PTAB Bar Reminder: Industry and Diversity Committee Panel TODAY

The PTAB Bar Association Industry Committee and Diversity Committee are proud to present:
 
Practical Steps to Provide Underrepresented Inventors Access to the Patent System
Monday, September 26, 2022
1pm ET
 
Register here: https://bit.ly/3UbirSG.
 
Study after study shows that greater diversity in innovation leads to better ideas and ultimately better products and services, yet the named inventors on patents remains strikingly homogeneous. The USPTO 2018 SUCCESS Act study and report found that women and minorities are underrepresented as inventors named on US patents, and companies report disparities in the number of invention disclosures that they receive from these underrepresented groups. What is causing these disparities and how can we tap into the underutilized innovation from these underrepresented groups?
 
Join us in a discussion of these issues with leaders who are identifying practical steps that companies can take to help unleash this potential.
 
Speakers:
Julie AkhterSenior Corporate Counsel, Microsoft
Marc AsperasDiversity in Innovation Team Lead, Intel
Micheal BinnsHead of Patent Portfolio Strategy, Family of Apps, Meta
Colleen ChienProfessor of Law, Santa Clara University
Deanna KwongDirector, Office of Operations, Legal, and Administrative Affairs, Hewlett Packard Enterprise
 
Moderator:
Inge OsmanPartner, Latham & Watkins
 
 
Julie Akhter is senior corporate counsel at Microsoft. During her time at Microsoft, she has counseled product groups on IP issues, analyzed and maintained Microsoft’s patent portfolio, led patent licensing and sale negotiations.  Julie has also led Microsoft’s IP group’s diversity and outreach efforts with external engineering groups such as Grace Hopper, SHPE, and NSBE for many years and currently leads Microsoft’s internal women inventorship taskforce.  The goal of this taskforce is to increase the number of women and minorities in the inventive community. Prior to this role, Julie was a patent attorney at Morrison & Foerster in Silicon Valley and a patent agent at Darby & Darby in Seattle. Julie obtained her B.S. in Mathematics with Computer Science at MIT, an M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford, and a J.D. from Stanford Law School.
 
Marc Asperas leads the Diversity in Innovation Team at Intel.  He is a Lawyer admitted to practice in the USA and Solicitor or England and Wales, as well as a Patent Attorney of 20+ years and has experience in all aspects of patent law from litigation to licensing.  Marc aspires from Native American and Latino ancestry, has been active in Native Affairs in law school, and is proud to represent Intel in Diversity Inventorship issues.
 
Micheal Binns is Head of Patent Portfolio Strategy for Meta’s Family of Apps and an Associate General Counsel on the Patent, Licensing, and Open Source team at Meta, formerly Facebook. At Meta, Micheal is a subcommittee co-chair within the Black@Legal group, focused on ensuring an equitable experience for diverse employees in the Legal department. He also promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion in the legal field by providing opportunities for lawyers within tech, mentoring future and current law students, and working to increase the diversity pipeline for college and law school students looking to enter the intellectual property field.
 
Colleen Chien is Professor of Law at Santa Clara University School of Law where she teaches, mentors students, and conducts empirical research on innovation, intellectual property, and the criminal justice system. She is a Faculty Scholar of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics and co-Director of the High Tech Law Institute. From 2013-2015 Chien served in the Obama White House as a Senior Advisor, Intellectual Property and Innovation and in 2021, Professor Chien began working part-time as a Senior Counselor for the Department of Commerce after serving on the Biden-Harris Transition team. Professor Chien is a recipient of the Early Career Medal of the American Law Institute, and in 2019 was named a National Law Journal Tech Trailblazer. Chien is a graduate of Stanford (Engineering) and Berkeley Law Schools and lives in Oakland with her husband and their two sons. She is the founder of several civic engagement projects and the Paper Prisons Initiative, which aims to close the second chance gap between eligibility and delivery of second chances.
 
Deanna Kwong is a Director in the Office of Operations, Legal, and Administrative Affairs (“OLAA”) at Hewlett Packard Enterprise.  Deanna has spent almost twenty years practicing law, with an emphasis on advising clients on and litigating intellectual property issues.  In 2019, The Recorder recognized Deanna as a Women Leader in Tech Law, as part of the California Leaders in Tech Law and Innovation Awards.  In 2022, the Silicon Valley Business Journal named Deanna a “Woman of Influence” in Silicon Valley.  Deanna has extensive experience working to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (“DEI”) in the technology and legal industries.  She presently serves on the HPE CEO’s Executive Inclusion & Diversity Council and manages the team responsible for DEI efforts across all OLAA functions, which include Global IT, Legal, Corporate Affairs, ECO, Global Security, Global Workplace, the Transformation Office, and other departments.