government overreach it presents, where individual rights too often give way to collectivist notions and where misguided government policies create a cure worse than the disease. Charles has a particularly strong belief in the important role that the productive use of natural resources plays for human flourishing. To these ends, his practice at PLF focuses primarily on the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, and related regulatory issues.
Charles credits his strong belief in the principles of individual liberty and limited, constitutional government to his family. His personal philosophy developed further while studying the works of Adam Smith, John Locke, James Madison, and other classical liberals. Born and raised in Australia, Charles has always admired the U.S. Constitution as the purest and most enduring application of the ideals of individual liberty and limited government. It was these influences that impressed upon him the desire to pursue a career in public interest litigation.
After obtaining a B.A. in political science and international relations from the University of Western Australia, Charles moved to the U.S., where he earned his J.D. magna cum laude from the University of Baltimore School of Law. During law school, he served as president of his school’s chapter of The Federalist Society and was an editor of the University of Baltimore Law Review. Other highlights from his law school days include an internship at the Cato Institute and a clerkship at the Institute for Justice.
Charles lives in Sacramento with his wife Maxine. In his spare time, he enjoys reading and playing the bass guitar.
Director of the Center for Energy and Environment and Senior Fellow, Competitive Enterprise Institute
Daren Bakst is Director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Energy and Environment and a Senior Fellow. In this role, he manages, develops, and leads the coalition, advocacy, and research activities of the Center, which is one of the most effective advocates for Free Market Environmentalism.
Before joining CEI as Deputy Director in March, 2023, Daren was a Senior Research Fellow in Environmental Policy and Regulation at the Heritage Foundation, where he played a leading role in the launch of the organization’s new energy and environment center, and created and hosted the Heritage Foundation’s energy and environment podcast the “PowerCast.” During his decade at Heritage, Daren wrote about energy and environmental policy, food and agricultural policy (including editing and co-authoring the book Farms and Free Enterprise), regulation, and trade among other topics.
Daren also worked on environmental policy and regulation at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where he was a policy counsel and served as the executive to the association’s Government Oversight, Operations & Consumer Affairs committee, which was responsible for issues such as regulatory process reform. Daren has significant state level experience, working for seven years at the Raleigh, N.C.-based John Locke Foundation, one of the largest state-based, free-market think tanks. As director of legal and regulatory studies, his broad portfolio included energy and environmental policy, regulatory reform, and property rights.
Daren has testified numerous times before Congress, regularly submits comments to federal agencies and has appeared in or been quoted by a wide range of media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Times, CNN, Fox Business News, Al-Jazeera America, and U.S. News and World Report. He is a member of the Federalist Society’s Environmental Law and Property Rights Executive Committee and serves on the College Level Advisory Board for Constituting America, an organization that informs and educates about the importance of the U.S. Constitution.
Daren, who hails from Florida, received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from George Washington University. A licensed attorney, he holds a law degree from the University of Miami and a master of laws degree from American University.
Senior Fellow, R Street Institute
Prior to R Street, Adam spent 12 years as a senior fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Before the Mercatus Center, he served as the president of the Progress and Freedom Foundation. Adam has also worked for the Adam Smith Institute, the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute.
Adam has published 10 books on a wide range of topics, including online child safety, internet governance, intellectual property, telecommunications policy, media regulation and federalism.
In 2008, Adam received the Family Online Safety Institute’s “Award for Outstanding Achievement.”
Senior Fellow, R Street Institute
Prior to R Street, Adam spent 12 years as a senior fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Before the Mercatus Center, he served as the president of the Progress and Freedom Foundation. Adam has also worked for the Adam Smith Institute, the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute.
Adam has published 10 books on a wide range of topics, including online child safety, internet governance, intellectual property, telecommunications policy, media regulation and federalism.
In 2008, Adam received the Family Online Safety Institute’s “Award for Outstanding Achievement.”
Founding Partner, Benbrook Law Group
Brad has litigated business and public policy matters throughout the United States for over 25 years. He represents businesses of all sizes in civil litigation and disputes with administrative agencies. Brad also regularly represents individuals and groups in constitutional and public policy litigation in the trial and appellate courts. He regularly submits amicus briefs on behalf of clients at the Supreme Court of the United States on significant cases. Brad is often hired as special litigation counsel in complex family law, bankruptcy, and trust and estate litigation.
After graduating from law school, Brad worked as a judicial clerk for Judge J.L. Edmondson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta. Brad received his law degree from the University of California at Berkeley after graduating from Stanford University, where he was a four-year letterman on the golf team.
Professor of Law, Widener University Commonwealth Law School
Founding Partner, Benbrook Law Group
Brad has litigated business and public policy matters throughout the United States for over 25 years. He represents businesses of all sizes in civil litigation and disputes with administrative agencies. Brad also regularly represents individuals and groups in constitutional and public policy litigation in the trial and appellate courts. He regularly submits amicus briefs on behalf of clients at the Supreme Court of the United States on significant cases. Brad is often hired as special litigation counsel in complex family law, bankruptcy, and trust and estate litigation.
After graduating from law school, Brad worked as a judicial clerk for Judge J.L. Edmondson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta. Brad received his law degree from the University of California at Berkeley after graduating from Stanford University, where he was a four-year letterman on the golf team.
Professor of Law, Widener University Commonwealth Law School
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