2024 World IP Day Celebration
Building Our Common Future with Innovation and Creativity

Karthika Perumal, LES Past President, Partner at Womble Bond Dickinson

Karthika’s practice involves all aspects of technology law with an emphasis on the protection, acquisition, and monetization of intellectual property. She advises clients on patent and transactional matters in the healthcare and energy sectors across a wide range of technologies, such as biotechnology, biomedical devices, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, oil and gas processing, and software. She leverages her background in scientific research and technology transfer to help clients meet their business objectives at every stage of product development.

Karthika handles a variety of transactions, including multiparty collaborations, joint ventures, manufacturing, supply, distribution, and software development, service, and support agreements. She has developed commercialization strategies for several technologies and participated in the structuring and financing of six startup companies for various pharmaceutical, medical device, and medical informatics products. She was also involved in biological research projects and has published several articles in peer reviewed journals.

Karthika is a Certified Licensing Professional (CLP), the past President of Licensing Executives Society (LES) USA & Canada, and she has written extensively on IP licensing issues. She has been recognized by Texas Super Lawyers® as a Rising Star in Intellectual Property for 2018-2022. She was the recipient of the 2022 Excellence in Diversity Award from the Houston Intellectual Property Law Association.

Kathi Vidal, Director, USPTO

Kathi Vidal is the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and agency Director, a role in which she provides leadership and oversight to one of the largest intellectual property (IP) offices in the world and serves as principal advisor to President Biden through U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo on domestic and international IP policy.  Prior to joining the USPTO, Director Vidal helped harness and protect innovation at all levels. Throughout her career, she has represented new innovators and startup companies with limited resources. She has also represented many of our country’s most successful and well-known companies. She was most recently a managing partner and Executive Committee member at Winston & Strawn LLP, where she represented both patent holders and defendants in U.S. district courts and the International Trade Commission. She has also been deeply involved in practice before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, argued numerous Federal Circuit appeals, and led amicus efforts on important cases before the Federal Circuit and the Supreme Court. She has received many awards as a top litigator and was inducted into the Litigation Counsel of America, a society of the leading American trial lawyers. Before joining Winston & Strawn, she led a litigation group of 270 attorneys in 11 global offices at Fish & Richardson and sat on the firm’s Management Committee.  Director Vidal began her career as a systems and software design engineer with General Electric and Lockheed Martin, where she designed one of the first artificial intelligence systems for aircraft, as well as aircraft and engine-control systems that continue to keep our military safe today.

Director Vidal has spent her career championing the importance of mentoring and expanding opportunities to include more individuals from underserved communities. She has played an active role on the advisory board of ChIPs (women in policy, law, and technology) and on other boards and committees focused on diversity and inclusion, and has mentored diverse women across the globe as part of the Fortune-U.S. Department of State Global Women’s Mentoring Partnership program. Director Vidal worked as a law clerk for Judge Alvin Anthony Schall on the United States Court of Appeal for the Federal Circuit. She holds a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Binghamton University, a Master of Science in electrical engineering from Syracuse University, and a Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania where she was Editor-in-Chief of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. Director Vidal grew up in a career military family and spent her informative years on military bases in the United States, Panama, Germany, and the Azorean Islands (Portugal). An avid marathoner and golfer, Director Vidal has also competed in crew, equestrian polo, and played volleyball at the collegiate level, among her many athletic accomplishments.

Dr. Gary Michelson, Founder and Co-Chair at Michelson Philanthropies

Pauline Newman, Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

Pauline Newman was appointed by President Ronald W. Reagan in 1984.  From 1969 to 1984, Judge Newman served as Director, Patent, Trademark and Licensing Department, FMC Corporation, and as house counsel from 1954.  She worked as a research scientist at the American Cyanamid Company from 1951 to 1954.  From 1961 to 1962, she worked for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as a science policy specialist.  She served on the Domestic Policy Review of Industrial Innovation from 1978 to 1979, on the State Department Advisory Committee on International Intellectual Property from 1974 to 1984, and from 1982 to 1984 as Special Adviser to the United States Delegation to the Diplomatic Conference on the Revision of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.  She served as Distinguished Professor of Law at the George Mason University School of Law.  Judge Newman received a B.A. from Vassar College in 1947, an M.A. from Columbia University in 1948, a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1952, and an LL.B. from New York University School of Law in 1958.  She has received many honors and awards, including the Gold Medal of the Licensing Executives Society.

Paul Redmond Michel, Former Chief Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

Honorable Paul Redmond Michel was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in March of 1988 by President Ronald Reagan. On December 25, 2004, he assumed the duties of Chief Judge. After his elevation to Chief Judge, he served as one of 27 judges on the Judicial Conference of the United States, the governing body of the Judicial Branch. In 2005 he was appointed by Chief Justice Rehnquist to also serve on the Judicial Conference’s seven-judge Executive Committee. On May 31, 2010, Chief Judge Michel stepped down from the bench after serving more than 22 years on the court.

In his years on the bench Judge Michel judged thousands of appeals and wrote over 800 opinions, approximately one-third of which were in patent cases.

Prior to his appointment to the bench, Judge Michel was assistant district attorney in the Office of the Deputy District Attorney for Investigations in Philadelphia from 1966-74, as well as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army Reserve from 1966-72. From 1974-75, he was the Assistant Watergate Special Prosecutor, and from 1975-76 was assistant counsel to the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. He then became the deputy chief and Koreagate prosecutor for the Public Integrity Section of the United States Department of Justice from 1976-88. He was the associate deputy U.S. attorney general in 1978 and in 1981 became counsel and administrative assistant to U.S. Senator Arlen Specter until his judicial appointment. He has served as adjunct faculty at several institutions of higher education including the George Washington University Law School and John Marshall Law School. In 2012 he joined the Intellectual Property Advisory Council at the University of Akron School of Law.

Judge Michel has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Jefferson Medal, the Frederico Award, the Katz-Kiley Prize, the Eli Whitney Prize, the Sedona Conference® Lifetime Achievement Award, and awards by the ABA Section of Intellectual Property, AIPLA, IPO, the Linn Intellectual Property American Inn of Court, and other leading organizations. He was named one of the 50 most influential leaders in intellectual property in the world by Managing Intellectual Property magazine and inducted into Intellectual Asset Management magazine’s International Hall of Fame.

A frequent speaker on IP subjects, he has also testified before Congress on patent reform legislation and has served as Special Advisor to the Patent Reform Task Force.  Judge Michel earned his B.A. from Williams College in 1963 and his J.D. from the University of Virginia in 1966.

Dr. Vinton Cerf, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist, Google

Vinton G. Cerf has served as vice president and chief Internet evangelist for Google since October 2005. In this role, he contributes to global policy development and continued standardization and spread of the Internet. He is also an active public face for Google in the Internet world.

Cerf is the former senior vice president of Technology Strategy for MCI. In this role, Cerf was responsible for helping to guide corporate strategy development from the technical perspective. Previously, Cerf served as MCI’s senior vice president of Architecture and Technology, leading a team of architects and engineers to design advanced networking frameworks including Internet-based solutions for delivering a combination of data, information, voice and video services for business and consumer use.

Widely known as one of the "Fathers of the Internet," Cerf is the co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols and the architecture of the Internet.   In December 1997, President Clinton presented the U.S. National Medal of Technology to Cerf and his colleague, Robert E. Kahn, for founding and developing the Internet. Kahn and Cerf were named the recipients of the ACM Alan M. Turing award in 2004 for their work on the Internet protocols. The Turing award is sometimes called the “Nobel Prize of Computer Science.” In November 2005, President George Bush awarded Cerf and Kahn the Presidential Medal of Freedom for their work. The medal is the highest civilian award given by the United States to its citizens. In April 2008, Cerf and Kahn received the prestigious Japan Prize and in 2013 Cerf, Kahn and three others received the Queen Elizabeth Prize in Engineering. Cerf was made an officer of the French Legion d’Honneur in December 2014 and Foreign Member of the British Royal Society in July 2016. In 2018 together with Robert Kahn, he received the Franklin Medal.

Judge Randall Rader, Expert and Educator

Randall R. Rader, former Chief Judge of U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Chief Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (2010-2014) Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (1990-2010) Federal Trial Judge, United States Claims Court (later Court of Federal Claims) (1988-1990) Chief Counsel, Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittees (1980-1988) Counsel, House of Representatives, Interior and Ways and Means Committees (1975-1980)

For over 25 years, Judge Rader has been a thought leader in the field of intellectual property law and jurisprudence. His work as Chief Judge, his publications and his work teaching patent law globally to students, judges and government officials has left an indelible mark on the field of IP law and the protection of IP rights throughout the world. Judge Rader was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit by President George H. W. Bush in 1990 and assumed the duties of Chief Judge on June 1, 2010. He was appointed to the United States Claims Court (now the U. S. Court of Federal Claims) by President Ronald W. Reagan in 1988.

Before appointment to the Court of Federal Claims, former Chief Judge Rader served as Minority and Majority Chief Counsel to Subcommittees of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. From 1975 to 1980, he served as Counsel in the House of Representatives for representatives serving on the Interior, Appropriations, and Ways and Means Committees. Since leaving the bench in 2014, Judge Rader has founded the Rader Group, initially focusing on arbitration, mediation, and legal consulting and legal education services. Judge Rader has presided over a major arbitration under ICC rules in Paris; conducted mediations to settle ongoing litigation; joined law faculty at Tsinghua University; conducted full-credit courses at leading law schools in Washington, D.C., Seattle, Santa Clara, Bangkok, Seoul, Tokyo, Munich; consulted with major corporations and law firms on IP policy and litigation; and advised foreign governments on international IP standards. He continues to advocate improvements in innovation policy through speaking engagements worldwide.

John Fraser, President, Burnside Development & Associates

John is President, Burnside Development & Associates, his consulting business, which focuses on Mentoring for academic technology transfer commercialization including technology scouting, all elements of commercialization (STEM and Social Innovations) and start-up formation/financing. He is also an expert in ‘Customer Discovery’- interviewing potential market buyers to quantify market pull. Cofounded 3 companies.  He has assisted entrepreneurs launch 40+ university licensed technology firms, and created/headed 4 university technology transfer offices (TTOs) in the US and Canada.   He has clients in Chile (universities), in India (biotech TTOs), through WIPO as an International Expert mentoring academic TTOs in Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand; through the World Bank as Licensing Expert at the Serbian Innovation Fund and in the US at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Maryland, as Entrepreneur-in-Residence.

For 18 years, John served as Assistant VP for Research & Economic Development at Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida. He founded the Office, hired staff and built relationships with researchers to create a dynamic results-oriented service Office. Prior to FSU, John served as President, CEO and Board Director of University Technologies International, the for-profit technology transfer office of the University of Calgary, Calgary;
Executive Vice President/Co-founder of UTC, Inc., a venture capital backed, North Carolina based university licensing/technology transfer firm. This for-profit venture provided academic technology transfer services to four US universities on an exclusive basis and to the Smithsonian Institution. Previously, John served as Vice President of TDC, Inc., a Toronto/Vancouver-based venture capital firm and as an Awards Officer of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) in Ottawa. In 2006, John was elected President and Chair of the AUTM Board for 12 months.

John earned a Master’s Degree in Biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley and graduated in 1969 with a BSc. Chemistry, 1st Class Honours, Carleton University, Ottawa.

Raymond Van Dyke, Attorney, Van Dyke Intellectual Property Law

Raymond Van Dyke is an IP/Patent Attorney and Educator. In his practice he helps a variety of clients in their IP matters. He specializes in patent and trademark matters in various technologies, litigation, licensing, and procurement. After being a partner in big firms, he started his own IP consultancy in Washington, DC, with diverse domestic and international clientele and technologies, handling matters at the USPTO, Federal Circuit and local State and Federal courts. He is an Adjunct Professor at Geroge Washington University, and teaches IP courses for engineers, business people and other professionals at the University of Maryland and George Mason University, also teaching about the history and philosophy of IP, history of technology, famous inventors and deals, etc.  He has also taught at Southern Methodist University, American University, and across the world.  Ray also teaches at NIH and other institutions. He is the Senior Vice President of Special Events at LES and Chair of the LES DC Chapter; an AIPLA Fellow and former Chair of a number of Committees; Chair of the Montgomery County Bar Association IP Section, former Board Member of the DC Chapter of the ACM, former Board Member of ITechLaw (Computer Law Association); and continues his involvement in IPO, the MSBA, AIPPI, ABA, BIO, IEEE and other legal and technical organizations. Ray got his BS, MS in Computer Science and law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is licensed to practice in DC, MD, NY, NJ and TX, as well as the USPTO, and is a member of the U.S. Supreme Court, Federal, Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Circuit Courts and a number of District Courts, Court of International Trade and Federal Court of Claims.  Ray also continues in his efforts to fight on behalf of the small inventor community in protecting the principles of the patent system.