Coffee Break the Podcast

What are the filing trends in India, Japan, Singapore and the United States?  New technologies are evolving very quickly.  How are patent offices training their examiners on new technologies?  Sandy Chan at IP Counsel Cafe speaks with John Cabeca, U.S. IP Counselsor for South Asia, Will Cheng at LinkedIn, Miku Mehta at Procopio, Rena Sato at NEDO/Japan Patent Office, and Alfred Yip at the IP Office of Singapore.  

The Medical Device industry faces a host of different issues and considerations which impact their IP strategy.  Sandy Chan of IP Counsel Cafe speaks with Derek Minihane, Vice President, R&D at Cochlear, a global leader in implantable hearing solutions, and Miku Mehta, Partner at Procopio law firm where he focus on Asia-Pacific Practice.  They will discuss where Cochlear decides to file for IP protection and why, how busiess and IP protection have evolved over the past three years, and much more.      

Over the past two years, we have witnessed an acceleration in business changes and shifting global markets.  These factors require companies to reconsider their foreign filing strategies in order to best protect their company's intellectual property.  Join us for a conversation with Micheal Binns, Associate General Counsel on the Patent, Licensing and Open Source Team at Meta; Miku Mehta, Partner at Procopio law firm; and Alfred Yip, Director of Patent Search, Examination and Analytics Unit at IPOS International

"The Convergence of Engineering, Law & Business: A Conversation with Angela Murch" Angela Murch is Vice President of Law, IP, and Compliance at Rani Therapeutics, a company that has developed the RaniPill™, a platform technology that delivers biologics via a swallowed medical device to eliminate the need for patients to give themselves injections.  The research and technology behind Rani Therapeutics came out of InCube Labs, a company that creates and develops medical device concepts, forming startups to commercialize the concepts. Previously, Angela was Vice President of IP at InCube Labs. Prior to InCube, Angela was an IP attorney at Foley & Lardner LLP and earlier at Rader, Fishman & Grauer PLLC, specializing in patent prosecution and patent litigation. Before venturing into a legal career, Angela was an engineer for fifteen years, specializing in electronic control systems for automotive applications and for the solid rocket boosters of the space shuttle. Angela holds a BSEE from Michigan State University, an MSEE from University of Michigan, and a JD from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. She is admitted to the California bar and is registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.  

How does Japan fit into your global IP strategy?  Miku Mehta, Partner at Procopio law firm, moderates this discussion with Nobuo Tanaka, a Japanese patent attorney and U.S. patent agent who is currently General Manager of Yokogawa Electric Corporation, and Yoshinari Oyama, a former patent examiner and administrative judge at the Japan Patent Office, and currently the Senior Director of the NEDO Silicon Valley Office, responsible for research on R&D and intellectual property. 

How does India fit into your Global IP Strategy?  Sandy Chan speaks with Srihari SK, Partner at Indian law firm, K&S Partners about the business landscape and recent developments in India's IP system.  

How do startups decide between trade secret and patent protection? What does the analysis look like? Sandy Chan, Executive Director & General Counsel at IP Counsel Cafe speaks with Kevin Brown, Vice President of IP at Recursion Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage biotechnology company that combines experimental biology and automation with artificial intelligence to discover potential drugs; and Stephanie Southwick, Legal Counsel and Investment Manager at Omni Bridgeway, a global leader in dispute resolution finance.

Listen to Part 2 of Sandy Chan's conversation with Laura Gisler, Head of IP at Polestar; Olivia Tsai, Head of IP at Cruise; Bruce Wu, Head of IP at Nutcracker Therapeutics; and Miku Mehta, Partner at Procopio Law Firm.  How do Heads of IP communicate value to their General Counsel and C-Suite?  How can outside counsel help? 

How do newly hired Heads of IP build their IP departments?  What is the first day like?  How do they work with their inventors, business teams, and outside counsel?  Sandy Chan speaks with Laura Gisler, Head of IP at Polestar; Olivia Tsai, Head of IP at Cruise; Bruce Wu, Head of IP at Nutcracker Therapeutics; and Miku Mehta, Partner at Procopio law firm. 

Data issues are similar to other IP issues:  What data are you collecting?  Who owns the data?  What are your obligations with regard to that data?  Are you able to monetize the data?  Sandy Chan of IP Counsel Cafe speaks with Brett Alten, Chief IP Counsel at Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Lew Zaretzki of Hamilton IPV. 

Will you come out strong? COVID-19 will eventually pass, life and business will return to “normal.” Which companies will come out ahead? As we work remotely through this pandemic, we must find ways to remain connected to our teams as we continue to innovate. How can you incentivize your innovators during these unprecedented times? Sandy Chan speaks with Diane Gabl Kratz, Senior Intellectual Property Counsel at Seagate Technology.

As we work remotely during Covid-19, we face the challenge of ensuring smooth legal operations. This includes not only managing risk and monitoring compliance, but also helping drive business. For IP professionals, this includes maintaining a smooth invention process and IP portfolio management.  Some companies entered Covid-19 better positioned than others to meet the challenges of remote work.  What can we learn from these companies to ensure overall success?  Our guests share valuable insights: Jennifer Karr at Microsoft, Vesper Hubbard at Loon, Stephanie Sanders at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, and Annya Dushine at CPA Global.  

When do startups and younger companies need to start building their patent portfolios?  When do you transition from trade secret to patent?  Will a patent portfolio help you secure funding?  What are investors looking for? How can a startup continue portfolio building during an economic downturn?  Karina Levitian has advised startups as in-house and outside counsel.  She leads this discussion with Kent Richardson of Richardson Oliver.  

The uncertainty around Covid-19 has caused our economy to stumble. Unclear when we will return to normal, some companies are beginning to reduce their patent budgets and conserve cash. How does this impact your intellectual property strategy?  Sandy Chan at IP Counsel Cafe speaks with Jim DeCarlo at Greenberg Traurig and Jonah Probell at Soundhound. How do you build a patent portfolio during an economic downturn? How do you cut costs?

Running an IP Department from Home During Covid-19 with Adam Kubelka Global companies with offices in different parts of the world are in many ways, prepared for the challenges of working from home during Covid-19. They are accustomed to working virtually with foreign inventors and staying connected with global offices. However, the Covid-19 lock-down presents some unique challenges. Sandy Chan of IP Counsel Cafe speaks with Adam Kubelka, Senior Director of IP at Lumentum, a company that designs and manufactures telecommunications equipment. Find out how Adam is managing Lumentum's IP department and IP Portfolio from home during the Covid-19 lock-down.

The business landscape was complicated by the US China trade war that began in 2018, posing new challenges for IP Counsel. The emergence of Covid 19 late last year has further complicated the landscape. Mark Cohen and Thomas Chia discuss the impact of Covid 19 on US China relations and globalization, what we can expect on the global IP licensing side, and how IP Counsel can stay updated on Chinese IP law developments in light of the dearth of publicly available information.  

China is a key market for important technologies such as 5G, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning, and Blockchain. Despite the US-China Trade War and Covid-19, China remains a key part of many companies’ foreign filing strategies. A great deal of manufacturing is conducted by Chinese companies, so American companies with Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) must be prepared for cross-border negotiations. We heard a great deal about the US-China Trade War in 2019, but there has been little news coverage this year. What is the status? Have supply chains shifted? And what can we expect in this Presidential Election Year? Sandy Chan speaks with Mark Cohen, head of the Asia IP Project at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology at Berkeley Law School, and Thomas Chia, Senior Director of Patents at Via Licensing.

The world and our economic engine have hit pause as we shelter in place through Covid-19. Once we are past the health pandemic and return to business as usual, the economic landscape may look very different. Companies must understand how the landscape is changing and adjust their IP filing strategies to ensure their businesses and intellectual property can succeed in the new landscape. Sandy Chan speaks with Miku Mehta at Procopio and Scott Pojunas at Google. Hear how companies are weighing the impact of Covid-19, the US-China Trade War, and the looming economic downturn.

Countries are in lockdown as we battle Covid-19. Sandy Chan at IP Counsel Cafe speaks with Kanda Ishihara, Director of Intellectual Property at Veritas Technologies, an enterprise software company based in Santa Clara, CA with offices around the world. We ask Kanda how Covid-19 and the lockdown are impacting her job.   

As countries close their borders and international travel comes to a halt, IP Counsel Café continues to deliver global perspectives in IP. Sandy Chan speaks with Nick Aries from the international law firm, Bird & Bird. Nick is originally from the UK and is now based in San Francisco where he is in daily contact with colleagues across Europe. He provides an update on Covid-19's impact on the Bay Area as well as European IP litigation, the UPC in peril, an increasingly patentee-friendly UK, and German patent litigation reform. Length: 17:35 minutes March 20, 2020