Vice President for Research and Technology Transfer, Colorado School of Mines; Former Director, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Dr. Walter Copan is senior adviser of the Renewing American Innovation Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Currently, he serves as vice president for research and technology transfer at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado. He previously served as under secretary of commerce for standards and technology and 16th director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a position to which he was confirmed unanimously by the Senate. He served as the U.S. principal presidential adviser on standards policy and technology matters and provided high-level oversight and strategic leadership for NIST, a world-leading science and technology institute. Dr. Copan has wide-ranging experience spanning large company, entrepreneurial tech start-up, U.S. government, nonprofit, and other public sector settings. For the U.S. government, he also served with two of the Department of Energy national laboratories: the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory. He is a sought-after speaker and thought leader on matters of science and technology, strategy, entrepreneurship, technology commercialization, intellectual property, and innovation. Dr. Copan began his career in research and development and business leadership at the Lubrizol Corporation. He earned undergraduate degrees and his PhD in physical chemistry from Case Western Reserve University and holds a certificate in advanced business administration studies at Harvard Business School. He was named 2020 laboratory director of the year by the U.S. Federal Laboratory Consortium. The Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) recognized Dr. Copan with its 2021 Bayh-Dole Award for contributions to innovation and technology transfer.
Senior Counsel for Law and Policy, Committee for Justice
Jeff is a registered patent attorney and an intellectual property and innovation policy professional with a unique combination of training and real-world experience. Jeff is also currently a PhD candidate at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA). His dissertation is entitled “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of American Innovation: An Austrian Economics Perspective.”
Jeff maintains an active intellectual property law practice in the life sciences space. While counseling clients and working on his dissertation and other scholarship, Jeff remains active in the policy analysis and advocacy space. He currently serves as the President of the Association for American Innovation and a member and former Chair of the Public Policy Legal Task Force (PPLTF) for the Association of University of Technology Managers (AUTM).
Jeff has a bachelor’s degree chemical and biomedical engineering with concentrations in molecular biology and fermentation technology and from Carnegie Mellon. He also has a master’s degree in industrial administration (business) from Carnegie Mellon where he concentrated on international management, marketing and finance. He earned his law degree from the Duquesne University School of Law with a focus on intellectual property law.
Crandall Melvin Professor of Law, Director, Syracuse Intellectual Property Law Institute, Syracuse University College of Law
Dr. Shubha Ghosh earned his J.D. from Stanford University, with distinction, and his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Michigan. He earned his B.A., cum laude, from Amherst College. Prior to joining Syracuse University College of Law, Ghosh taught at the University of Wisconsin Law School as a chaired, tenured professor and co-director of the Innovation cluster, consisting of faculty in the law and business schools.
Ghosh joined the Syracuse University College of Law in January, 2016, as Crandall Melvin Professor of Law and Director of the Technology Commercialization Curricular Program, a unique program which trains students in intellectual property, business law, and the legal foundations for the commercialization of patents, copyrights, trademarks, and other legal property governing technology and innovation. The Program consists of the Syracuse Intellectual Property Law Institute (SIPLI), which Professor Ghosh manages, and the Innovation Law Center, which offers clinical experience for students in the Program.
Ghosh also works through the state-funded New York State Science and Technology Law Center (NYSSTLC), an entity that guides entrepreneurs, start-ups, universities, and research centers in New York State and beyond. In this capacity, Ghosh frequently works with administrators in Albany who focus on economic development and innovation policy in the State. Most recently, he has advised on the risks to 501(c) entities that collaborate with private enterprise and on intellectual property and technology licensing policies for state research entities.
His extensive research focuses on the development and commercialization of intellectual property and technology as a means of promoting economic and social development. He has published extensively on pharmaceutical, design, copyright protection of standards, competition policy, and other intellectual property issues; antitrust law; legal construction of the marketplace; technology transfer; and the role of intellectual property law and policy in shaping these diverse areas. His most recent book, Exhausting Intellectual Property Rights (Cambridge, 2018) was the subject of a panel discussion at the World Trade Organization in Geneva and the AALS Annual Meeting in New Orleans.
Ghosh is also a frequent blogger and commentator in webcasts and webinars, including the JOTWELL section on International & Comparative Law; Hedgehogs and Foxes, a blog on law and popular culture; and the webcast series for SIPLI and the Technology Commercialization Law Program.
Partner, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
Andrei Iancu is a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell and one of the leading voices in intellectual property law and innovation policy. He is a former Undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), a position to which he was confirmed unanimously by the Senate. Andrei has decades of experience representing plaintiffs and defendants in IP matters across the technical and scientific spectra, including medical devices, genetic testing, therapeutics, the Internet, telephony, TV broadcasting, video game systems and computer peripherals. He represents clients in litigation and trials before the district courts, the U.S. International Trade Commission and the USPTO, the Federal Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court, and also counsels clients on obtaining, licensing, enforcing and defending against IP rights globally.
Dinsmore & Shohl LLP, Partner
Brian is chair of Dinsmore’s IP Transactions and Licensing Group. He is a past president of the Licensing Executives Society (USA and Canada), Inc. (LES), the leading professional society devoted to commercial transactions and licensing of intangible property. He continues to serve LES as senior vice president for public policy. He has extensive experience in a wide variety of commercial transactions involving intangible property, and is known for creative licensing strategies to promote collaboration and resolve IP-related disputes.
He is a registered patent attorney with more than 30 years of experience before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in structuring global IP portfolios and strategies. He has extensive experience in contested proceedings before the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board (interferences, Inter Partes Reviews and Post Grant Reviews), as well as contested matters in federal courts and the International Trade Commission. His wide-ranging experience affords a broad, informed perspective and facilitates creative approaches to intellectual property management, licensing, and enforcement.
In addition to his leadership of LES, Brian served on the LES Board of Directors 2007 – 2018. In his ongoing role as senior vice president for public policy he is responsible for coordinating the society’s public policy positions, amicus briefs, and congressional outreach. He works with legislators, the executive branch, and the courts toward consistent, reliable, and prudent IP laws and policies that advance innovation and economic development. He has also served LES as trustee for education, and has long served as an author, editor, and faculty member of LES educational programs focusing on best practices in IP licensing.
He is also active in the global society, LES International (LESI). Among his various roles in LESI, he has served as co-chair of the External Relations Committee, coordinating public policy and advocacy for effective IP laws and policies among the 33 regional LES societies, and with various non-governmental organizations such as WIPO and EPO. In 2019, he received the LES International President’s Service Recognition Award.
Brian also serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Bayh Dole Coalition, a 501(c)(4) corporation dedicated to promoting and preserving the Bayh Dole Act. He is a member of the Founding Board of Directors of the United States Intellectual Property Alliance (USIPA), an organization dedicated to raising public awareness of, and appreciation for, the role of IP in fostering innovation for the public good; and he has served on the DC Bar Intellectual Property Section Steering Committee (2013 – 2016).
In 2016, Brian testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship on the effects of the America Invents Act on small business and entrepreneurs in a hearing entitled “An Examination of Changes to the U.S. Patent System & Impacts on America's Small Businesses.”
With his longstanding and diverse patent practice, in both private practice and in-house, Brian advises corporate leaders and entrepreneurs in effective IP procurement practices, and in maximizing value from IP assets. He has been retained as a testifying witness in IP and licensing disputes by the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and by various private enterprises.
Brian has been acknowledged by IAM magazine as among its “IAM Strategy 300”, the world’s leading IP strategists, and among “The World's Leading Patent and Technology Licensing Lawyers.”
He earned B.S. and M.S. degrees from the Department of Chemistry, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY; and Juris Doctor from Syracuse University, College of Law, Syracuse, NY (1986).
Brian has served his alma mater as president of the RIT Alumni Association 2005 – 2009; and now serves on the RIT Board of Trustees as a member of its Executive Committee, chair of its Student Life Committee, and vice-chair of its Committee on Trustees. In 2013, Brian was awarded RIT’s Outstanding Alumnus Award, and in 2005 he was awarded the Distinguished Alumnus Award by RIT’s College of Science.
Vice President for Research and Technology Transfer, Colorado School of Mines; Former Director, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Dr. Walter Copan is senior adviser of the Renewing American Innovation Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Currently, he serves as vice president for research and technology transfer at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado. He previously served as under secretary of commerce for standards and technology and 16th director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a position to which he was confirmed unanimously by the Senate. He served as the U.S. principal presidential adviser on standards policy and technology matters and provided high-level oversight and strategic leadership for NIST, a world-leading science and technology institute. Dr. Copan has wide-ranging experience spanning large company, entrepreneurial tech start-up, U.S. government, nonprofit, and other public sector settings. For the U.S. government, he also served with two of the Department of Energy national laboratories: the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory. He is a sought-after speaker and thought leader on matters of science and technology, strategy, entrepreneurship, technology commercialization, intellectual property, and innovation. Dr. Copan began his career in research and development and business leadership at the Lubrizol Corporation. He earned undergraduate degrees and his PhD in physical chemistry from Case Western Reserve University and holds a certificate in advanced business administration studies at Harvard Business School. He was named 2020 laboratory director of the year by the U.S. Federal Laboratory Consortium. The Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) recognized Dr. Copan with its 2021 Bayh-Dole Award for contributions to innovation and technology transfer.
Senior Counsel for Law and Policy, Committee for Justice
Jeff is a registered patent attorney and an intellectual property and innovation policy professional with a unique combination of training and real-world experience. Jeff is also currently a PhD candidate at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA). His dissertation is entitled “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of American Innovation: An Austrian Economics Perspective.”
Jeff maintains an active intellectual property law practice in the life sciences space. While counseling clients and working on his dissertation and other scholarship, Jeff remains active in the policy analysis and advocacy space. He currently serves as the President of the Association for American Innovation and a member and former Chair of the Public Policy Legal Task Force (PPLTF) for the Association of University of Technology Managers (AUTM).
Jeff has a bachelor’s degree chemical and biomedical engineering with concentrations in molecular biology and fermentation technology and from Carnegie Mellon. He also has a master’s degree in industrial administration (business) from Carnegie Mellon where he concentrated on international management, marketing and finance. He earned his law degree from the Duquesne University School of Law with a focus on intellectual property law.
Crandall Melvin Professor of Law, Director, Syracuse Intellectual Property Law Institute, Syracuse University College of Law
Dr. Shubha Ghosh earned his J.D. from Stanford University, with distinction, and his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Michigan. He earned his B.A., cum laude, from Amherst College. Prior to joining Syracuse University College of Law, Ghosh taught at the University of Wisconsin Law School as a chaired, tenured professor and co-director of the Innovation cluster, consisting of faculty in the law and business schools.
Ghosh joined the Syracuse University College of Law in January, 2016, as Crandall Melvin Professor of Law and Director of the Technology Commercialization Curricular Program, a unique program which trains students in intellectual property, business law, and the legal foundations for the commercialization of patents, copyrights, trademarks, and other legal property governing technology and innovation. The Program consists of the Syracuse Intellectual Property Law Institute (SIPLI), which Professor Ghosh manages, and the Innovation Law Center, which offers clinical experience for students in the Program.
Ghosh also works through the state-funded New York State Science and Technology Law Center (NYSSTLC), an entity that guides entrepreneurs, start-ups, universities, and research centers in New York State and beyond. In this capacity, Ghosh frequently works with administrators in Albany who focus on economic development and innovation policy in the State. Most recently, he has advised on the risks to 501(c) entities that collaborate with private enterprise and on intellectual property and technology licensing policies for state research entities.
His extensive research focuses on the development and commercialization of intellectual property and technology as a means of promoting economic and social development. He has published extensively on pharmaceutical, design, copyright protection of standards, competition policy, and other intellectual property issues; antitrust law; legal construction of the marketplace; technology transfer; and the role of intellectual property law and policy in shaping these diverse areas. His most recent book, Exhausting Intellectual Property Rights (Cambridge, 2018) was the subject of a panel discussion at the World Trade Organization in Geneva and the AALS Annual Meeting in New Orleans.
Ghosh is also a frequent blogger and commentator in webcasts and webinars, including the JOTWELL section on International & Comparative Law; Hedgehogs and Foxes, a blog on law and popular culture; and the webcast series for SIPLI and the Technology Commercialization Law Program.
Partner, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
Andrei Iancu is a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell and one of the leading voices in intellectual property law and innovation policy. He is a former Undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), a position to which he was confirmed unanimously by the Senate. Andrei has decades of experience representing plaintiffs and defendants in IP matters across the technical and scientific spectra, including medical devices, genetic testing, therapeutics, the Internet, telephony, TV broadcasting, video game systems and computer peripherals. He represents clients in litigation and trials before the district courts, the U.S. International Trade Commission and the USPTO, the Federal Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court, and also counsels clients on obtaining, licensing, enforcing and defending against IP rights globally.
Dinsmore & Shohl LLP, Partner
Brian is chair of Dinsmore’s IP Transactions and Licensing Group. He is a past president of the Licensing Executives Society (USA and Canada), Inc. (LES), the leading professional society devoted to commercial transactions and licensing of intangible property. He continues to serve LES as senior vice president for public policy. He has extensive experience in a wide variety of commercial transactions involving intangible property, and is known for creative licensing strategies to promote collaboration and resolve IP-related disputes.
He is a registered patent attorney with more than 30 years of experience before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in structuring global IP portfolios and strategies. He has extensive experience in contested proceedings before the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board (interferences, Inter Partes Reviews and Post Grant Reviews), as well as contested matters in federal courts and the International Trade Commission. His wide-ranging experience affords a broad, informed perspective and facilitates creative approaches to intellectual property management, licensing, and enforcement.
In addition to his leadership of LES, Brian served on the LES Board of Directors 2007 – 2018. In his ongoing role as senior vice president for public policy he is responsible for coordinating the society’s public policy positions, amicus briefs, and congressional outreach. He works with legislators, the executive branch, and the courts toward consistent, reliable, and prudent IP laws and policies that advance innovation and economic development. He has also served LES as trustee for education, and has long served as an author, editor, and faculty member of LES educational programs focusing on best practices in IP licensing.
He is also active in the global society, LES International (LESI). Among his various roles in LESI, he has served as co-chair of the External Relations Committee, coordinating public policy and advocacy for effective IP laws and policies among the 33 regional LES societies, and with various non-governmental organizations such as WIPO and EPO. In 2019, he received the LES International President’s Service Recognition Award.
Brian also serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Bayh Dole Coalition, a 501(c)(4) corporation dedicated to promoting and preserving the Bayh Dole Act. He is a member of the Founding Board of Directors of the United States Intellectual Property Alliance (USIPA), an organization dedicated to raising public awareness of, and appreciation for, the role of IP in fostering innovation for the public good; and he has served on the DC Bar Intellectual Property Section Steering Committee (2013 – 2016).
In 2016, Brian testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship on the effects of the America Invents Act on small business and entrepreneurs in a hearing entitled “An Examination of Changes to the U.S. Patent System & Impacts on America's Small Businesses.”
With his longstanding and diverse patent practice, in both private practice and in-house, Brian advises corporate leaders and entrepreneurs in effective IP procurement practices, and in maximizing value from IP assets. He has been retained as a testifying witness in IP and licensing disputes by the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and by various private enterprises.
Brian has been acknowledged by IAM magazine as among its “IAM Strategy 300”, the world’s leading IP strategists, and among “The World's Leading Patent and Technology Licensing Lawyers.”
He earned B.S. and M.S. degrees from the Department of Chemistry, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY; and Juris Doctor from Syracuse University, College of Law, Syracuse, NY (1986).
Brian has served his alma mater as president of the RIT Alumni Association 2005 – 2009; and now serves on the RIT Board of Trustees as a member of its Executive Committee, chair of its Student Life Committee, and vice-chair of its Committee on Trustees. In 2013, Brian was awarded RIT’s Outstanding Alumnus Award, and in 2005 he was awarded the Distinguished Alumnus Award by RIT’s College of Science.
United States Attorney, Eastern District of Kentucky
Robert M. Duncan, Jr. is the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky. He was nominated by President Donald Trump on August 3, 2017, and confirmed by the United States Senate on November 9, 2017.
Prior to his appointment, Duncan had served for more than a decade as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Kentucky. Beginning in 2011 and continuing until his appointment as United States Attorney, Duncan focused on the prosecution of Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force cases, working with federal, state, and local law enforcement personnel to disrupt and dismantle complex drug trafficking and money laundering organizations operating in the District and elsewhere. From 2007 to 2013, Duncan served as coordinator of the office’s Project Safe Neighborhoods Program, a Department of Justice initiative to reduce gun and gang crime through education, community outreach, and prosecution.
Attorney, Sheehey Furlong & Behm P.C.
Christina E. Nolan, the former United States Attorney for Vermont, is a principal in the firm. She focuses on complex civil litigation, defense of government enforcement actions, false claims act defense and enforcement, white collar and serious felony criminal defense, and internal investigations. Having previously served as a state and federal prosecutor, Christina has tried more than a dozen cases to juries, regularly handled evidentiary hearings before federal and state trial courts, and appeared several times before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Christina, a native Vermonter, was employed from 2010 to 2021 at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Vermont (USAO), serving first as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division for nearly 8 years, and then leading the office as U.S. Attorney from November 2017 until March 2021. Following the bipartisan recommendation of Senator Patrick Leahy and Governor Phil Scott, Christina was nominated for the chief law enforcement officer post by the President and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. As U.S. Attorney, Christina supervised all federal criminal and civil investigations and prosecutions in Vermont, served as chief spokesperson for federal law enforcement and the USAO, and partnered with community leaders and government officials to promote criminal justice policies and launch community-based and law enforcement initiatives.
U.S. Attorney General William Barr selected Christina as one of a dozen U.S. Attorneys to sit on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee, which advises the Attorney General on all aspects of criminal and civil policy. Christina chaired the Advisory Committee’s Controlled Substances Subcommittee (CSS), and was a member of its Health Care Fraud and Domestic Violence Working Groups. Christina also cochaired the Justice Department’s initiative to combat sexual harassment in housing during the pandemic and helped lead the Attorney General’s effort to implement police reform pursuant to the 2020 Executive Order on Safe Policing for Safe Communities. In her capacity as leader of the CSS, Christina testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee concerning fentanyl enforcement policy and proposed fentanyl legislation. In Vermont, Christina sat on Governor Scott’s Opioid Coordination, Substance Misuse, and Emergency Preparedness Councils and cochaired the Vermont Human Trafficking Task Force.
As U.S. Attorney, Christina actively supervised a range of criminal and civil cases involving drug trafficking; firearms and violence; human trafficking; organized crime; child exploitation; wire, health care, bank, and securities fraud; embezzlement and money laundering; government contracting fraud; medical malpractice; and federal False Claims Act enforcement. Under Christina’s leadership, the USAO resolved criminal felony antikickback charges and civil False Claims Act claims against Purdue Pharma L.P. as part of the largest criminal resolution ever reached against a pharmaceutical company; charged the largest fraud case in Vermont history relating to the EB-5/Jay Peak financial scandal in the Northeast Kingdom and obtained a guilty plea from the lead defendant; and secured unprecedented False Claims Act civil and criminal settlements against healthcare companies that garnered national attention.
As a federal prosecutor, Christina investigated and prosecuted financial, narcotics, violent, child exploitation, and other crimes. She tried six federal cases to juries, each trial resulting in conviction. Among her most notable cases was the prosecution and conviction of Richard Monroe for the drug-related murder of University of Vermont student, Kevin DeOliveira, in Burlington. Monroe is serving a 25-year sentence. As Assistant U.S. Attorney, Christina was also tasked with oversight of all opioid trafficking prosecutions and investigations in Eastern Vermont and served as the USAO’s Violent Crime Coordinator.
Before joining the USAO, Christina served as an Assistant District Attorney in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, where she tried numerous cases to juries and prosecuted a variety of state crimes, including DUI, drug trafficking, firearms, and domestic violence matters. From 2005 to 2009, Nolan worked as a litigation associate at Goodwin Procter, LLP, a large Boston law firm. In that role, she represented white collar defendants, conducted internal investigation, supervised complex civil litigation, and played a managerial role in the representation of a corporate executive in a high-profile federal securities fraud prosecution. The securities fraud case ended in dismissal of charges against the client.
After law school, Christina clerked for The Honorable F. Dennis Saylor, IV of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
Christina graduated magna cum laude from Boston College Law School in 2004, where she served a Senior Editor on the Boston College Law Review. She earned her Bachelor’s degrees in political science and history from the University of Vermont, where she graduated summa cum laude.
Daniel Levin Professor of Public Policy, The University of Chicago
Tomas J. Philipson is the Daniel Levin Professor of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and directs the Becker Friedman Institute’s Program on Foundational Research in Health Care Markets and Policies within the Health Economics Initiative. He is also an associate member of the Department of Economics and a former senior lecturer at the Law School. His research focuses on health economics, and he teaches master's and PhD courses in microeconomics and health economics at the University.
Philipson is a US citizen but was born and raised in Sweden where he obtained his undergraduate degree in mathematics at Uppsala University. He received his MA and PhD in economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He has been a visiting faculty member at Yale University and a visiting senior fellow at the World Bank.
Philipson has served in several public sector positions. He served in the second Bush Administration as the senior economic advisor to the head of the Food and Drug Administration and subsequently as the senior economic advisor to the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. He served as a health care advisor to Senator John McCain during his campaign for President of the United States. He was appointed by the Speaker of the US House of Representatives to the Key Indicator Commission created by the Affordable Care Act. He has served as a scientific advisor to Congress on the 21st Century Cures legislation and on the steering committee of Vice President Biden's Cancer Moon Shot Initiative.
Philipson is the recipient of numerous international and national research awards. He has twice been the recipient of the highest honor of his field: the Kenneth Arrow Award of the International Health Economics Association (for best paper in the field of health economics). In addition, he was awarded the Garfield Award by Research America, The Prêmio Haralambos Simeonidisand from the Brazilian Economic Association, and the Distinguished Economic Research Award from the Milken Institute. Philipson has been awarded numerous grants and awards from both public and private agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the John M. Olin Foundation, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Philipson is a founding editor of the journal Forums for Health Economics & Policy of Berkeley Electronic Press and has been on the editorial board of the journal Health Economics and The European Journal of Health Economics. His research has been published widely in all leading academic journals of economics such as the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Economic Theory, Journal of Health Economics, Health Affairs, and Econometrica.
Philipson is a fellow, board member, or associate of a number of other organizations outside the University of Chicago, including the National Bureau of Economic Research, the American Enterprise Institute, the Manhattan Institute (where he was chairman of Project FDA), the Heartland Institute, the Milken Institute, the RAND Corporation, and the USC Shaeffer Center for Health Economics and Policy. At the University of Chicago, he is affiliated with the John M. Olin Program of Law & Economics, the George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State, the Population Research Center, and NORC. He has served on the University-wide Council on Research and on the Advisory Committee to the University's Office of Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer.
Philipson has done executive consulting for both private corporations, including many US Fortune 100 companies, as well as government organizations domestically and internationally. This has included work for the President's Council on Science and Technology, the National Academy of Sciences, and the UK National Health Service. It has also included work for multi-lateral organizations such as the World Bank, the World Intellectual Property Organization, and the OECD. In 2007 he co-founded Precision Heath Economics LLC, which was sold in 2015 to Precision for Medicine Group LLC.
Philipson’s research is frequently disseminated through the popular press. He is a monthly op-ed contributor for Forbes magazine and frequently appears in numerous popular media outlets such as CNN, CBS, FOX News, Bloomberg TV, National Public Radio, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Businessweek, The Economist, Washington Post, Investor's Business Daily, and USA Today. He is a frequent keynote speaker at many domestic and international health care events and conferences.
Senior Fellow, Cato Institute
Jeffrey A. Singer is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and works in the Department of Health Policy Studies. He is principal and founder of Valley Surgical Clinics Ltd., the largest and oldest group private surgical practice in Arizona, and has been in private practice as a general surgeon for more than 35 years.
He is also a visiting fellow at the Goldwater Institute in Phoenix. Singer is a member of the Board of Scientific Advisors of the American Council on Science and Health. From 1994 to 2016, he was a regular contributor to Arizona Medicine, the journal of the Arizona Medical Association. He served on the Advisory Board Council of the Center for Political Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University from 2014 to 2018 and is an adjunct instructor in the Program on Political History and Leadership at ASU. He writes and speaks extensively on regional and national public policy, with a specific focus on the areas of health care policy and the harmful effects of drug prohibition.
He received his BA from Brooklyn College (City University of New York) and his MD from New York Medical College. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons.
United States Attorney, Eastern District of Kentucky
Robert M. Duncan, Jr. is the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky. He was nominated by President Donald Trump on August 3, 2017, and confirmed by the United States Senate on November 9, 2017.
Prior to his appointment, Duncan had served for more than a decade as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Kentucky. Beginning in 2011 and continuing until his appointment as United States Attorney, Duncan focused on the prosecution of Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force cases, working with federal, state, and local law enforcement personnel to disrupt and dismantle complex drug trafficking and money laundering organizations operating in the District and elsewhere. From 2007 to 2013, Duncan served as coordinator of the office’s Project Safe Neighborhoods Program, a Department of Justice initiative to reduce gun and gang crime through education, community outreach, and prosecution.
Attorney, Sheehey Furlong & Behm P.C.
Christina E. Nolan, the former United States Attorney for Vermont, is a principal in the firm. She focuses on complex civil litigation, defense of government enforcement actions, false claims act defense and enforcement, white collar and serious felony criminal defense, and internal investigations. Having previously served as a state and federal prosecutor, Christina has tried more than a dozen cases to juries, regularly handled evidentiary hearings before federal and state trial courts, and appeared several times before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Christina, a native Vermonter, was employed from 2010 to 2021 at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Vermont (USAO), serving first as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division for nearly 8 years, and then leading the office as U.S. Attorney from November 2017 until March 2021. Following the bipartisan recommendation of Senator Patrick Leahy and Governor Phil Scott, Christina was nominated for the chief law enforcement officer post by the President and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. As U.S. Attorney, Christina supervised all federal criminal and civil investigations and prosecutions in Vermont, served as chief spokesperson for federal law enforcement and the USAO, and partnered with community leaders and government officials to promote criminal justice policies and launch community-based and law enforcement initiatives.
U.S. Attorney General William Barr selected Christina as one of a dozen U.S. Attorneys to sit on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee, which advises the Attorney General on all aspects of criminal and civil policy. Christina chaired the Advisory Committee’s Controlled Substances Subcommittee (CSS), and was a member of its Health Care Fraud and Domestic Violence Working Groups. Christina also cochaired the Justice Department’s initiative to combat sexual harassment in housing during the pandemic and helped lead the Attorney General’s effort to implement police reform pursuant to the 2020 Executive Order on Safe Policing for Safe Communities. In her capacity as leader of the CSS, Christina testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee concerning fentanyl enforcement policy and proposed fentanyl legislation. In Vermont, Christina sat on Governor Scott’s Opioid Coordination, Substance Misuse, and Emergency Preparedness Councils and cochaired the Vermont Human Trafficking Task Force.
As U.S. Attorney, Christina actively supervised a range of criminal and civil cases involving drug trafficking; firearms and violence; human trafficking; organized crime; child exploitation; wire, health care, bank, and securities fraud; embezzlement and money laundering; government contracting fraud; medical malpractice; and federal False Claims Act enforcement. Under Christina’s leadership, the USAO resolved criminal felony antikickback charges and civil False Claims Act claims against Purdue Pharma L.P. as part of the largest criminal resolution ever reached against a pharmaceutical company; charged the largest fraud case in Vermont history relating to the EB-5/Jay Peak financial scandal in the Northeast Kingdom and obtained a guilty plea from the lead defendant; and secured unprecedented False Claims Act civil and criminal settlements against healthcare companies that garnered national attention.
As a federal prosecutor, Christina investigated and prosecuted financial, narcotics, violent, child exploitation, and other crimes. She tried six federal cases to juries, each trial resulting in conviction. Among her most notable cases was the prosecution and conviction of Richard Monroe for the drug-related murder of University of Vermont student, Kevin DeOliveira, in Burlington. Monroe is serving a 25-year sentence. As Assistant U.S. Attorney, Christina was also tasked with oversight of all opioid trafficking prosecutions and investigations in Eastern Vermont and served as the USAO’s Violent Crime Coordinator.
Before joining the USAO, Christina served as an Assistant District Attorney in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, where she tried numerous cases to juries and prosecuted a variety of state crimes, including DUI, drug trafficking, firearms, and domestic violence matters. From 2005 to 2009, Nolan worked as a litigation associate at Goodwin Procter, LLP, a large Boston law firm. In that role, she represented white collar defendants, conducted internal investigation, supervised complex civil litigation, and played a managerial role in the representation of a corporate executive in a high-profile federal securities fraud prosecution. The securities fraud case ended in dismissal of charges against the client.
After law school, Christina clerked for The Honorable F. Dennis Saylor, IV of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
Christina graduated magna cum laude from Boston College Law School in 2004, where she served a Senior Editor on the Boston College Law Review. She earned her Bachelor’s degrees in political science and history from the University of Vermont, where she graduated summa cum laude.
Daniel Levin Professor of Public Policy, The University of Chicago
Tomas J. Philipson is the Daniel Levin Professor of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and directs the Becker Friedman Institute’s Program on Foundational Research in Health Care Markets and Policies within the Health Economics Initiative. He is also an associate member of the Department of Economics and a former senior lecturer at the Law School. His research focuses on health economics, and he teaches master's and PhD courses in microeconomics and health economics at the University.
Philipson is a US citizen but was born and raised in Sweden where he obtained his undergraduate degree in mathematics at Uppsala University. He received his MA and PhD in economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He has been a visiting faculty member at Yale University and a visiting senior fellow at the World Bank.
Philipson has served in several public sector positions. He served in the second Bush Administration as the senior economic advisor to the head of the Food and Drug Administration and subsequently as the senior economic advisor to the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. He served as a health care advisor to Senator John McCain during his campaign for President of the United States. He was appointed by the Speaker of the US House of Representatives to the Key Indicator Commission created by the Affordable Care Act. He has served as a scientific advisor to Congress on the 21st Century Cures legislation and on the steering committee of Vice President Biden's Cancer Moon Shot Initiative.
Philipson is the recipient of numerous international and national research awards. He has twice been the recipient of the highest honor of his field: the Kenneth Arrow Award of the International Health Economics Association (for best paper in the field of health economics). In addition, he was awarded the Garfield Award by Research America, The Prêmio Haralambos Simeonidisand from the Brazilian Economic Association, and the Distinguished Economic Research Award from the Milken Institute. Philipson has been awarded numerous grants and awards from both public and private agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the John M. Olin Foundation, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Philipson is a founding editor of the journal Forums for Health Economics & Policy of Berkeley Electronic Press and has been on the editorial board of the journal Health Economics and The European Journal of Health Economics. His research has been published widely in all leading academic journals of economics such as the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Economic Theory, Journal of Health Economics, Health Affairs, and Econometrica.
Philipson is a fellow, board member, or associate of a number of other organizations outside the University of Chicago, including the National Bureau of Economic Research, the American Enterprise Institute, the Manhattan Institute (where he was chairman of Project FDA), the Heartland Institute, the Milken Institute, the RAND Corporation, and the USC Shaeffer Center for Health Economics and Policy. At the University of Chicago, he is affiliated with the John M. Olin Program of Law & Economics, the George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State, the Population Research Center, and NORC. He has served on the University-wide Council on Research and on the Advisory Committee to the University's Office of Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer.
Philipson has done executive consulting for both private corporations, including many US Fortune 100 companies, as well as government organizations domestically and internationally. This has included work for the President's Council on Science and Technology, the National Academy of Sciences, and the UK National Health Service. It has also included work for multi-lateral organizations such as the World Bank, the World Intellectual Property Organization, and the OECD. In 2007 he co-founded Precision Heath Economics LLC, which was sold in 2015 to Precision for Medicine Group LLC.
Philipson’s research is frequently disseminated through the popular press. He is a monthly op-ed contributor for Forbes magazine and frequently appears in numerous popular media outlets such as CNN, CBS, FOX News, Bloomberg TV, National Public Radio, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Businessweek, The Economist, Washington Post, Investor's Business Daily, and USA Today. He is a frequent keynote speaker at many domestic and international health care events and conferences.
Senior Fellow, Cato Institute
Jeffrey A. Singer is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and works in the Department of Health Policy Studies. He is principal and founder of Valley Surgical Clinics Ltd., the largest and oldest group private surgical practice in Arizona, and has been in private practice as a general surgeon for more than 35 years.
He is also a visiting fellow at the Goldwater Institute in Phoenix. Singer is a member of the Board of Scientific Advisors of the American Council on Science and Health. From 1994 to 2016, he was a regular contributor to Arizona Medicine, the journal of the Arizona Medical Association. He served on the Advisory Board Council of the Center for Political Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University from 2014 to 2018 and is an adjunct instructor in the Program on Political History and Leadership at ASU. He writes and speaks extensively on regional and national public policy, with a specific focus on the areas of health care policy and the harmful effects of drug prohibition.
He received his BA from Brooklyn College (City University of New York) and his MD from New York Medical College. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons.
Partner, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
Richard Blaylock’s practice covers financing, M&A, licensing, collaboration and partnering arrangements, and intellectual property counseling for start-up and established companies whose value derives from innovative technology.
Richard is well-versed in a wide array of technologies, including those germane to both life sciences (pharmaceuticals, biologics, and diagnostics) as well as high technology (software, robotics, wireless, novel materials, and pollution control). He has counseled companies across a wide range of technologies with respect to company formation, licensing, partnering and collaborations, financing and intellectual property strategy, as well as patent, license, trademark, trade secrets and unfair competition disputes.
Former Chief Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
Judge Michel served for more than 22 years on the Federal Circuit, retiring on May 31, 2010. From December 25, 2004 until his retirement, he also discharged the duties of Chief Judge of this national court, serving simultaneously on the U.S. Judicial Conference -- the Judiciary's governing body -- and by appointment of the Chief Justice on its seven-judge Executive Committee.
He judged several thousand appeals and authored more than 800 opinions, one third concerning intellectual property law. Intellectual Asset Management magazine inducted him into its Hall of Fame and he was designated one of the 50 most influential leaders in intellectual property law in the world. His contributions were also recognized by lifetime achievement and similar awards by the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA); Intellectual Property Owners Education Foundation (IPO); the American Bar Association's Intellectual Property Section; Managing Intellectual Property magazine; the Sedona Conference; the Patent and Trademark Office Society (PTOS); the New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles Intellectual Property Law Associations; and the William C. Connor, the Giles S. Rich, and the Richard Linn Intellectual Property American Inns of Court. In 2010 the Los Angeles IP Inn was renamed in his honor as the Paul R. Michel IP Inn.
Judge Michel received the Jefferson Medal, the Eli Whitney Award, and the Katz-Kiley Prize as well as Honorary Doctor of Law degrees from the Catholic University of America and the John Marshall Law School. He is a lifetime Member of Honore of FICPI, the international association of private practitioners of intellectual property law. Williams College granted him the Kellogg Award for "outstanding leadership in law and public service."
Judge Michel has written numerous articles on patent law and advocacy, taught related courses and master classes at George Washington University, the University of Akron, and John Marshall law schools, serving as well on their IP advisory boards and on counterpart boards at the universities of California (Berkley), Washington, and Maryland. He co-authored a casebook, Patent Litigation and Strategy (West, 1999) and an August 2010 editorial in the New York Times on strengthening the patent system to promote prosperity and create new jobs.
A frequent speaker at conferences and law schools during his judicial tenure and since, he retired from a lifetime appointment to be free to speak out on the national need for better patent policy and protection of intellectual property and the vital, unmet resource needs of the courts, the PTO, the International Trade Commission, and other IP-related agencies. He was appointed Distinguished Scholar in Residence by IPO, following his retirement. Judge Michel also consults for law firms and their clients in intellectual property litigations, conducting moot courts, mock trials, case evaluations, editing briefs, advising on strategy and providing mediation and arbitration services.
Dinsmore & Shohl LLP, Partner
Brian is chair of Dinsmore’s IP Transactions and Licensing Group. He is a past president of the Licensing Executives Society (USA and Canada), Inc. (LES), the leading professional society devoted to commercial transactions and licensing of intangible property. He continues to serve LES as senior vice president for public policy. He has extensive experience in a wide variety of commercial transactions involving intangible property, and is known for creative licensing strategies to promote collaboration and resolve IP-related disputes.
He is a registered patent attorney with more than 30 years of experience before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in structuring global IP portfolios and strategies. He has extensive experience in contested proceedings before the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board (interferences, Inter Partes Reviews and Post Grant Reviews), as well as contested matters in federal courts and the International Trade Commission. His wide-ranging experience affords a broad, informed perspective and facilitates creative approaches to intellectual property management, licensing, and enforcement.
In addition to his leadership of LES, Brian served on the LES Board of Directors 2007 – 2018. In his ongoing role as senior vice president for public policy he is responsible for coordinating the society’s public policy positions, amicus briefs, and congressional outreach. He works with legislators, the executive branch, and the courts toward consistent, reliable, and prudent IP laws and policies that advance innovation and economic development. He has also served LES as trustee for education, and has long served as an author, editor, and faculty member of LES educational programs focusing on best practices in IP licensing.
He is also active in the global society, LES International (LESI). Among his various roles in LESI, he has served as co-chair of the External Relations Committee, coordinating public policy and advocacy for effective IP laws and policies among the 33 regional LES societies, and with various non-governmental organizations such as WIPO and EPO. In 2019, he received the LES International President’s Service Recognition Award.
Brian also serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Bayh Dole Coalition, a 501(c)(4) corporation dedicated to promoting and preserving the Bayh Dole Act. He is a member of the Founding Board of Directors of the United States Intellectual Property Alliance (USIPA), an organization dedicated to raising public awareness of, and appreciation for, the role of IP in fostering innovation for the public good; and he has served on the DC Bar Intellectual Property Section Steering Committee (2013 – 2016).
In 2016, Brian testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship on the effects of the America Invents Act on small business and entrepreneurs in a hearing entitled “An Examination of Changes to the U.S. Patent System & Impacts on America's Small Businesses.”
With his longstanding and diverse patent practice, in both private practice and in-house, Brian advises corporate leaders and entrepreneurs in effective IP procurement practices, and in maximizing value from IP assets. He has been retained as a testifying witness in IP and licensing disputes by the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and by various private enterprises.
Brian has been acknowledged by IAM magazine as among its “IAM Strategy 300”, the world’s leading IP strategists, and among “The World's Leading Patent and Technology Licensing Lawyers.”
He earned B.S. and M.S. degrees from the Department of Chemistry, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY; and Juris Doctor from Syracuse University, College of Law, Syracuse, NY (1986).
Brian has served his alma mater as president of the RIT Alumni Association 2005 – 2009; and now serves on the RIT Board of Trustees as a member of its Executive Committee, chair of its Student Life Committee, and vice-chair of its Committee on Trustees. In 2013, Brian was awarded RIT’s Outstanding Alumnus Award, and in 2005 he was awarded the Distinguished Alumnus Award by RIT’s College of Science.
Deputy General Counsel and Vice President for Intellectual Property, Biotechnology Industry Organization
Hans Sauer is Deputy General Counsel for Intellectual Property for the Biotechnology Industry Organization, a major trade association representing over 1,100 biotechnology companies from the medical, agricultural, environmental and industrial sectors in the United States and 31 other countries. At BIO, Dr. Sauer advises the organization’s board of directors, amicus committee, and various staff committees on patent and other intellectual property-related matters. Prior to taking his current position at BIO in 2006, he was Chief Patent Counsel for MGI Pharma, Inc. in Bloomington MN, and Senior Patent Counsel for Guilford Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Baltimore, MD. Hans has 18 years of in-house experience in the biotechnology industry, first as a research scientist and later as a lawyer. His scientific work was in the area of age-related neurological disorders; after becoming a lawyer he worked on several drug development programs, being responsible for patent prosecution and portfolio oversight, clinical trial health information privacy, and sales and marketing legal compliance. He did his postdoc at Genentech in South San Francisco, and holds a M.S. degree from the University of Ulm in his native Germany; a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Lund, Sweden; and a J.D. degree from Georgetown University, where he serves as adjunct professor.
Director and Senior Fellow, Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, University of California at Berkeley
Mark Cohen heads the Asia IP Project at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology at Berkeley Law School. He is also responsible for teaching international trade law and research and writing on IP issues. Previously, Cohen was Senior Counsel, China in the Office of Policy and International Affairs at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, after serving as a visiting professor at Fordham Law School (2011-2012). Prior to that time, he served in such functions as: Director, International Intellectual Property at Microsoft Corporation; Of Counsel to Jones Day’s Beijing office; and Senior Intellectual Property Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing (2004- 2008). In total, he has over 30 years private, public sector, in-house and academic experience in China and transition economies, with a focus on technology trade and intellectual property.
Cohen was the first IPR Attaché posted by USPTO to handle IPR issues in a foreign country. In addition, he launched the annual “Ambassador’s IPR Roundtable” which he co-chaired for five years, devised IPR “toolkits”, “road shows”, pro-bono programs, internal training programs for the US government and external training programs, and worked with USPTO and other US agencies to engage China and Chinese IP agencies. Cohen led a China team at USPTO consisting of 21 individuals in DC, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, China on all aspects of USPTO’s activities in China. Among his book-length publications are Antimonopoly Law and Practice in China (Oxford University Press 2011, with Steve Harris et al.). He was also the editor of Chinese Intellectual Property Law and Practice (Kluwer Law International 1999) and has edited or published a number of on-line publications, including the blog www.chinaipr.com.
Mr. Cohen has taught and lectured at numerous universities in the United States, Asia and Europe. Amongst other honors, he was the recipient of the US Chamber of Commerce’s “IP Champion” award in 2014. Mr. Cohen holds a J.D. degree from Columbia University (1984), an M.A. from the University of Wisconsin in Chinese Language and Literature (1979) and a B.A. from the State University of New York at Albany in Chinese Studies (1977).
Hon. William Matthew Byrne, Jr. Chair Professor of Law, Loyola Law School, Loyola Marymount University
Prior to joining Loyola in 2013, Professor Justin Hughes taught at Cardozo Law School where he served as director of Cardozo’s Intellectual Property Program, 2004 through 2008, and founded the law school’s Indie Film Clinic, the first of its kind.
From 2009 through 2013, Professor Hughes also worked in the Obama Administration as Senior Advisor to the Undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property. In that capacity he was the United States chief negotiator for the Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances (2012) and the Marrakesh Treaty for the Blind (2013).
In the 1990s, Professor Hughes did volunteer work in democracy development in Latin America, West Africa and the Balkans. He has practiced law in Paris and Los Angeles. As a Henry Luce Scholar, he clerked for the Lord President of the Malaysian Supreme Court in Kuala Lumpur.
Dinsmore & Shohl LLP, Partner
Brian is chair of Dinsmore’s IP Transactions and Licensing Group. He is a past president of the Licensing Executives Society (USA and Canada), Inc. (LES), the leading professional society devoted to commercial transactions and licensing of intangible property. He continues to serve LES as senior vice president for public policy. He has extensive experience in a wide variety of commercial transactions involving intangible property, and is known for creative licensing strategies to promote collaboration and resolve IP-related disputes.
He is a registered patent attorney with more than 30 years of experience before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in structuring global IP portfolios and strategies. He has extensive experience in contested proceedings before the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board (interferences, Inter Partes Reviews and Post Grant Reviews), as well as contested matters in federal courts and the International Trade Commission. His wide-ranging experience affords a broad, informed perspective and facilitates creative approaches to intellectual property management, licensing, and enforcement.
In addition to his leadership of LES, Brian served on the LES Board of Directors 2007 – 2018. In his ongoing role as senior vice president for public policy he is responsible for coordinating the society’s public policy positions, amicus briefs, and congressional outreach. He works with legislators, the executive branch, and the courts toward consistent, reliable, and prudent IP laws and policies that advance innovation and economic development. He has also served LES as trustee for education, and has long served as an author, editor, and faculty member of LES educational programs focusing on best practices in IP licensing.
He is also active in the global society, LES International (LESI). Among his various roles in LESI, he has served as co-chair of the External Relations Committee, coordinating public policy and advocacy for effective IP laws and policies among the 33 regional LES societies, and with various non-governmental organizations such as WIPO and EPO. In 2019, he received the LES International President’s Service Recognition Award.
Brian also serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Bayh Dole Coalition, a 501(c)(4) corporation dedicated to promoting and preserving the Bayh Dole Act. He is a member of the Founding Board of Directors of the United States Intellectual Property Alliance (USIPA), an organization dedicated to raising public awareness of, and appreciation for, the role of IP in fostering innovation for the public good; and he has served on the DC Bar Intellectual Property Section Steering Committee (2013 – 2016).
In 2016, Brian testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship on the effects of the America Invents Act on small business and entrepreneurs in a hearing entitled “An Examination of Changes to the U.S. Patent System & Impacts on America's Small Businesses.”
With his longstanding and diverse patent practice, in both private practice and in-house, Brian advises corporate leaders and entrepreneurs in effective IP procurement practices, and in maximizing value from IP assets. He has been retained as a testifying witness in IP and licensing disputes by the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and by various private enterprises.
Brian has been acknowledged by IAM magazine as among its “IAM Strategy 300”, the world’s leading IP strategists, and among “The World's Leading Patent and Technology Licensing Lawyers.”
He earned B.S. and M.S. degrees from the Department of Chemistry, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY; and Juris Doctor from Syracuse University, College of Law, Syracuse, NY (1986).
Brian has served his alma mater as president of the RIT Alumni Association 2005 – 2009; and now serves on the RIT Board of Trustees as a member of its Executive Committee, chair of its Student Life Committee, and vice-chair of its Committee on Trustees. In 2013, Brian was awarded RIT’s Outstanding Alumnus Award, and in 2005 he was awarded the Distinguished Alumnus Award by RIT’s College of Science.
Vice President for Research and Technology Transfer, Colorado School of Mines; Former Director, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Dr. Walter Copan is senior adviser of the Renewing American Innovation Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Currently, he serves as vice president for research and technology transfer at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado. He previously served as under secretary of commerce for standards and technology and 16th director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a position to which he was confirmed unanimously by the Senate. He served as the U.S. principal presidential adviser on standards policy and technology matters and provided high-level oversight and strategic leadership for NIST, a world-leading science and technology institute. Dr. Copan has wide-ranging experience spanning large company, entrepreneurial tech start-up, U.S. government, nonprofit, and other public sector settings. For the U.S. government, he also served with two of the Department of Energy national laboratories: the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory. He is a sought-after speaker and thought leader on matters of science and technology, strategy, entrepreneurship, technology commercialization, intellectual property, and innovation. Dr. Copan began his career in research and development and business leadership at the Lubrizol Corporation. He earned undergraduate degrees and his PhD in physical chemistry from Case Western Reserve University and holds a certificate in advanced business administration studies at Harvard Business School. He was named 2020 laboratory director of the year by the U.S. Federal Laboratory Consortium. The Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) recognized Dr. Copan with its 2021 Bayh-Dole Award for contributions to innovation and technology transfer.
Senior Counsel for Law and Policy, Committee for Justice
Jeff is a registered patent attorney and an intellectual property and innovation policy professional with a unique combination of training and real-world experience. Jeff is also currently a PhD candidate at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA). His dissertation is entitled “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of American Innovation: An Austrian Economics Perspective.”
Jeff maintains an active intellectual property law practice in the life sciences space. While counseling clients and working on his dissertation and other scholarship, Jeff remains active in the policy analysis and advocacy space. He currently serves as the President of the Association for American Innovation and a member and former Chair of the Public Policy Legal Task Force (PPLTF) for the Association of University of Technology Managers (AUTM).
Jeff has a bachelor’s degree chemical and biomedical engineering with concentrations in molecular biology and fermentation technology and from Carnegie Mellon. He also has a master’s degree in industrial administration (business) from Carnegie Mellon where he concentrated on international management, marketing and finance. He earned his law degree from the Duquesne University School of Law with a focus on intellectual property law.
Crandall Melvin Professor of Law, Director, Syracuse Intellectual Property Law Institute, Syracuse University College of Law
Dr. Shubha Ghosh earned his J.D. from Stanford University, with distinction, and his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Michigan. He earned his B.A., cum laude, from Amherst College. Prior to joining Syracuse University College of Law, Ghosh taught at the University of Wisconsin Law School as a chaired, tenured professor and co-director of the Innovation cluster, consisting of faculty in the law and business schools.
Ghosh joined the Syracuse University College of Law in January, 2016, as Crandall Melvin Professor of Law and Director of the Technology Commercialization Curricular Program, a unique program which trains students in intellectual property, business law, and the legal foundations for the commercialization of patents, copyrights, trademarks, and other legal property governing technology and innovation. The Program consists of the Syracuse Intellectual Property Law Institute (SIPLI), which Professor Ghosh manages, and the Innovation Law Center, which offers clinical experience for students in the Program.
Ghosh also works through the state-funded New York State Science and Technology Law Center (NYSSTLC), an entity that guides entrepreneurs, start-ups, universities, and research centers in New York State and beyond. In this capacity, Ghosh frequently works with administrators in Albany who focus on economic development and innovation policy in the State. Most recently, he has advised on the risks to 501(c) entities that collaborate with private enterprise and on intellectual property and technology licensing policies for state research entities.
His extensive research focuses on the development and commercialization of intellectual property and technology as a means of promoting economic and social development. He has published extensively on pharmaceutical, design, copyright protection of standards, competition policy, and other intellectual property issues; antitrust law; legal construction of the marketplace; technology transfer; and the role of intellectual property law and policy in shaping these diverse areas. His most recent book, Exhausting Intellectual Property Rights (Cambridge, 2018) was the subject of a panel discussion at the World Trade Organization in Geneva and the AALS Annual Meeting in New Orleans.
Ghosh is also a frequent blogger and commentator in webcasts and webinars, including the JOTWELL section on International & Comparative Law; Hedgehogs and Foxes, a blog on law and popular culture; and the webcast series for SIPLI and the Technology Commercialization Law Program.
Partner, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
Andrei Iancu is a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell and one of the leading voices in intellectual property law and innovation policy. He is a former Undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), a position to which he was confirmed unanimously by the Senate. Andrei has decades of experience representing plaintiffs and defendants in IP matters across the technical and scientific spectra, including medical devices, genetic testing, therapeutics, the Internet, telephony, TV broadcasting, video game systems and computer peripherals. He represents clients in litigation and trials before the district courts, the U.S. International Trade Commission and the USPTO, the Federal Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court, and also counsels clients on obtaining, licensing, enforcing and defending against IP rights globally.
Dinsmore & Shohl LLP, Partner
Brian is chair of Dinsmore’s IP Transactions and Licensing Group. He is a past president of the Licensing Executives Society (USA and Canada), Inc. (LES), the leading professional society devoted to commercial transactions and licensing of intangible property. He continues to serve LES as senior vice president for public policy. He has extensive experience in a wide variety of commercial transactions involving intangible property, and is known for creative licensing strategies to promote collaboration and resolve IP-related disputes.
He is a registered patent attorney with more than 30 years of experience before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in structuring global IP portfolios and strategies. He has extensive experience in contested proceedings before the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board (interferences, Inter Partes Reviews and Post Grant Reviews), as well as contested matters in federal courts and the International Trade Commission. His wide-ranging experience affords a broad, informed perspective and facilitates creative approaches to intellectual property management, licensing, and enforcement.
In addition to his leadership of LES, Brian served on the LES Board of Directors 2007 – 2018. In his ongoing role as senior vice president for public policy he is responsible for coordinating the society’s public policy positions, amicus briefs, and congressional outreach. He works with legislators, the executive branch, and the courts toward consistent, reliable, and prudent IP laws and policies that advance innovation and economic development. He has also served LES as trustee for education, and has long served as an author, editor, and faculty member of LES educational programs focusing on best practices in IP licensing.
He is also active in the global society, LES International (LESI). Among his various roles in LESI, he has served as co-chair of the External Relations Committee, coordinating public policy and advocacy for effective IP laws and policies among the 33 regional LES societies, and with various non-governmental organizations such as WIPO and EPO. In 2019, he received the LES International President’s Service Recognition Award.
Brian also serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Bayh Dole Coalition, a 501(c)(4) corporation dedicated to promoting and preserving the Bayh Dole Act. He is a member of the Founding Board of Directors of the United States Intellectual Property Alliance (USIPA), an organization dedicated to raising public awareness of, and appreciation for, the role of IP in fostering innovation for the public good; and he has served on the DC Bar Intellectual Property Section Steering Committee (2013 – 2016).
In 2016, Brian testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship on the effects of the America Invents Act on small business and entrepreneurs in a hearing entitled “An Examination of Changes to the U.S. Patent System & Impacts on America's Small Businesses.”
With his longstanding and diverse patent practice, in both private practice and in-house, Brian advises corporate leaders and entrepreneurs in effective IP procurement practices, and in maximizing value from IP assets. He has been retained as a testifying witness in IP and licensing disputes by the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and by various private enterprises.
Brian has been acknowledged by IAM magazine as among its “IAM Strategy 300”, the world’s leading IP strategists, and among “The World's Leading Patent and Technology Licensing Lawyers.”
He earned B.S. and M.S. degrees from the Department of Chemistry, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY; and Juris Doctor from Syracuse University, College of Law, Syracuse, NY (1986).
Brian has served his alma mater as president of the RIT Alumni Association 2005 – 2009; and now serves on the RIT Board of Trustees as a member of its Executive Committee, chair of its Student Life Committee, and vice-chair of its Committee on Trustees. In 2013, Brian was awarded RIT’s Outstanding Alumnus Award, and in 2005 he was awarded the Distinguished Alumnus Award by RIT’s College of Science.
United States Attorney, Eastern District of Kentucky
Robert M. Duncan, Jr. is the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky. He was nominated by President Donald Trump on August 3, 2017, and confirmed by the United States Senate on November 9, 2017.
Prior to his appointment, Duncan had served for more than a decade as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Kentucky. Beginning in 2011 and continuing until his appointment as United States Attorney, Duncan focused on the prosecution of Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force cases, working with federal, state, and local law enforcement personnel to disrupt and dismantle complex drug trafficking and money laundering organizations operating in the District and elsewhere. From 2007 to 2013, Duncan served as coordinator of the office’s Project Safe Neighborhoods Program, a Department of Justice initiative to reduce gun and gang crime through education, community outreach, and prosecution.
Attorney, Sheehey Furlong & Behm P.C.
Christina E. Nolan, the former United States Attorney for Vermont, is a principal in the firm. She focuses on complex civil litigation, defense of government enforcement actions, false claims act defense and enforcement, white collar and serious felony criminal defense, and internal investigations. Having previously served as a state and federal prosecutor, Christina has tried more than a dozen cases to juries, regularly handled evidentiary hearings before federal and state trial courts, and appeared several times before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Christina, a native Vermonter, was employed from 2010 to 2021 at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Vermont (USAO), serving first as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division for nearly 8 years, and then leading the office as U.S. Attorney from November 2017 until March 2021. Following the bipartisan recommendation of Senator Patrick Leahy and Governor Phil Scott, Christina was nominated for the chief law enforcement officer post by the President and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. As U.S. Attorney, Christina supervised all federal criminal and civil investigations and prosecutions in Vermont, served as chief spokesperson for federal law enforcement and the USAO, and partnered with community leaders and government officials to promote criminal justice policies and launch community-based and law enforcement initiatives.
U.S. Attorney General William Barr selected Christina as one of a dozen U.S. Attorneys to sit on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee, which advises the Attorney General on all aspects of criminal and civil policy. Christina chaired the Advisory Committee’s Controlled Substances Subcommittee (CSS), and was a member of its Health Care Fraud and Domestic Violence Working Groups. Christina also cochaired the Justice Department’s initiative to combat sexual harassment in housing during the pandemic and helped lead the Attorney General’s effort to implement police reform pursuant to the 2020 Executive Order on Safe Policing for Safe Communities. In her capacity as leader of the CSS, Christina testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee concerning fentanyl enforcement policy and proposed fentanyl legislation. In Vermont, Christina sat on Governor Scott’s Opioid Coordination, Substance Misuse, and Emergency Preparedness Councils and cochaired the Vermont Human Trafficking Task Force.
As U.S. Attorney, Christina actively supervised a range of criminal and civil cases involving drug trafficking; firearms and violence; human trafficking; organized crime; child exploitation; wire, health care, bank, and securities fraud; embezzlement and money laundering; government contracting fraud; medical malpractice; and federal False Claims Act enforcement. Under Christina’s leadership, the USAO resolved criminal felony antikickback charges and civil False Claims Act claims against Purdue Pharma L.P. as part of the largest criminal resolution ever reached against a pharmaceutical company; charged the largest fraud case in Vermont history relating to the EB-5/Jay Peak financial scandal in the Northeast Kingdom and obtained a guilty plea from the lead defendant; and secured unprecedented False Claims Act civil and criminal settlements against healthcare companies that garnered national attention.
As a federal prosecutor, Christina investigated and prosecuted financial, narcotics, violent, child exploitation, and other crimes. She tried six federal cases to juries, each trial resulting in conviction. Among her most notable cases was the prosecution and conviction of Richard Monroe for the drug-related murder of University of Vermont student, Kevin DeOliveira, in Burlington. Monroe is serving a 25-year sentence. As Assistant U.S. Attorney, Christina was also tasked with oversight of all opioid trafficking prosecutions and investigations in Eastern Vermont and served as the USAO’s Violent Crime Coordinator.
Before joining the USAO, Christina served as an Assistant District Attorney in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, where she tried numerous cases to juries and prosecuted a variety of state crimes, including DUI, drug trafficking, firearms, and domestic violence matters. From 2005 to 2009, Nolan worked as a litigation associate at Goodwin Procter, LLP, a large Boston law firm. In that role, she represented white collar defendants, conducted internal investigation, supervised complex civil litigation, and played a managerial role in the representation of a corporate executive in a high-profile federal securities fraud prosecution. The securities fraud case ended in dismissal of charges against the client.
After law school, Christina clerked for The Honorable F. Dennis Saylor, IV of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
Christina graduated magna cum laude from Boston College Law School in 2004, where she served a Senior Editor on the Boston College Law Review. She earned her Bachelor’s degrees in political science and history from the University of Vermont, where she graduated summa cum laude.
Daniel Levin Professor of Public Policy, The University of Chicago
Tomas J. Philipson is the Daniel Levin Professor of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and directs the Becker Friedman Institute’s Program on Foundational Research in Health Care Markets and Policies within the Health Economics Initiative. He is also an associate member of the Department of Economics and a former senior lecturer at the Law School. His research focuses on health economics, and he teaches master's and PhD courses in microeconomics and health economics at the University.
Philipson is a US citizen but was born and raised in Sweden where he obtained his undergraduate degree in mathematics at Uppsala University. He received his MA and PhD in economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He has been a visiting faculty member at Yale University and a visiting senior fellow at the World Bank.
Philipson has served in several public sector positions. He served in the second Bush Administration as the senior economic advisor to the head of the Food and Drug Administration and subsequently as the senior economic advisor to the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. He served as a health care advisor to Senator John McCain during his campaign for President of the United States. He was appointed by the Speaker of the US House of Representatives to the Key Indicator Commission created by the Affordable Care Act. He has served as a scientific advisor to Congress on the 21st Century Cures legislation and on the steering committee of Vice President Biden's Cancer Moon Shot Initiative.
Philipson is the recipient of numerous international and national research awards. He has twice been the recipient of the highest honor of his field: the Kenneth Arrow Award of the International Health Economics Association (for best paper in the field of health economics). In addition, he was awarded the Garfield Award by Research America, The Prêmio Haralambos Simeonidisand from the Brazilian Economic Association, and the Distinguished Economic Research Award from the Milken Institute. Philipson has been awarded numerous grants and awards from both public and private agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the John M. Olin Foundation, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Philipson is a founding editor of the journal Forums for Health Economics & Policy of Berkeley Electronic Press and has been on the editorial board of the journal Health Economics and The European Journal of Health Economics. His research has been published widely in all leading academic journals of economics such as the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Economic Theory, Journal of Health Economics, Health Affairs, and Econometrica.
Philipson is a fellow, board member, or associate of a number of other organizations outside the University of Chicago, including the National Bureau of Economic Research, the American Enterprise Institute, the Manhattan Institute (where he was chairman of Project FDA), the Heartland Institute, the Milken Institute, the RAND Corporation, and the USC Shaeffer Center for Health Economics and Policy. At the University of Chicago, he is affiliated with the John M. Olin Program of Law & Economics, the George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State, the Population Research Center, and NORC. He has served on the University-wide Council on Research and on the Advisory Committee to the University's Office of Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer.
Philipson has done executive consulting for both private corporations, including many US Fortune 100 companies, as well as government organizations domestically and internationally. This has included work for the President's Council on Science and Technology, the National Academy of Sciences, and the UK National Health Service. It has also included work for multi-lateral organizations such as the World Bank, the World Intellectual Property Organization, and the OECD. In 2007 he co-founded Precision Heath Economics LLC, which was sold in 2015 to Precision for Medicine Group LLC.
Philipson’s research is frequently disseminated through the popular press. He is a monthly op-ed contributor for Forbes magazine and frequently appears in numerous popular media outlets such as CNN, CBS, FOX News, Bloomberg TV, National Public Radio, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Businessweek, The Economist, Washington Post, Investor's Business Daily, and USA Today. He is a frequent keynote speaker at many domestic and international health care events and conferences.
Senior Fellow, Cato Institute
Jeffrey A. Singer is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and works in the Department of Health Policy Studies. He is principal and founder of Valley Surgical Clinics Ltd., the largest and oldest group private surgical practice in Arizona, and has been in private practice as a general surgeon for more than 35 years.
He is also a visiting fellow at the Goldwater Institute in Phoenix. Singer is a member of the Board of Scientific Advisors of the American Council on Science and Health. From 1994 to 2016, he was a regular contributor to Arizona Medicine, the journal of the Arizona Medical Association. He served on the Advisory Board Council of the Center for Political Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University from 2014 to 2018 and is an adjunct instructor in the Program on Political History and Leadership at ASU. He writes and speaks extensively on regional and national public policy, with a specific focus on the areas of health care policy and the harmful effects of drug prohibition.
He received his BA from Brooklyn College (City University of New York) and his MD from New York Medical College. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons.
Partner, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
Richard Blaylock’s practice covers financing, M&A, licensing, collaboration and partnering arrangements, and intellectual property counseling for start-up and established companies whose value derives from innovative technology.
Richard is well-versed in a wide array of technologies, including those germane to both life sciences (pharmaceuticals, biologics, and diagnostics) as well as high technology (software, robotics, wireless, novel materials, and pollution control). He has counseled companies across a wide range of technologies with respect to company formation, licensing, partnering and collaborations, financing and intellectual property strategy, as well as patent, license, trademark, trade secrets and unfair competition disputes.
Former Chief Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
Judge Michel served for more than 22 years on the Federal Circuit, retiring on May 31, 2010. From December 25, 2004 until his retirement, he also discharged the duties of Chief Judge of this national court, serving simultaneously on the U.S. Judicial Conference -- the Judiciary's governing body -- and by appointment of the Chief Justice on its seven-judge Executive Committee.
He judged several thousand appeals and authored more than 800 opinions, one third concerning intellectual property law. Intellectual Asset Management magazine inducted him into its Hall of Fame and he was designated one of the 50 most influential leaders in intellectual property law in the world. His contributions were also recognized by lifetime achievement and similar awards by the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA); Intellectual Property Owners Education Foundation (IPO); the American Bar Association's Intellectual Property Section; Managing Intellectual Property magazine; the Sedona Conference; the Patent and Trademark Office Society (PTOS); the New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles Intellectual Property Law Associations; and the William C. Connor, the Giles S. Rich, and the Richard Linn Intellectual Property American Inns of Court. In 2010 the Los Angeles IP Inn was renamed in his honor as the Paul R. Michel IP Inn.
Judge Michel received the Jefferson Medal, the Eli Whitney Award, and the Katz-Kiley Prize as well as Honorary Doctor of Law degrees from the Catholic University of America and the John Marshall Law School. He is a lifetime Member of Honore of FICPI, the international association of private practitioners of intellectual property law. Williams College granted him the Kellogg Award for "outstanding leadership in law and public service."
Judge Michel has written numerous articles on patent law and advocacy, taught related courses and master classes at George Washington University, the University of Akron, and John Marshall law schools, serving as well on their IP advisory boards and on counterpart boards at the universities of California (Berkley), Washington, and Maryland. He co-authored a casebook, Patent Litigation and Strategy (West, 1999) and an August 2010 editorial in the New York Times on strengthening the patent system to promote prosperity and create new jobs.
A frequent speaker at conferences and law schools during his judicial tenure and since, he retired from a lifetime appointment to be free to speak out on the national need for better patent policy and protection of intellectual property and the vital, unmet resource needs of the courts, the PTO, the International Trade Commission, and other IP-related agencies. He was appointed Distinguished Scholar in Residence by IPO, following his retirement. Judge Michel also consults for law firms and their clients in intellectual property litigations, conducting moot courts, mock trials, case evaluations, editing briefs, advising on strategy and providing mediation and arbitration services.
Dinsmore & Shohl LLP, Partner
Brian is chair of Dinsmore’s IP Transactions and Licensing Group. He is a past president of the Licensing Executives Society (USA and Canada), Inc. (LES), the leading professional society devoted to commercial transactions and licensing of intangible property. He continues to serve LES as senior vice president for public policy. He has extensive experience in a wide variety of commercial transactions involving intangible property, and is known for creative licensing strategies to promote collaboration and resolve IP-related disputes.
He is a registered patent attorney with more than 30 years of experience before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in structuring global IP portfolios and strategies. He has extensive experience in contested proceedings before the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board (interferences, Inter Partes Reviews and Post Grant Reviews), as well as contested matters in federal courts and the International Trade Commission. His wide-ranging experience affords a broad, informed perspective and facilitates creative approaches to intellectual property management, licensing, and enforcement.
In addition to his leadership of LES, Brian served on the LES Board of Directors 2007 – 2018. In his ongoing role as senior vice president for public policy he is responsible for coordinating the society’s public policy positions, amicus briefs, and congressional outreach. He works with legislators, the executive branch, and the courts toward consistent, reliable, and prudent IP laws and policies that advance innovation and economic development. He has also served LES as trustee for education, and has long served as an author, editor, and faculty member of LES educational programs focusing on best practices in IP licensing.
He is also active in the global society, LES International (LESI). Among his various roles in LESI, he has served as co-chair of the External Relations Committee, coordinating public policy and advocacy for effective IP laws and policies among the 33 regional LES societies, and with various non-governmental organizations such as WIPO and EPO. In 2019, he received the LES International President’s Service Recognition Award.
Brian also serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Bayh Dole Coalition, a 501(c)(4) corporation dedicated to promoting and preserving the Bayh Dole Act. He is a member of the Founding Board of Directors of the United States Intellectual Property Alliance (USIPA), an organization dedicated to raising public awareness of, and appreciation for, the role of IP in fostering innovation for the public good; and he has served on the DC Bar Intellectual Property Section Steering Committee (2013 – 2016).
In 2016, Brian testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship on the effects of the America Invents Act on small business and entrepreneurs in a hearing entitled “An Examination of Changes to the U.S. Patent System & Impacts on America's Small Businesses.”
With his longstanding and diverse patent practice, in both private practice and in-house, Brian advises corporate leaders and entrepreneurs in effective IP procurement practices, and in maximizing value from IP assets. He has been retained as a testifying witness in IP and licensing disputes by the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and by various private enterprises.
Brian has been acknowledged by IAM magazine as among its “IAM Strategy 300”, the world’s leading IP strategists, and among “The World's Leading Patent and Technology Licensing Lawyers.”
He earned B.S. and M.S. degrees from the Department of Chemistry, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY; and Juris Doctor from Syracuse University, College of Law, Syracuse, NY (1986).
Brian has served his alma mater as president of the RIT Alumni Association 2005 – 2009; and now serves on the RIT Board of Trustees as a member of its Executive Committee, chair of its Student Life Committee, and vice-chair of its Committee on Trustees. In 2013, Brian was awarded RIT’s Outstanding Alumnus Award, and in 2005 he was awarded the Distinguished Alumnus Award by RIT’s College of Science.
Deputy General Counsel and Vice President for Intellectual Property, Biotechnology Industry Organization
Hans Sauer is Deputy General Counsel for Intellectual Property for the Biotechnology Industry Organization, a major trade association representing over 1,100 biotechnology companies from the medical, agricultural, environmental and industrial sectors in the United States and 31 other countries. At BIO, Dr. Sauer advises the organization’s board of directors, amicus committee, and various staff committees on patent and other intellectual property-related matters. Prior to taking his current position at BIO in 2006, he was Chief Patent Counsel for MGI Pharma, Inc. in Bloomington MN, and Senior Patent Counsel for Guilford Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Baltimore, MD. Hans has 18 years of in-house experience in the biotechnology industry, first as a research scientist and later as a lawyer. His scientific work was in the area of age-related neurological disorders; after becoming a lawyer he worked on several drug development programs, being responsible for patent prosecution and portfolio oversight, clinical trial health information privacy, and sales and marketing legal compliance. He did his postdoc at Genentech in South San Francisco, and holds a M.S. degree from the University of Ulm in his native Germany; a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Lund, Sweden; and a J.D. degree from Georgetown University, where he serves as adjunct professor.
Director and Senior Fellow, Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, University of California at Berkeley
Mark Cohen heads the Asia IP Project at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology at Berkeley Law School. He is also responsible for teaching international trade law and research and writing on IP issues. Previously, Cohen was Senior Counsel, China in the Office of Policy and International Affairs at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, after serving as a visiting professor at Fordham Law School (2011-2012). Prior to that time, he served in such functions as: Director, International Intellectual Property at Microsoft Corporation; Of Counsel to Jones Day’s Beijing office; and Senior Intellectual Property Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing (2004- 2008). In total, he has over 30 years private, public sector, in-house and academic experience in China and transition economies, with a focus on technology trade and intellectual property.
Cohen was the first IPR Attaché posted by USPTO to handle IPR issues in a foreign country. In addition, he launched the annual “Ambassador’s IPR Roundtable” which he co-chaired for five years, devised IPR “toolkits”, “road shows”, pro-bono programs, internal training programs for the US government and external training programs, and worked with USPTO and other US agencies to engage China and Chinese IP agencies. Cohen led a China team at USPTO consisting of 21 individuals in DC, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, China on all aspects of USPTO’s activities in China. Among his book-length publications are Antimonopoly Law and Practice in China (Oxford University Press 2011, with Steve Harris et al.). He was also the editor of Chinese Intellectual Property Law and Practice (Kluwer Law International 1999) and has edited or published a number of on-line publications, including the blog www.chinaipr.com.
Mr. Cohen has taught and lectured at numerous universities in the United States, Asia and Europe. Amongst other honors, he was the recipient of the US Chamber of Commerce’s “IP Champion” award in 2014. Mr. Cohen holds a J.D. degree from Columbia University (1984), an M.A. from the University of Wisconsin in Chinese Language and Literature (1979) and a B.A. from the State University of New York at Albany in Chinese Studies (1977).
Hon. William Matthew Byrne, Jr. Chair Professor of Law, Loyola Law School, Loyola Marymount University
Prior to joining Loyola in 2013, Professor Justin Hughes taught at Cardozo Law School where he served as director of Cardozo’s Intellectual Property Program, 2004 through 2008, and founded the law school’s Indie Film Clinic, the first of its kind.
From 2009 through 2013, Professor Hughes also worked in the Obama Administration as Senior Advisor to the Undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property. In that capacity he was the United States chief negotiator for the Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances (2012) and the Marrakesh Treaty for the Blind (2013).
In the 1990s, Professor Hughes did volunteer work in democracy development in Latin America, West Africa and the Balkans. He has practiced law in Paris and Los Angeles. As a Henry Luce Scholar, he clerked for the Lord President of the Malaysian Supreme Court in Kuala Lumpur.
Dinsmore & Shohl LLP, Partner
Brian is chair of Dinsmore’s IP Transactions and Licensing Group. He is a past president of the Licensing Executives Society (USA and Canada), Inc. (LES), the leading professional society devoted to commercial transactions and licensing of intangible property. He continues to serve LES as senior vice president for public policy. He has extensive experience in a wide variety of commercial transactions involving intangible property, and is known for creative licensing strategies to promote collaboration and resolve IP-related disputes.
He is a registered patent attorney with more than 30 years of experience before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in structuring global IP portfolios and strategies. He has extensive experience in contested proceedings before the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board (interferences, Inter Partes Reviews and Post Grant Reviews), as well as contested matters in federal courts and the International Trade Commission. His wide-ranging experience affords a broad, informed perspective and facilitates creative approaches to intellectual property management, licensing, and enforcement.
In addition to his leadership of LES, Brian served on the LES Board of Directors 2007 – 2018. In his ongoing role as senior vice president for public policy he is responsible for coordinating the society’s public policy positions, amicus briefs, and congressional outreach. He works with legislators, the executive branch, and the courts toward consistent, reliable, and prudent IP laws and policies that advance innovation and economic development. He has also served LES as trustee for education, and has long served as an author, editor, and faculty member of LES educational programs focusing on best practices in IP licensing.
He is also active in the global society, LES International (LESI). Among his various roles in LESI, he has served as co-chair of the External Relations Committee, coordinating public policy and advocacy for effective IP laws and policies among the 33 regional LES societies, and with various non-governmental organizations such as WIPO and EPO. In 2019, he received the LES International President’s Service Recognition Award.
Brian also serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Bayh Dole Coalition, a 501(c)(4) corporation dedicated to promoting and preserving the Bayh Dole Act. He is a member of the Founding Board of Directors of the United States Intellectual Property Alliance (USIPA), an organization dedicated to raising public awareness of, and appreciation for, the role of IP in fostering innovation for the public good; and he has served on the DC Bar Intellectual Property Section Steering Committee (2013 – 2016).
In 2016, Brian testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship on the effects of the America Invents Act on small business and entrepreneurs in a hearing entitled “An Examination of Changes to the U.S. Patent System & Impacts on America's Small Businesses.”
With his longstanding and diverse patent practice, in both private practice and in-house, Brian advises corporate leaders and entrepreneurs in effective IP procurement practices, and in maximizing value from IP assets. He has been retained as a testifying witness in IP and licensing disputes by the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and by various private enterprises.
Brian has been acknowledged by IAM magazine as among its “IAM Strategy 300”, the world’s leading IP strategists, and among “The World's Leading Patent and Technology Licensing Lawyers.”
He earned B.S. and M.S. degrees from the Department of Chemistry, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY; and Juris Doctor from Syracuse University, College of Law, Syracuse, NY (1986).
Brian has served his alma mater as president of the RIT Alumni Association 2005 – 2009; and now serves on the RIT Board of Trustees as a member of its Executive Committee, chair of its Student Life Committee, and vice-chair of its Committee on Trustees. In 2013, Brian was awarded RIT’s Outstanding Alumnus Award, and in 2005 he was awarded the Distinguished Alumnus Award by RIT’s College of Science.
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