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AIPLA President's Report

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Kimberly Van Voorhis

 

 

Thank you for the wonderful inauguration celebration at the Annual Meeting, and Welcome to AIPLA’24-25!  

Like the inspiring “Queen Ann” before me, Brian Batzli before Ann, Patrick Coyne before Brian, and all the Past Presidents who have shared this honor, I am grateful for and humbled by the opportunity to lead one of the most respected and influential IP organizations in the world.  

Picking up on the last words of Ann’s presidential message in 2023 and one that she repeated throughout her presidency: Let’s have fun.   True to her word, Ann has breathed renewed life, energy and fun into our organization’s work.  From leading a 4+ hour Board meeting by Zoom, to vetting strategic policy considerations, to showing off her prom party moves on many a Stated Meeting dance floor, Ann’s quick wit, humble nature, and overwhelming kindness have truly made AIPLA more “fun.”  Thank you, Ann.

And thank you to all those who, despite a global pandemic, made sure that this incredible organization continued to serve as a strong and guiding voice in the global IP community.  With a dedicated staff, strong leadership from our Board and committees, and a diverse and committed membership, we have emerged from the pandemic stronger, nimbler, and more sharply focused on our mission to foster innovation, creativity, and fair competition in the U.S. and around the globe.

So now that we are all having more fun in an organization that is stronger than ever, what could possibly be next?  With all this momentum, the answer to me can only be one thing —we focus on what we do best, and we do it even better.

Let’s talk about that. What do we do best?   

We are advocates.  As a member of AIPLA for nearly 25 years, I have had a front row seat for some of the most significant developments in global IP law in recent history—the enactment of AIA, the ever-swinging pendulum of Section 101, Supreme Court trends and the caselaw that has built up around them, the Trademark Dilution Act and the Trademark Modernization Act, copyright modernization, progress on global harmonization, the challenges of digital commerce, and the recent infiltration of AI into everything we do.  All these issues, passing through multiple administrations, each with a different viewpoint and different priorities.  And with every issue, AIPLA digs deep.  We weigh impact, we listen to one another and respectfully consider all points of view, and we offer practical solutions that are routinely considered by IP stakeholders and policy makers in the U.S. and beyond.  

We are experts.  We can tackle the most complex issues because we are experts.  And like any good mentor or coach, we don’t just keep our advocacy expertise and deep bench of IP knowledge to ourselves.  We share it with others.  From live content at Stated Meetings, to online programs, roadshows, bootcamps, training guides, and practice tips, AIPLA has some of the strongest, most comprehensive educational offerings, making us one of the most trusted sources for IP education. 

We are a community.  Above all else, we are a community of professionals, united by our shared passion for the work that we do and how we do it.  We show up, we engage, we listen, and we learn.  As a community, we can deliver impactful messages with a stronger voice.  As a community, we can support one another and our well-being by ensuring that IP practitioners are not only producing high quality work products and delivering results but are also enjoying ourselves and all that life has to offer along the way. As a community, we can give back so that generations to come will continue to engage the abundance of bright and capable leaders that we have today.

The common thread and what continues to drive each of these core principles--advocacy, education and community—is you, our membership.  Our members are the advocates, our members are the experts, and our members are the community that we all cherish.  Our members are also the key to our future success; a robust and engaged membership will unlock our ability to do all the great work we already do, even better.  It should come as no surprise, then, that membership is among my top priorities for the upcoming year.

Fortunately, we are hitting the ground running.  In recent years, we have expanded our membership to better meet the needs of the diverse and expanding IP community.  We have welcomed patent agents and licensing professionals, and we are seeing more corporate members than ever before.  This coming year, we are expanding our reach across more international communities and exploring deeper connections in Dubai, Africa and India, and have newly renamed the Asia Pacific Committee (formerly the IP in the Far East Committee) as the importance of IP grows around the world. 

In terms of building our expertise and advocacy, we lean on our committees and have established task forces of member experts to help us stay on top of critical, evolving issues such as patent eligibility and accessibility, the impacts of recent APA decisions, harmonization, and generative AI. We have realigned and re-energized our committees to make sure we stay focused on issues that are front of mind for IP practitioners in today’s global economy. We are also continuing to review how we come together as an organization—our meeting structure, how we develop future leaders, the types of education we offer, and how we deliver it.  We are listening, we are ideating and evolving, and we aren’t slowing down.

We are also doubling down on our commitment to law students and building a robust pipeline of future IP leaders.  For law students, where AIPLA membership is now free, our newly formed Special Committee on Law Student Engagement kicked off at the Annual Meeting, where we welcomed 80+ law students as attendees.  The Committee will continue to work with students throughout the year to ensure a smooth transition from law school to their IP careers.  For members looking to build their leadership skills, check out AIPLA’s first-ever Leadership Forum, a two-day, immersive experience designed to elevate leadership skills at any stage of your career and to inspire others to do the same.  Check out the Leadership Forum page for more details on how to attend this special event.

How can we continue to make AIPLA even better?  As your President for the next year, I along with AIPLA’s Executive Committee, Board of Directors, committee leaders, and staff will ask this question in everything we do, and we will challenge you to do the same:  How can we do better for ourselves, better for AIPLA and better for the IP community?   It can be as simple as joining a new committee, attending a new meeting, online program or road show, launching a sub-committee on a new initiative, or just leaning in and learning more in an emerging area of interest.  Be creative, raise your hand, support your colleagues, and as Ann would say, have fun!

Looking forward to a productive ‘24-25.

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Kim's longtime friend and mentor, Jim Pooley, is pleased to introduce Kim:

How can someone be infinitely serious and fun at the same time?


I still remember well the day that I met Kim Van Voorhis, a recently-graduated associate brought in as part of our IP litigation group at Gray Cary in Palo Alto.  I found out that she had registered to take a course to prepare for the patent bar exam, so I was curious about her intention to shift into drafting patents.  No, she assured me, she was doing this (on her own time, no less) in order to better understand and prepare herself for patent litigation.  

This was Kim, whose initiative, integrity and perseverance never surprised but always impressed me.  I also noticed how much she cared for those around her.  She soon became a mentor to other associates, and years later many of our colleagues at AIPLA would remark at how Kim “blended professionalism and humanity” and taught them how to be “resolute without being a jerk” and how to get the work done while making time for family.

No one can doubt Kim’s work ethic.  Her husband Scott Oliver told me that on a recent “Wellness Week” for staff at Nike, Kim spent her time off composing more than sixty letters to AIPLA committee chairs.  Anyone who has worked with her knows how organized she is: plan the work, then work the plan, and stick to it.

But there’s another side to this remarkable woman, one that accounts for her interest in music, the arts, cooking and writing screenplays: Kim likes to have fun.  And to that dimension of her life she brings the same sort of creativity and focus that characterize her work.  As Scott explained, one of the things that caught his eye when he interviewed her as a law student (yes, theirs was an office romance; more on that later) was that she had chosen to spend her summer not at a law firm, but at the legal department of Universal Studios.

If you ask around, you will find people fortunate enough to have attended the 2005 Midwinter Institute in Orlando, where Kim scripted and appeared in the stage production of “The Wizard’s Apprentice,” along with Wayne Sobon, Bob Armitage, Tom Irving and Sharon Israel.  The nominal purpose of this farcical performance was to teach claim construction, through the medium of a mash-up of “The Apprentice” and Disney’s Fantasia.  Kim reportedly stayed up most of the previous night – while expecting her first child – helping to craft and paint the coveted “Golden Broom” prize that she won the next day by trouncing Bob in the contest.

Another example of Kim’s seeking out joy in IP meetings comes from one of the trips to Tokyo by the IP in Japan Committee.  By tradition, they all gather for a night of Karaoke.  According to eyewitnesses on this occasion Kim brought down the house with her rendition of These Boots Are Made For Walkin’, a song “made famous by Nancy Sinatra but perfected by Kim.”

You might think it not too surprising that a litigator likes to perform and sing, but in addition to all that, Kim is also a terrific cook, plays the bass guitar (she learned to accompany her daughter who also plays guitar), writes screenplays, and works out way more regularly than 98% of us.  There is no easy way to categorize her range of interests.  

Clearly, Scott is a fortunate guy.  He tells me now that they were flirting in the office, but it must have been the most subtle sort possible, which would not really surprise me, given Kim’s general focus on decorum.  Indeed, the two of them managed to keep their relationship a complete secret, until that time that we were in trial at the ITC and the fire alarm at the hotel went off in the middle of the night . . . .

Although Kim loves Scott, as anyone who really knows her will attest she is most dedicated to, and adores, her children, Fiona, John and William, who have been known to appear occasionally at an AIPLA dinner dance, and who are affectionately called “The Muffins.”  Just ask her about them and you’ll see.  Kim has somehow managed to be present and engaged in all aspects of their lives while still meeting her professional obligations.

Kim is a California native, but moved to Omaha for high school, returning to earn a degree in biology/biochemistry from UC Irvine.  After that she spent 15 years as an IP trial lawyer.  From Gray Cary, we all moved to Milbank and then Morrison & Foerster, and from there Kim went in house at Nike, where today she manages Nike’s global IP litigation efforts.

Kim’s AIPLA resume can leave you breathless.  She came to us very early in her career, and her first leadership role was as Regional, and then National, Director of the Giles Rich Moot Court Competition.  From there she went on to chair the Young Lawyers Committee.  After that, despite the fact that she was (and is) a registered patent attorney, Kim’s love for trademark law was on full display while serving as Vice Chair and Chair of multiple trademark committees, before her election to the Board.   Along the way, Kim found time to help plan the Madrid Protocol Road Show, initiate the Trademark Bootcamp (now in its 15th year), conduct a comprehensive review of AIPLA educational programming, and conceive and co-host the first Committee Fair, for which she shared an AIPLA Project Award.  Oh, and she was the Officer-in-Charge for the 125th Anniversary Annual Meeting, for which she shared a second AIPLA Project Award.

It’s no wonder Kim has been called the “Energizer Bunny.”

We pick leaders we hope to rely on not only to do the job, but to inspire the rest of us as an example of creativity, courage, diligence, empathy and passion.  And occasionally we are lucky enough to get all of that wrapped up in someone whose playfulness helps us to fully see one another as family.

 

Members of AIPLA, please welcome your new President, Kim Van Voorhis!