Speakers

United States Patent and Trademark Office | Commissioner for Patents

Vaishali Udupa is the Commissioner for Patents of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). As Commissioner for Patents, Ms. Udupa manages and leads the Patents organization as its chief operating officer. She oversees the agency’s 10,000 Patents employees, including more than 9,000 patent examiners responsible for fostering the country’s innovation system by providing patent protections to inventors as stated in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution.

Ueno, Shohta

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. | Senior Director, Assistant General Counsel, Dispute Resolution

Dr Shohta Ueno is a Senior Director, Assistant General Counsel, Dispute Resolution at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., a leading biopharmaceutical company based in New York where he advises the company on a broad range of complex, multi-jurisdictional disputes. While Shohta deals with all matters relating to disputes, he focuses mostly on non-US IP matters and helps the company navigate through increasingly complex IP landscape. Shohta joined Regeneron in October 2018 from a leading IP litigation practice based in the UK. Shohta is also a trained scientist – he obtained a PhD in Virology as well as an undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge.

Jonathan Uffelman

Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP | Domain Name Specialist / Attorney

Jonathan Uffelman practices trademark, domain name, and Internet law. In particular, he works on a broad range of Internet and cyber law issues, including on-line brand enforcement and the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) proceedings. Jonathan was the 2015 Burton Award Winner for Distinguished Legal Writing.

Ulrich, Lisa

IBM | IP Counsel

Lisa Ulrich is Intellectual Property Counsel for IBM located in Armonk, NY. Lisa holds responsibility for evaluating IBM’s worldwide engagement in standards development organizations. In addition, Lisa negotiates contracts and provides IP legal guidance for merger and acquisition activities for IBM’s Sales & Services business unit. Lisa also leads IBM’s corporate trademark enforcement team. Lastly, Lisa provides strategic advice on legislative and policy IP issues with a focus on improving diversity within the profession, both among inventors and IP professionals.

Uribe, Mauricio

Knobbe Martens | Partner

Mauricio Uribe is the Chair of the Software/IT and Electrical practice groups at Knobbe Martens. Mauricio has extensive experience in comprehensive client counseling in all aspects of intellectual property law. Mauricio is well versed in patent prosecution matters and portfolio development, especially in software, electrical and telecommunication technologies. He has counseled various clients on patent and technology licensing matters, including standards essential patent licensing. Mauricio is a frequent lecturer and author on intellectual property topics and emerging technologies, including Generative AI policies and intellectual property.

Uson, Adriana

Singapore International Arbitration Centre | Director & Head (Americas)

Adriana Uson is the Director & Head (Americas) of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) where she leads and oversees SIAC’s activities in North and Latin America. In 2020, Adriana led the establishment of SIAC’s first office outside of Asia in New York. Adriana has over a decade of experience in dispute resolution and has served as counsel on international arbitrations, arbitrator, and institutional representative. Adriana first joined SIAC as Counsel, during which time she administered hundreds of cases across a range of seats and governing laws. She was involved in the drafting of the SIAC Rules 2016, SIAC Investment Arbitration Rules 2017, SIAC Rules 2025, and the SIAC Practice Note on third-party funding. She was also a member of the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators working group that published the SIArb Guidelines on Party-Representative Ethics.

Vadera, Sameer

Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP | Patent Attorney

Sameer Vadera is a patent attorney who counsels industry-leading clients on building valuable IP portfolios for high-tech innovations. Mr. Vadera has managed domestic and global patent portfolios, driven IP protection strategies across major markets, and counseled enterprises on boosting IP assets by increasing enterprise-wide innovation capture. Mr. Vadera has prepared and prosecuted patent applications directed to a wide range of technologies, including artificial intelligence, Software-as-a-Service, and network security.

Vakil, Bijal

White & Case | Partner

Bijal is a member of the Technology Industry Practice and the Global Intellectual Property Group at White and Case. He successfully represents technology companies in all aspects of their life cycle. He also has an impressive track record litigating complex patent cases in district courts, the International Trade Commission, and before the Federal Circuit.

Valeyko, Nichole

Merck & Co., Inc. | Director - IP Legal Group

Nichole M. Valeyko is a registered U.S. Patent Attorney and has acted as IP counsel for over 15 years. She is currently a Director in the IP Legal group at Merck & Co., Inc. in Rahway, New Jersey, where she is the Committee Chair for the Merck Legal Network Diversity Committee and head of the U.S. Patent Practice Committee. Nichole holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Virginia Tech, a law degree from Seton Hall School of Law, and a Master of Science in Biotechnology from Johns Hopkins.

Vallone, Mark

IBM | Senior IP Counsel

Mark Vallone is Senior IP Counsel at IBM, where he manages IBM’s in-house team that primarily handles U.S. patent application preparation and prosecution matters and defensive patent analyses. Mark is also active in IBM patent strategy and policy matters. He formerly led the team responsible for IBM's U.S. Patent Procedures, which are followed by IBM's in-house and outside patent counsel. He also served as lead IP Counsel for IBM Cloud and IBM Commerce, for which he supported transactions and product clearances, led patent procurement operations, and provided counsel on a wide range of other IP matters.

van Denzen, Melody

ConocoPhillips | Senior Legal Counsel

Melody van Denzen, is Senior Legal Counsel at ConocoPhillips, in Houston. She is a recovering engineer with international experience and a passion for sustainability, particularly as it relates to decarbonization and the energy transition. Melody grew up relocating every few years to “follow the oil” and has continued the trend throughout her own career working with and for multinational oil and gas corporations. She enjoys working with innovators and dreamers to drive changes that improve our world. And one of her favorite things is discovering and implementing feasible solutions to difficult challenges using creative collaboration and advocacy skills.

Van Hoven, Joshua

Van Hoven PC | Founder

Josh Van Hoven founded Van Hoven PC to represent companies facing challenging competitive issues at the intersection of law and technology. Josh's primary practice areas are strategic patent portfolio development and technology litigation. Josh works with growing technology companies to develop patent portfolios that stand up to investor, litigation, and licensing scrutiny. Josh also represents companies in technology litigation involving patents, trade secrets, and antitrust.

Van Kirk, Jennifer

Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie | Partner

Jennifer Van Kirk counsels clients on a wide variety of IP matters, including all aspects of ‎trademark and brand protection: trademark clearance, prosecution, licensing, portfolio ‎management, and litigation guidance. Her experience includes traditional marks as well as 3-‎dimensional marks, motion marks, service trade dress, and packaging trade dress. She also assist clients with identifying, protecting, and licensing copyrights and rights of publicity for use in products and advertising and protecting and licensing clients' copyrights and rights of publicity.

Van Voorhis, Kim

Nike | Assistant General Counsel, Global IP LItigation

Kim is Assistant General Counsel, Global IP Litigation & Director of IP Europe at Nike, Inc. She is a committed IP professional, bringing nearly 20 years of experience litigating, managing portfolios, and providing strategic counseling on all aspects of global intellectual property rights, including patents, trademarks, design, copyright and trade secrets, in both elite law firm and Fortune 100 corporate settings.

VanDyke, Heather

Javelina Legal | Principal Attorney

Heather is the founder and principal attorney at Javelina Legal focusing on copyright, trademark, live / digital / experiential events, entertainment-related transactions, content licensing, outside GC services and more. Heather opened the firm after nearly 7 years as General Counsel of South by Southwest (SXSW) where she was responsible for all legal matters, including intellectual property protection and enforcement, licensing, contracts, insurance, managing litigation, and privacy. Heather is also an Adjunct Professor at UT Law, where she teaches a seminar entitled, The Law of Music Festivals and Live Events, which covers 7 core areas of law, from copyright and trademark to tort litigation using live events as the backdrop.

Vaughn, Jim

iDiscovery Solutions | Managing Director

James D. Vaughn, a Managing Director of iDiscovery Solutions (iDS), is a court-recognized expert who has given testimony in nearly 70 cases involving topics such as evidence preservation, documentation of events, and computer forensic methodologies and procedures. In addition to being an EnCase Certified Examiner (EnCE), Mr. Vaughn is certified by the International Association of Computer Investigative Specialists (IACIS) as a Certified Forensic Computer Examiner (CFCE).

Verma, Divyendu

Duxlegis Attorneys | Managing Partner

Mr. Verma is an Advocate and registered Patent, Design & Trademark Attorney in INDIA, UAE & USA. In over 20+ years of experience, Mr. Verma has amassed vast experience in IP strategic advisory, patent drafting, prosecution and litigation. Mr. Verma has handled and managed large IP projects for multiple national and international clients involving framing IP strategy and IP implementation framework, assisting clients to build their IP portfolio. Specifically, in High Tech industry, he has handled a variety of issues including protection of software patents in India. He has advised on issues related to SEPs, technology standards and indemnification for Patent/IP-Infringement.

Vidal, Kathi

United States Patent and Trademark Office | Director

Kathi Vidal serves as the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) – America’s Innovation Agency. As the chief executive of the USPTO, she leads one of the largest intellectual property (IP) offices in the world, with more than 13,000 employees and an annual budget of more than $4 billion. She is the principal IP advisor to the President and the Administration, through the Secretary of Commerce, and is focused on incentivizing and protecting U.S. innovation, entrepreneurship, and creativity. She leads an agency whose mission is to help American workers and businesses compete and collaborate, especially in ground-breaking technologies and across all demographics. As Director of the USPTO, Vidal is working to expand American innovation for and from all, and to bring more ideas to impact, including serving as the Vice Chair of the Council for Inclusive Innovation (CI2), alongside Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo and the Council members.

Vishnubhakat, Saurabh

Texas A&M University School of Law | Professor of Law

Saurabh Vishnubhakat writes and teaches on intellectual property law, civil procedure, and administrative law, particularly from an empirical perspective.

Vo, Nikki

Meta Platforms, Inc. | Director and Associate General Counsel

Nikki is a Director and Associate General Counsel at Meta Platforms, Inc. where she helps to manage the company’s litigation docket, with a focus on IP litigation. In addition, her team is responsible for counseling the company on a wide range of legal issues, ranging from artificial intelligence and machine learning to the metaverse and CDA 230. Currently, her work focuses on managing the global litigation docket involving artificial intelligence and regulations of news content on Meta’s platforms.

Speakers

In This Section