Derek Aberle serves as president of Qualcomm Incorporated and is responsible for the oversight for all business divisions across the organization, as well as the Company’s global market development and marketing groups. Aberle is also responsible for formulating and driving key strategies for diversifying and growing the Company in both Qualcomm’s core businesses, as well as new business opportunities. He also serves as a member of Qualcomm’s executive committee, helping to drive Qualcomm’s overall global strategy.

Prior to his current role, Aberle served as executive vice president of Qualcomm Incorporated, and group president, as well as president of Qualcomm Technology Licensing (QTL). He was responsible for overseeing Qualcomm’s technology and IP licensing business as well as Qualcomm’s earlier stage businesses such as its wireless health, platform, display and wireless charging businesses. 

Starting in 2008, Aberle led the QTL division and held several roles within this division, including EVP and president, and SVP and general manager. He has been instrumental to the success and growth of this division, and, under his leadership, QTL has significantly grown both revenues and profits and established its 4G licensing program. He has played a leading role in structuring and negotiating key license agreements with many of our leading licensees, including Ericsson, Huawei, LGE, Motorola, Nokia, RIM, Samsung, ZTE and many others. In the process, he has built strong relationships with the Company’s licensees. He has also contributed heavily to the creation and implementation of the legal and business strategies that led to the resolution of several of the Company’s licensing-related disputes.

Aberle joined Qualcomm in 2000 after representing the Company as outside counsel for several years at the law firms of Pillsbury Madison and Sutro and Heller Ehrman.

Professor Adelman is currently the Theodore and James Pedas Family Professor of Intellectual Property and Technology Law, Co-Director of the Intellectual Property Program and Co-Director of the Dean Dinwoodey Center for Intellectual Property Studies at the George Washington University Law School. Before joining George Washington in 1999, Professor Adelman was a professor of law at Wayne State University Law School specializing in intellectual property and antitrust law. Prior to joining Wayne State he practiced as a patent attorney in the Detroit area for several years. During that period he served as lead counsel in numerous patent infringement cases. The current focus of his teaching and scholarship is in the field of patent law. He has written many law review articles on patent law, the economics of patent law and patent-antitrust law. From 1977 to 1988 he was one of the co-authors and from 1988-2013 the sole author of the continuously updated nine volume treatise on patent law entitled Patent Law Perspectives (Matthew Bender)(available electronically through LEXIS). He is a co-author of Cases and Materials on Patent Law, Fourth Edition (West 1998, 2003, 2009, 2014), Patent Law in a Nutshell, Second Edition (Nutshell Series) (West 2008, 2013) and Global Issues in Patent Law (West 2011). He has testified either by deposition or at trial as an expert in patent law and practice in about 190 patent infringement cases and he has lectured widely on patent law subjects at conferences across the world.

Ann Armstrong serves as Vice President, Associate General Counsel of Legal and Corporate Affairs for Intel Corporation based in Portland Oregon.

As Director of the Intel Standards Group, Ann leads Intel’s licensing, litigation, patents and other intellectual property matters relating to Intel’s worldwide standards activities. She is responsible for promoting technological leadership, intellectual property value and product sales by delivering standards strategies, processes and legal advice.

Ann joined Intel in 1997 as an attorney supporting multiple business groups. Before coming to Intel, she was an attorney at Foster Pepper in Seattle, where she practiced intellectual property and business law. Earlier in her career, she was an associate at Lane Powell, in Portland, Ore., where she specialized in intellectual property transactions, litigation, bankruptcy and railroad law.

The Honourable Justice Annabelle Bennett AO is a Judge of the Federal Court of Australia and Pro Chancellor of the Australian National University [1998-2011]. Her Honour is also an additional judge of the Supreme Court of the ACT, having previously practiced as a Senior Counsel specialising in intellectual property. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2005. Justice Bennett is also a Member of Chief Executive Women; Presidential Member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal; Arbitrator of the Court of Arbitration for Sport; Member of the Australian Academy of Forensic Sciences; and Member of the Law Advisory Committee of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

In July 2011, Justice Bennett was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of the University by the ANU.

Linda Biel has more than 20 years of experience in high technology, specializing in business development, marketing and sales. She is responsible for new member recruitment and managing the relationships between Allied Security Trust and sellers of patent portfolios, including patent brokers and direct sellers. Previously, she was a founder and Director of Customer Relations for PatentFreedom, and before that served in a variety of customer and partner interfacing roles at IBM, including assignments in both Asia and Europe. Linda received a M.S. magna cum laude in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M University.

Marc Sandy Block works at the IBM Corporation in the areas of patent and technology licensing, standards and patent pool activities, administrative and legislative policy, and IP-related bankruptcy issues. Sandy is currently Vice Chair of the AIPLA Antitrust Committee. He was a major contributor to the ABA Standards Development Patent Policy Manual and has authored numerous articles. He was a panelist at the FTC Workshop on Patent Holdup. He was a Board member and past President of the International Intellectual Property Society in New York City (iipsny.org), is a member of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) IPR Committee and AIPLA and IPO Standards Committees, and is a lecturer on IP licensing and standards at the Cardozo Law School. He is a graduate of Lehigh University (BSEE) and George Washington University Law School (JD), and is a member of the Virginia, Maryland, and New York bars and is admitted to practice before the US PTO.

Glenn J Blumstein is Chief Counsel, Intellectual Property, and Chair of the Wireless Invention Review Board at AT&T Mobility. He supports IP strategy, transactions, litigation, collaborations and patent development. He previously worked for Cingular Wireless LLC, AT&T Wireless and Davis Wright Tremaine LLP. He graduated with honors from Amherst College and from Stanford Law School where he was Associate Editor of the Stanford Law Review.

Roger G. Brooks is a partner of Cravath, Swaine & Moore, LLP with a practice covering a wide range of courtroom litigation for technology companies, including disputes concerning licensing, technology-related antitrust claims, patents, and trade secrets.
Mr. Brooks has served as lead trial counsel successfully defending Qualcomm against U.S. antitrust claims arising from patent licensing practices, the process of developing positioning technology standards for LTE, and the specification of spectrum bands for LTE.  He has advised in connection with competition law investigations in China, Europe, and Korea.  Mr. Brooks has particular expertise in licensing and competition law issues relating to standardized technologies and so-called “FRAND” licensing, and was lead counsel defending Qualcomm in a lawsuit with Nokia that was among the earliest litigations concerning the interpretation and enforcement of FRAND undertakings.  He has authored articles on intellectual property and antitrust issues, including “SSO Rules, Standardization, and SEP Licensing:  Economic Questions from the Trenches” (JCLE 2013) and  “Patent ‘Hold‑Up,’ Standards‑Setting Organizations and the FTC’s Campaign Against Innovators” (AIPLA Quarterly Journal, Fall 2011).   Mr. Brooks co‑authored the chapter “Taking Contracts Seriously: The Meaning of the Voluntary Commitment to License Essential Patents on ‘Fair and Reasonable’ Terms” in Intellectual Property and Competition Law: New Frontiers, published by Oxford University Press.
Mr. Brooks has also successfully represented numerous clients in patent litigations, including  defending Qualcomm against patent claims directed against GPS functionality in cellular phones; asserting patents on behalf of Mylan Pharmaceuticals against a generic competitor; representing Alarm.com in both asserting and defending against patents relating to next generation security systems, representing IBM in defending against patent infringement claims relating to operating system design, computer security and CPU architecture, and representing Schering AG (now Bayer Schering Pharma AG) as asserting biotechnology patents against a competitor.
From 2010 through 2014, Chambers USA has recognized Mr. Brooks as one of the leading practitioners in the intellectual property arena.  Mr. Brooks was recommended by The Legal 500 United States for his work in trade secrets matters from 2009 through 2014 and for his work in patent litigation in 2014.  The 2014 edition of Benchmark Litigation named him a “Local Litigation Star” in the New York area for intellectual property and antitrust.  He was also recognized by IAM Patent 1000 for his work in patent litigation in 2013 and 2014.  In 2011-2012, Mr. Brooks and his colleagues earned the Firm distinction as “Law Firm of the Year” in intellectual property litigation in the U.S. News & World Report‑Best Lawyers survey of the best law firms in the United States. 
Mr. Brooks received an A.B. from Princeton University in 1984, a J.D. and an M.A. in history from the University of Virginia in 1987, and an M. Div. from Regent College Seminary in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1995. 

Charles E. Bullock was named Chief Administrative Law Judge at the U.S. International Trade Commission in October 2011, after serving as Acting Chief Administrative Law Judge for two months. He was appointed as an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) at the USITC in May 2002. Prior to his USITC appointment, he served as an ALJ with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Before he joined the EPA, Judge Bullock served for 24 years with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). For the last 12 of those years, he was an ALJ; prior to assuming his judgeship, he was a trial attorney and then an Assistant General Counsel with that agency. He holds a bachelor of arts degree in political science from Bucknell University and earned his juris doctor degree from George Washington University Law School. He is a member of the Bar of the District of Columbia.

Scott leads Conversant’s legal professionals, including the corporate counsel and secretary functions, ligation, and patent prosecution. He also heads the Company’s public policy initiatives, and in 2013 spearheaded the development of its Patent Licensing Principles document. He actively participates in patent licensing negotiations and patent acquisitions. Scott joined Conversant in 2012 and was named to his current role in 2014.  

Scott is a 21-year veteran of Jones Day, one of the top IP firms in the United States and globally. At Jones Day, he led a diverse IP and technology practice focused on complex litigation, IP counselling, and IP transactions.  In the patent enforcement and litigation area, Scott’s practice emphasized patent analysis, global litigation and dispute resolution for clients in electronics, software, communications and other industries. 

Scott holds a Juris Doctor, Order of St. Ives, from the University of Denver, and a BA in Mathematics with Computer Science from the University of Colorado.  He is a member of Illinois, Texas and Colorado bars, is widely published in professional journals and is a frequent speaker at legal and other conferences.  Scott belongs to the American Intellectual Property Law Association, Licensing Executives Society, and the Intellectual Property Owners Association, and was honored as an Illinois Super Lawyer – Intellectual Property Litigation, in 2005 and 2006.

Jorge L. Contreras is an Associate Professor at the S.J. Quinney College of Law. Professor Contreras teaches in the areas of intellectual property, law and science, and property law. He has previously served on the law faculties of American University Washington College of Law and Washington University in St. Louis. Previously, Professor Contreras was a partner at the international law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, where he practiced transactional and intellectual property law in Boston, London and Washington DC.

Professor Contreras’s current research focuses, among other things, on the development of technical standards and the use and dissemination of data generated by large-scale scientific research projects. He is an internationally-recognized authority in the area of standards-essential patents. He has written and spoken extensively on the institutional and intellectual property structures of technical standardization, and his published work has appeared in scientific, legal and policy journals including Science, Jurimetrics, American University Law Review, Harvard Journal of Law and Technology, Berkeley Technology Law Journal, Antitrust Law Journal, Santa Clara Law Review and Utah Law Review (forthcoming). He has been quoted in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Economist, Bloomberg, Washington Post, Korea Times and other national and international media outlets, has appeared on National Public Radio and various televised broadcasts, and has been cited with approval by both the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the European Commission.

Professor Contreras currently serves Co-Chair of the Technical Standardization Committee of the ABA’s Section of Science & Technology Law, and a member of the Advisory Council of the National Center for the Advancement of Translational Sciences (NCATS), the Cures Acceleration Network (CAN) Board of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Intellectual Property Rights Policy Committee of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). He has recently completed a six-year term as Co-Chair of the National Conference of Lawyers and Scientists, and has served as a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Committee on Intellectual Property Management in Standard-Setting Processes and the National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research at NIH. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School (JD) and Rice University (BSEE, BA)

Tim Cornell is a counsel in Clifford Chance's US antitrust practice, advising clients on government civil and criminal investigations, the regulatory review of mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property and technology licensing, supply and distribution agreements, joint venture formation, horizontal and vertical restraints, the adoption of antitrust best practices, and consumer protection matters. Tim has advocated on behalf of dozens of clients before the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Justice, and has litigated antitrust and other high profile cases before arbitration panels, and in federal and state courts across the US. His antitrust representations span numerous industries including telecommunications, software, computer networking, banking and financial services, insurance, healthcare, appliances, satellites, solar energy, power distribution and generation, automotive, printing, pharmaceutical, media, and general retail.

Dave Djavaherian is the owner of PacTech Law. Mr. Djavaherian has worked as in-house and outside counsel to many of the world’s leading technology companies. He manages IP, litigation, licensing and standards matters worldwide, partnering with and facilitating the needs and priorities of his business clients. He has served as President of the Federal Bar Association’s Orange County Chapter, and as a Delegate for the United States at the United Nation’s Telecommunication Standards Advisory Group’s 2014 meetings in Geneva, Switzerland. He taught Intellectual Property Law and Strategy for Business Managers at the University of California, Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business, and sat on the Board of the Boalt Hall Alumni Association. Prior to forming PacTech Law, Mr. Djavaherian was Associate General Counsel for Broadcom Corporation, managing matters relating to technology standards, litigation, licensing, policy and strategic risk reduction. ​While at Broadcom, Mr. Djavaherian received Broadcom’s President’s Award for superior service. He previously served as Vice President, Head of Litigation and Associate General Counsel for Tessera, Inc., a Silicon Valley-based semiconductor technology company, and was the only employee in multiple years to receive Tessera’s Superior Results Award. Before going in-house, Mr. Djavaherian worked at Irell & Manella, LLP, leading litigation and intellectual property matters, and was recognized as a “Rising Star” by Law & Politics magazine

Dr Deichfuß has been a Judge at the Bundesgerichtshof, in Germany, since 2012, working within the 10th Civil Division (X. Zivilsenat) which has inter alia jurisdiction in patent dispute matters and the Competition Law Division (Kartellsenat) which has jurisdiction in competition law matters. Prior to that he was a judge at the Higher Regional Court of Karlsruhe (Baden-Württemberg) between 2002 - 2012, a Cleark at the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Court of Justice) from 1998-2001, and a judge at the Regional Court of Mannheim (Baden-Württemberg) on 1 February 1993. Appointment for life in 1996.

Jeffrey Draeger is the Director of Patent Strategy & Transactions at Intel Corporation. As Director of Patent Strategy and Transactions, Mr. Draeger focuses on patent transactions including licenses, purchases and sales of patents, as well as patent portfolio development strategy, pre-litigation patent assertions and related due diligence. Mr. Draeger’s team analyzed and transacted several multi-hundred million dollar patent purchases, including RealNetworks and Interdigital. Mr. Draeger has also been involved in litigation and patent office proceedings related to Intel’s technology. Previous to these activities, Mr. Draeger focused on portfolio development and prosecution management and was responsible for the development of the patent portfolios for Intel’s core technologies (i.e., processors, chipsets, interconnect, etc.). Mr. Draeger was also a microprocessor designer at Intel and is a named inventor on two microprocessor patents.

Sir Christopher Floyd is a Lord Justice at the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. Sir Christopher Floyd was called to the bar at Inner Temple in 1975 and became a Bencher of his inn in 2001. In 1988, he was called to the bar of the Republic of Ireland and in 1992 was appointed a Queen’s Counsel. He was appointed an Assistant Recorder in 1994 and a Recorder in 2000, being authorised as a deputy High Court judge and assigned to the Patents Court in 1998. He served as Deputy Chairman of the Copyright Tribunal from 1995 to 2007. He was appointed a High Court judge in 2007, and assigned to the Chancery Division. He was the judge in charge of the Patents Court between 2011 - 13.  On 9 April 2013, he was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal.

Eliana Garcés Tolón is Deputy Head of Unit for industrial policy and competitiveness in DG Enterprise at the European Commission. Eliana Garcés was a member of the Cabinet of Vice-President Joaquín Almunia, the European Commissioner for. Eliana has a PhD in Economics from the University of California Los Angeles on the econometric evaluation of public policy and has also solid experience in competition policy. Before joining Vice President Almunia, she worked in private antitrust consulting in the United States and in the Chief Economist Team of the Commission's Directorate General for Competition. She also worked in the cabinet of European Commissioner for Consumer Protection Mrs. Meglena Kuneva on commercial practices in retail and online markets.

Avery Gardiner is Assistant General Counsel at Verizon Communications, where she focuses on antitrust counseling, merger analysis and approval, and antitrust litigation. Previously, Avery also worked as a Trial Attorney and Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust at the Department of Justice and at two law firms. She graduated with honors from Harvard College and Harvard Law School.

Fabian Gonell is Vice President and Division Counsel of Qualcomm's Technology Licensing division, where his responsibilities include managing the division's legal department and overseeing the company's compliance with the rules of standards organizations. Prior to joining Qualcomm, Mr. Gonell was a litigator at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP in New York, where he represented Qualcomm and other clients in patent and antitrust litigation. He also served as an adjunct professor at the Fordham University School of Law, where he taught courses in interviewing, counseling and negotiation. Mr. Gonell holds a BA in Economics from the City University of New York and a JD from the Fordham University School of Law, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Fordham Law Review.

Until recently, Sharaz was head of HTC’s patent litigation and licensing functions for the EMEA region.   Prior to joining HTC, Sharaz was employed as European Patent Counsel at Qualcomm.  His main areas of work in both of these roles was in European patent litigation, where he supervised multi-jurisdictional patent cases.  Sharaz has been involved in most of the major battles of the so-called ‘mobile phone wars’, including Qualcomm v Nokia,  IPCom v HTC, Apple v HTC, Nokia v HTC and HTC v Gemalto which involved patent litigation spanning the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and The Netherlands.  Sharaz was also responsible in negotiating HTC’s patent licences with industry key-players, for both essential and non-essential patents.

Sharaz graduated from the University of Essex in 1988 with a first-class honours degree in Electronic Engineering, winning the Hewlett-Packard Research Labs Scholarship.   He started his professional career as a research-engineer at Hewlett-Packard’s European Research Labs in the UK.  After two years of further post-graduate engineering studies in France (ESIEE) and Germany (University of Karlsruhe), Sharaz joined the European Patent Office in The Hague, as tri-lingual patent-examiner in the field of computer communications.   After rising to the position of senior-examiner and tutor in the EPO Academies, Sharaz resigned from the European Patent Office and qualified as UK and European patent attorney.  He then completed a law degree, obtaining first-class honours; and was subsequently called to the Bar of England and Wales.  His vast experience of patent prosecution, litigation and licensing in Europe mean that Sharaz is able to offer a valuable insight into the global patent environment. 

Latonia Gordon is currently the Director of Standards Policy at Microsoft. Ms. Gordon regularly engages in policy discussions involving standards, IPR, and competition law issues at numerous standards bodies and in many other forums. Prior to joining Microsoft, she was Senior Counsel at Motorola, Inc. where she led numerous efforts in the development of IPR, standards, spectrum and regulatory policies. Ms. Gordon holds several degrees, a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering, a Master’s degree in Business Administration, and a Juris Doctor degree.

Michel Goudelis is Director in Telecommunications in the European Patent Office in Munich since 2003. His Directorate is entrusted of Patent Applications in the area of Wireless Networks. He is also responsible of Standards and Trend Watching.He joined the European Patent Office in 1989 as an examiner in Telecommunications, in the fields of Optical, Wireless and Satellite Communications.

Prior of joining the EPO, he worked at the Planning Department of the Hellenic Telecommunications Organization, in the Division of Wireless Communications. Previously, he worked as an Engineer in the Telecommunications Industry.

He has an Electrical Engineering degree from the National Technical University in Athens, Greece, as well as a Telecommunications Engineer degree followed by a PhD from the ENST in Paris, France.

Simon Harries is Head of Legal, Patents Division at Vodafone. His is a specialist in patent drafting and prosecution, trade mark protection, IP Law in International Standards Setting organisations. Pan European patent defence, enforcment and litigation. He previously worked as a European Patent Attorney at fJ Cleveland, Black & Decker, and Urguhart Dykes & Lord.

Dan Hermele is Senior Director and Legal Counsel at Qualcomm. He is frequently involved in policy discussions about licensing of IPR in the ICT sector and the relationship between IPR and standardisation. Prior to joining Qualcomm in 2008, Daniel worked in private practice and in-house for Nortel where he was IP Regional Lead, EMEA. He is a barrister of England and Wales and a European and British patent attorney. He obtained a Bachelors degree in Mathematics and a Masters degree in Law both from the University of Bristol in England.

Renata B. Hesse is Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Criminal and Civil Operations at the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. From November 16, 2012, until the confirmation of Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer, Ms. Hesse served as Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division. She rejoined the Antitrust Division in March of 2012, having previously served in several different capacities at the Division between 1997 and 2006.

Immediately prior to returning to the Division, Ms. Hesse served as Senior Counsel to the Chairman for Transactions at the Federal Communications Commission, where she oversaw the Commission’s investigation of AT&T’s proposed acquisition of T-Mobile. Before that, Ms. Hesse was a partner in the Washington, DC office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

Ms. Hesse has been recognized in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Business Lawyers (2007- 2011), The International Who’s Who of Competition Lawyers & Economists (2009-2011), and received the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award in 2005.

David M. Howard is corporate vice president and deputy general counsel in the litigation and competition law group of Microsoft Corp. Prior to joining Microsoft in 2010, he was a litigation partner in the Philadelphia office of Dechert LLP where he co-chaired the firm’s white collar and securities litigation group. His practice has focused on complex civil and government enforcement cases. Howard has more than 25 years of litigation experience, including work in the White House — on special assignment with the Task Force on the Iran-Contra Matter — and serving as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He is an experienced trial lawyer who has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in civil and criminal proceedings, and has argued many times before the U.S. Courts of Appeals. He has also worked extensively in the area of corporate compliance and corporate internal investigations.

Chris Israel joined American Continental Group in 2010, bringing his experience as an accomplished public and private sector executive with an extensive record of leadership, including senior-level appointments by the President of the United States, service on Capitol Hill and holding a senior-level position within a Fortune 50 company. Mr. Israel works with a diverse range of clients to develop and execute effective policy and communications strategies. He continues to be a frequent speaker on IP and innovation issues and was named one of the 50 “Most Influential People on IP” by Managing Intellectual Propertymagazine in 2006.  He has also been called upon to testify before Congress several times since leaving public service. Mr. Israel served for nearly seven years in senior leadership roles in the Bush Administration.  He was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy at the Commerce Department by President Bush on 2001. While in this position, he led the development and execution of the Administration’s policies designed to maximize U.S. competitiveness and technological growth.  From 2003 to 2005, Mr. Israel served as Deputy Chief of Staff to Commerce Secretaries Donald L. Evans and Carlos Gutierrez, where he assisted in the leadership and management of major Commerce Department priorities such as trade and economic policy. He also served as senior liaison to the White House and other federal agencies.  In 2005, he was appointed to be the first U.S. Coordinator for International Intellectual Property Enforcement by President Bush.  In this role, he was responsible for coordinating and leveraging the resources of the U.S. government to protect American intellectual property at home and abroad. He was frequently called upon to testify before Congress and lead U.S. delegations to key countries including China, India, Russia, Japan and the EU.  He also represented the U.S. in global fora including WIPO, G8 and the OECD. Before serving in the Bush Administration, Mr. Israel was Director of International Policy at Time Warner where he worked on issues such as online privacy, intellectual property protection and online taxation.  He also assisted in the development of the Global Business Dialogue on E-Commerce, working directly with Time Warner’s then-CEO Gerald Levin. Earlier in his career, he served on Capitol Hill for U.S. Representatives Jan Meyers (R-KS) and Todd Tiahrt (R-KS). Mr. Israel received his B.A. from the University of Kansas and an M.B.A. from The George Washington University.

Sir Robin Jacob is the Sir Hugh Laddie Chair in Intellectual Property Law at UCL, and Director of the UCL Institute of Brand and Innovation Law. Sir Robin joined the UCL Faculty of Laws in May 2011 leaving the Court of Appeal of England and Wales to do so. Having read Natural Sciences at Cambridge, Sir Robin then read for the Bar (Grays Inn). He started practice at the Intellectual Property Bar in 1967. From 1976 to 1981 he was the Junior Counsel for the Comptroller of Patents and for all Government departments in intellectual property. He was made a Queen's Counsel in 1981. His practice took him abroad often (Hong Kong, Singapore, Europe, USA, and Australia). He was appointed a High Court Judge (Chancery Division) in 1993. From 1997 to 2001 he was Supervising Chancery Judge for Birmingham, Bristol and Cardiff. He was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal in October 2003. He was Treasurer of Grays Inn in 2007. He continues to sit from time to time in the Court of Appeal and will sometimes act as an arbitrator or mediator.

Rian Kalden graduated at Leiden University in 1989 and finished a Master (including Intellectual and Industrial Property law at LSE) at Londen University in 1990. In 1991 she started her career, joining the Amsterdam Bar with the law firm Stibbe, where she practised for almost 11 years. There she first joined the intellectual property department and turned to company law (focussing on mergers and acquisitions) later on. In 2002 she became a judge at the District Court of The Hague. There she joined the Patent Chamber. From 2005 to mid 2008 she was a judge – in 2007 appointed vice president - at the District Court of Haarlem, where she joined the Criminal Division. Mid 2008 she returned to the Intellectual Property Division of the District Court of The Hague, from January 2009 as head of the Division, where she dealt with all kinds of IP cases, but mostly patent cases. Rian Kalden was appointed judge in The Court of Appeal of The Hague in September 2013 where she now heads the Division that, among other areas, also covers all IP cases. She speaks at national and international conferences on Patent law and related issues. She also acts as an arbitrator in NAI (Netherlands Arbitration Institute) arbitrations.

Takashi Komoro is Managing Director of Intellectual Property Department, NTT DOCOMO, INC. He is responsible for developing and implementing DOCOMO’s overall IPR strategies, making effective use of the company’s more than 9,000 patent portfolio, and supporting its R&D and business units for IPR issues.

He has long experience in new business development and international business. His past experience includes; Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Telargo, an international joint venture company of DOCOMO in the US, which provided mobile asset management services for fleet owners; Director of Credit Card Business Department, and responsible for managing DOCOMO’s NFC based electric money service named “iD.”

Mr. Komoro entered Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation in 1986, and joined NTT DOCOMO in 2002. He has a bachelor’s degree in science from the University of Tokyo, Japan, and MBA from the University of Toronto, Canada.

Thomas Kramler is deputy head of the unit responsible for antitrust cases in the information industries, internet and consumer electronics sectors in the European Commission’s Directorate General for Competition. Mr Kramler holds a law degree and a PhD from the University of Vienna, Austria.

He has graduated with a Master’s degree in European Community Law from the College of Europe (Bruges).

Before joining the European Commission Mr Kramler worked as agent representing the Austrian government before the European Courts in Luxemburg.

Michael Loch is the Head of Intellectual Property at the GSMA. He is responsible for GSMA Mutual legal matters and Intellectual Property Rights in the GSMA. Michael is an English qualified solicitor with a BA Hon. from the School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies, University of London. Prior to University, Michael trained as a radio journalist in the German Army. In 1989-1992, Michael ran a Russian language school for English and German students in Moscow.

Following articles as a trainee solicitor in Charles Russell, Michael was a telecoms regulatory lawyer with Field Fisher Waterhouse. In 2000, he became the European in-house counsel for Genesis Telecommunications, a subsidiary for Alcatel. Following Alcatel, he was Senior Legal Counsel at Hitachi Data Systems. Before joining the GSMA, Michael was the Regional Counsel at Nokia for Vodafone, UK and Ireland.

Christian Loyau is Legal Affairs Director at ETSI. Christian Loyau graduated from the University of Paris in commercial and IP law.
After 5 years practicing in law firms in Denmark and France, Christian was an in-house lawyer for Digital Equipment Corporation, and Cap Gemini in France.

He served for 12 years as Legal Director for International Affairs for the French telecommunications company Matra Communication and was involved in the IPR group of ETSI from 1993 to 1996.

He then served as General Counsel and Secretary of the Board of the French IT company Bull for 14 years.

Amy Marasco is the general manager for standards strategy at Microsoft, leading a team that addresses strategic policy and engagement issues on a corporate-wide, global basis. She regularly engages in policy discussions involving standards, intellectual property rights, and competition law issues at numerous standards bodies and in many other forums.

Among other activities, Ms. Marasco is one of three rapporteurs at the TSB Director’s IPR Ad Hoc Group at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T), co-chairman of the Standards Policy Committee at the Intellectual Property Owners Association, chairman of the Standards and IPR Policy Committee at the Telecommunications Industry Association, and incoming vice chairman of the ANSI IPR Policy Committee. She has testified or given presentations on standards-related policy issues upon request by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Justice (Antitrust Division), the European Commission, METI (the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry), and CESI and CNIS (in the People’s Republic of China).

Ms. Marasco joined Microsoft after serving as the vice president and general counsel of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) from 1994-2004. Prior to joining ANSI, she was an attorney with the law firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in its New York office. 

James Marshall is a partner in the London office of Taylor Wessing LLP. James obtained a BSc in Mathematics and Physics from the University of Bristol.  He is an MIET (Member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology).  He subsequently was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1986.  After spending a year as a pupil barrister (two of his pupil masters subsequently becoming English Patents Judges), he joined a firm of London solicitors in 1987.  For his entire career he has specialised in intellectual property.

He has advised and acted in patent and other IP litigation in England for clients in a wide range of sectors including in particular pharmaceuticals and telecommunications (both standard essential and implementation patents). Many of his cases have been reported. He also has considerable experience in advising and negotiating licences and other transactional matters involving IP (including in the context of European competition law).

James Marshall is profiled in the English legal publications "Chambers Guide to the Legal Profession" and the "Legal 500".  Chambers 2013 recognises James, who "is praised for his superb understanding of the technology at issue in the cases he takes on", whilst Legal 500 2012 recognises James for "his patent litigation expertise".  He is also ranked as a leading individual in Life Sciences by Chambers UK 2014.  James is an associate member of the British Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys.

Aleksander Mehrle is licensing counsel for Sisvel US, Inc. where he is a lead negotiator for several of its licensing programs including MPEG Audio, DVB-T, DSL, and Wireless. He is also Program Manager responsible for all aspects of Sisvel’s Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) licensing program. In addition to out-licensing, his responsibilities include forging industry partnerships to develop new licensing programs or other patent monetization opportunities. He was a Fulbright Fellow in Kyiv, Ukraine and began his career in intellectual property as an intern at the VC Firm Lux Capital, NYC.

Kerry Philip Miller is Senior IPR Licensing Counsel at Nokia Networks where he is responsible for IPR regulatory affairs. He is also responsible for various patent licensing and divestment projects. Prior to Nokia, Mr. Miller was General Counsel at ContentGuard, a leading developer of digital rights management technology, and prior to that he was Vice President of Intellectual Property at EchoStar/Dish Network.

Brian Napper is a Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting and is based in San Francisco. He is the U.S. Head of Dispute Advisory Services group and the Global Head of Intellectual Property practice within the Forensic & Litigation Consulting segment. He was formerly the Global Principal in Charge of Deloitte & Touche’s Intellectual Property Services.

A nationally recognized consultant and expert witness, Mr. Napper’s experience encompasses a wide variety of industries including telecommunications, semiconductor, chemicals, consumer products, life sciences and computers, and numerous high-profile matters and multi-defendant litigations pending in venues throughout the country, e.g., Lucent v. Gateway, Uniloc v. Microsoft, Finisar v. DirecTV, 3Com v. Realtek, Apple v. Motorola and CSIRO v. Toshiba.   Mr. Napper’s background is in accounting, finance and economics, and he has a specific, focused understanding of those issues integral to the valuation and management of intellectual property.

Earl Nied is the Program Director of Standards and Intellectual Property Rights for Intel Corporation’s Global Public Policy Group. Earl is responsible for Intel's worldwide policies on Intellectual Property Rights issues relating to Standards. He chairs the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Intellectual Property Rights Policy Committee (IPRPC) and serves on the ANSI Board of Directors. He is an active participant in the: International Telecommunications Union Telecommunication (ITU-T) Standardization Sector IPR Ad Hoc Committee; European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) IPR Committee; and Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) Standards Setting Committee. In addition, Earl has been a consultant to several international standards development organizations including the Audio Video Coding Standard Workgroup of China (AVS) and the China Electronics Standardization Institute (CESI).

Troy Niehaus is Director of Business Development at Intellectual Ventures (IV). His role focuses on sourcing and creating deal flow and new channels in support of the IV acquisition roadmap. Prior to this role he was Managing Director with Eagle Harbor Holdings identifying emerging markets from 2010-12. Troy has held management & sales positions as President, Vice President, Senior Account Executive, Major Account and Territory Manager. He has also worked for Metronor, Rand Worldwide, Parametric Technology and Eclipse Surgical Technology respectively. He has a solid and consistent history of exceeding performance expectations and revenue goals. Troy is an accomplished business operations manager maximizing productivity through efficient design and utilization of resources and human capital. He has notable competencies in Patent Acquisition / Licensing, Operations, Sales and Business Development, and Relationship Management. Troy has a MS degree in Management from the University of Colorado and BS from the US Air Force Academy. Troy served honorably as an Officer and Special Agent in the United States Air Force, and he also is a co-owner at OTTER LLC.

Karin J. Norton is Director and Senior Counsel at Samsung Electronics. Prior to joining Samsung, Karin was in private practice and also served as
Senior Investigative Attorney at the Office of Unfair Import Investigations at the US International Trade Commission.

Gil Ohana is Senior Director, Antitrust and Competition for Cisco Systems, the leading manufacturer of networking equipment for the Internet. Gil regularly advises Cisco on antitrust issues relating to mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, standard setting, distribution, intellectual property licensing, and government investigations, and government and private litigation. Gil writes and speaks regularly on antitrust issues in mergers and acquisitions, as well as IP licensing, standard-setting, antitrust issues in patent litigation, and other subjects at the intersection of antitrust and intellectual property law. He has participated in discussions of standards development organization IPR policies at leading SDOs such as ANSI, ETSI, IEEE-SA, and IETF.

From 1993 through 1996, Gil was a trial attorney with the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he participated in the Division's investigation of Microsoft's software licensing practices and its successful court challenge to Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Intuit. 

Gil received his law degree from Columbia University, where he was articles editor of the Law Review, and his B.A. from Harvard College. He is admitted to the bars of California and the District of Columbia.

William Plut has been involved in innovation and invention monetisation since 1997. He currently resides in Silicon Valley, California, where he leads Patent Profit International LLC, an international organisation specialising in the sale of top-tier patents. Mr Plut practised prosecution for nine years at a leading Silicon Valley prosecution firm and is a member of the US Patent Bar. He has founded and helped to build several Silicon Valley start-ups. Mr Plut is also the lead inventor of over 60 patents and patent applications, and has successfully monetised his own inventions. PPI’s team resides across the world, with headquarters in Silicon Valley and team members in Korea, Israel and Canada. Venture capitalists, individual inventors, research institutions and companies of all sizes all rely on PPI to monetise their intellectual property. PPI’s international reach permits it to service patent sellers and meet buyers across the globe.

Heinz Polsterer is the Head of Standardization and IPR Management in the Deutsche Telekom Technology Group. For more than a past decade he has been involved in several global key initiatives with the aim to improve the IPR environment and facilitate innovation.

Heinz is the founding member of the ETSI IPR Special Committee. In 2005, he organized the first meeting of the Committee in Vienna, resulting in a series of improvements to the ETSI IPR rules.

Until recently, Heinz was the head of the NGMN working group on patent pools, focused on predictable and reliable royalty rates for new technologies. The work of the group resulted in the creation of various LTE patent pools.

In 2011, with the telecommunication industry increasingly under threat from aggressive patents exploitation and poor patent quality, Heinz Polsterer was instrumental in the creation of the IPR Working Group in GSMA, he is chairing up to now.
The Group has been set up in order to protect innovation and to prevent misuse of patents. Currently, the GMSA IPR Working Group is involved in activities associated with the creation of the European Patent Court System (UPC) and to improvements to the quality patents worldwide.
Beside his work on IPRs he is heading the Standardization activities of Deutsche Telekom since 2001.

Sharon Prost is the Chief Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Judge Prost was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2001 and assumed the duties of Chief Circuit Judge on May 31, 2014. Prior to her appointment, Judge Prost served as Minority Chief Counsel, Deputy Chief Counsel, and Chief Counsel of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate from 1993 to 2001. She also served as Chief Labor Counsel (Minority), Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources from 1989 to 1993. Prior to her work on Capitol Hill, she served for fifteen years in five different agencies of the executive branch. These agencies included the Department of Treasury, National Labor Relations Board, and General Accounting Office. Judge Prost received a B.S. from Cornell University in 1973, an M.B.A. from George Washington University in 1975, a J.D. from the Washington College of Law, American University in 1979, and an LL.M. in tax law from George Washington University School of Law in 1984.

Ami Shah is Managing Director at Fortress Investment Group and a partner in Fortress’ IP Investment Group, where she helped found Fortress’ asset based lending fund that provides technology companies with capital in the form of patent backed loans.  Fortress’ patent-backed financing alternatives offer mid and late stage technology companies an innovative way of leveraging their patents without risking them in litigation or losing a strategic advantage by selling. Via their patents, companies can now take advantage of an attractive new source of funding at competitive terms compared with traditional capital providers.  
Prior to joining Fortress, she was responsible for, Global Wireless Patents, at Intel Corporation for over 10 years where she oversaw the company’s wireless patent procurement, licensing, transaction and monetization activities for Intel and Intel’s development partners. Before joining Intel, she was with the law firms of Dorsey & Whitney and Fish & Richardson.   In addition to her Juris Doctorate, Ms. Shah has earned both a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering.

J. Gregory Sidak is founder and chairman of Criterion Economics, L.L.C. Sidak is an expert on antitrust, regulation, patents and intellectual property, FRAND royalties for standard-essential patents, telecommunications, energy, and contractual disputes, and on damages and valuation in complex litigation and international arbitration generally. He has served clients throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia, and the Pacific. He also serves as a court-appointed neutral economic expert on damages and liability.

Sidak is also a founding co-editor of the Journal of Competition Law & Economics, the preeminent international journal on antitrust law and economics, which has been published quarterly by the Oxford University Press since 2005.

Sidak studied law and economics at Stanford University and served as Judge Richard Posner’s first law clerk. He formerly was a staff member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and was deputy general counsel of the Federal Communications Commission. From 2009 to 2014, Sidak was the Ronald Coase Professor of Law and Economics at Tilburg University in The Netherlands. Sidak has also previously held academic positions at Yale University, Georgetown University, and the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. His books and articles have been cited by the Supreme Court of the United States, the Supreme Court of Canada, and the European Commission.

David Teece is Professor of Global Business at University of California at Berkeley. He is also the co-founder and leader of Berkeley Research Group, LLC. He is a renowned economist and an authority on matters of industrial organization, technological change, and innovation, particularly as it relates to antitrust and competition policy and intellectual property. Dr. Teece has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania and has held teaching and research positions at Stanford University and Oxford University. He has received four honorary doctorates.

Dr. Teece has over 30 years of experience as an active consultant performing economic, business, and financial consulting services to businesses and governments around the world. He has worked on matters in industries ranging from music recording to DRAMS, software, lumber, and petroleum, and has testified in both federal and state court, before Congress, and before the Federal Trade Commission, as well as in several international jurisdictions. He is the author of more than 200 books and articles (visit Dr. Teece's Google Scholar page), and is the co-editor of Industrial & Corporate Change (Oxford University Press). According to Science Watch (November/December 2005), he is the lead author on the most cited article in economics and business worldwide from 1995 to 2005. He is also one of the top-10 cited scholars for the last decade and has been recognized by Accenture as one of the world's top-50 business intellectuals. In addition, he is among the "A-List of Management Academics 2011," an honorary group of 30 accomplished and distinguished U.S. business professors. Dr. Teece was chairman and co-founder of LECG (1988-2007) and vice-chairman from 2007 to 2009.

Nikolaus Thumm started working at the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (European Commission, Joint Research Centre) in April 2014. Until 2013 he was the Chief Economist of the European Patent Office (EPO) and Executive Secretary of the EPO Economic and Scientific Advisory Board. Prior to joining the EPO Nikolaus was working as Senior Economic Counselor for the Swiss Federation. He was chairman of the United Nations' Advisory Group on the Protection and Implementation of Intellectual Property Rights for Investment, a private-public partnership group. Nikolaus spent time as researcher at the European University Institute in Florence and with Europa Kolleg Hamburg in Germany, where he received his doctorate in economics.

Duane Valz is senior patent counsel for strategic IP initiatives at Google. He leads a variety of projects directed towards present and future risk mitigation, spanning targeted patent development, licensing, acquisitions and open source patent strategy. Mr Valz has counselled a wide range of emerging growth, private and publicly held companies on IP and technology matters in various capacities. 

Before joining Google in 2011, Mr Valz practised at Chadbourne & Parke LLP, where he was twice named in IAM Strategy 250 – The World’s Leading IP Strategists. His past experience includes serving as head of patent development at Yahoo! and as director of intellectual property at Quantum Corporation.

He received his JD from the University of California at Berkeley, School of Law where he served as submissions editor of the Berkeley Technology Law Journal. He earned his BA with honours and distinction in general scholarship from the University of California at Berkeley.

Richard Vary is an English solicitor advocate, and Director of European Litigation for Nokia. Richard has bachelors and masters degrees in Natural Sciences (physics, chemistry, molecular cell biology) from Downing College, Cambridge University. He trained at Linklaters, qualifying into the Intellectual Property litigation department. He joined Nokia in 2006. Richard has particular expertise in multi-jurisdictional patent litigation, and today heads the European litigation team at Nokia. He managed the European and Asian aspects of the litigations brought by Qualcomm, Interdigital, IPCom and Apple.

David has worked with the GSMA for over 10 years, serving in a number of roles, currently as Associate General Counsel. David has been responsible for compliance and antitrust matters, leading regulatory interaction in Europe, the US, Africa and Asia, adopting appropriate industry polices for IPR and acting as Secretary and advisor to the GSMA Board. David has worked as a consultant to all levels of the telecoms value chain and spent four years with both the US law firm Jones Day and UK City firm Linklaters. David is a Member of the English and Spanish Bar, holds an LL.M from the College of Europe, Bruges, an LL.B from Trinity College, Dublin and Panthéon-Assas, Paris, and a BA from the Johns Hopkins University.

Ray Warren is Senior Licensing Counsel with Google Inc. where he leads projects related to IP risk mitigation, patent licensing, and represents the company at standards organizations on patent policy issues.

Before joining Google, Mr. Warren was Senior Licensing Counsel at Motorola Mobiltiy LLC and Motorola, Inc. for over 30 years where he was responsible for patent strategy, patent licensing, defensive matters, and representing the company at various SSOs such as European Telecommunications Standards Institute, American National Standards Institute, Telecommunications Industry Association, and the International Telecommunications Union with regard to IP policy matters. Mr. Warren has represented most of Motorola’s different business units including the Semiconductor Products Sector, Cellular Infrastructure Group, and Mobile Devices Business.

Mr. Warren is a Registered U.S. Patent Attorney. He earned his BS in Electrical Engineering and JD from The University of Oklahoma and an MBA from Arizona State University.

Dirk Weiler is Chairman of the ETSI General Assembly and the ETSI IPR Special Committee, Vice Chairman of the German BITKOM Working Group Standardization, Member of the CEN-CENELEC-ETSI Joint Presidents' Group, Member of the DIN Presidential Committee FOKUS.ICT and the ETSI representative to the European Commission's ICT Multi-Stakeholder Platform.

He is Head of Standards Management & Horizontal in the Networks Business of Nokia, responsible for standardization policy, membership portfolio, type approval and environmental standardization.

He regularly appears as speaker or chairman in conferences and events about standardization, IPR and the relationship of both.

Until 2006 he held various management positions in the areas of development, research, intellectual property, standardization and marketing in Siemens. Since 1988 he has been working actively in standardization on technical as well as board level in ETSI, ITU, OMA and various other bodies.

He joined Siemens in 1985, starting in the development of the Mobile Communication System C450, after his graduation in Physics from the University of Cologne and the Institute of Nuclear research in Jülich, Germany.

John Whealan joined GW in 2008 as the Associate Dean for Intellectual Property Law. Dean Whealan coordinates GW’s extensive IP program, including its IP LLM program. Dean Whealan co-teaches two courses, Patent Law and the Federal Circuit.

Before joining GW, Dean Whealan worked at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) where he served as deputy general counsel for intellectual property law and solicitor. Dean Whealan also served as counsel to U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, where he worked on legislation that eventually became the America Invents Act (AIA).

Prior to joining the USPTO, Dean Whealan was a staff attorney for the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC). He clerked at both the appellate and trial court levels.

Dean Whealan received his Juris Doctorate degree from Harvard Law School, a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from Drexel University and a Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering from Villanova University.

The venue for this conference was the
George Washington University - Jack Morton Auditorium
21st Street NW, Washington, DC 20052, USA

The venue is located on the George Washinton University's Foggy Bottom campus which sits in the heart of the Washington DC, in a vibrant neighborhood bordered by the Potomac River, the Watergate complex, the White House and the State Department.

• 4 Blocks from White House
• 2 blocks from Foggy Bottom/GWU Metro Station
• 2 Official GW Hotels (One Washington Circle Hotel & The George Washington University Inn)
• Close proximity to shops & restaurants
  
  

Download a map of the George Washington University Campus
The venue is marked in building 19 on this map.

UK Lawyers:
The conference was accredited with 11.5 CPD hours by the SRA and BSB

US Lawyers:
Upon request, the GWU Law School submitted applications to state bar associations for continuing legal education credits. Please note that CLE approval is ultimately at the discretion of individual states and no advance assurance can be given that credit will be granted in all cases.