2025 World IP Day Celebration

Evelyn Chen, LES President, Senior Counsel, IP Rights and Licensing, Ericsson

Evelyn is a Senior Counsel in Ericsson’s IP Rights & Licensing group. In her role, Evelyn supports Ericsson’s patent licensing policies and practices for its industry-leading portfolio of over 49,000 patents. Before joining Ericsson, Evelyn was a patent litigator and prosecutor at Sidley Austin LLP, representing both national and international clients. She also clerked for the Honorable David Folsom in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Evelyn has an Electrical Engineering degree and a law degree from The University of Texas at Austin. Prior to attending law school, Evelyn worked as a registered patent agent for several years, prosecuting patents in a wide-range of technologies ranging from telecommunications to biomedical instrumentation. Evelyn is currently serving as a member of the LES Standards Board. 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.

Pauline Newman, Federal Circuit Judge

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.

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.

Senator Thom Tillis, United States Senator from North Carolina

Thom Tillis is a Senator from North Carolina; born in Jacksonville, Duval County, Fla., August 30, 1960; B.A., University of Maryland University College, 1997; management consultant; member of the Cornelius (N.C.) board of commissioners 2003-2005; member of the North Carolina house of representatives 2007-2014, serving as speaker of the house 2011-2014; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 2014; reelected in 2020 for the term ending January 3, 2027.

Peter-Anthony Pappas, Director of Intellectual Property (IP) Policy for the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary

Peter-Anthony is a patent professional registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). He currently serves as the Director of Intellectual Property (IP) Policy for the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary under Senator Thom Tillis – Chairman of the Subcommittee on IP – to whom he advises on all IP matters (e.g., patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret).

Peter-Anthony also advises the Senator on tech policy (e.g., artificial intelligence, blockchain, etc.), antitrust, and Judiciary Committee nominations, including Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Previously, he served on detail as a Professional Staff Member for the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary under Senator Tillis – then Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on IP.

Prior to his roles in the U.S. Senate, Peter-Anthony served on detail as the Special Advisor to the Under Secretary of Commerce for IP and Director of the USPTO. He advised the Director on IP, artificial intelligence (AI), and agency operational matters. Most notably, Peter-Anthony helped develop the 2019 “Revised Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance,” a framework for how the agency could leverage AI for assisting in search during examination, and the first agency working group tasked with considering the interplay between AI and IP rights.

While at the USPTO Peter-Anthony served on the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Subcommittee AI Research and Development Interagency Working Group and served on the Department of Commerce Interagency Committee on Standards Policy (ICSP) AI Standards Coordination Working Group. He has also served in various other USPTO roles, including Patent Trial and Appeal Board Branch Chief, Supervisory Patent Examiner, and Primary Patent Examiner.

Peter-Anthony has co-authored two papers with the USPTO’s Office of the Chief Economist – “Closing the Gender Gap in Patenting: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial at the USPTO” and “Patents and the Independent Inventor Lifecycle.” These papers are based on USPTO’s first randomized control trial, which was created by Peter-Anthony. This randomized control trial also served as the foundation for the creation of the agency’s Pro Se Pilot Program, which provided affirmative patent assistance to independent inventors and small businesses.

Peter-Anthony received a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and received an Executive Certificate in Public Leadership from the Harvard Kennedy School. He is the third generation of his family to pursue public service.

Professor Jonathan Barnett, University of Southern California Law School

Jonathan Barnett is director of the law school’s Media, Entertainment and Technology Law Program and the author of The Big Steal: Ideology, Interest, and the Undoing of Intellectual Property (Oxford University Press 2024) and Innovators, Firms, and Markets: The Organizational Logic of Intellectual Property (Oxford University Press 2021).. Barnett specializes in antitrust, intellectual property, and corporate and business law, with a focus on innovation policy and strategy in technology markets. Barnett has published in the Harvard Law Review, Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, Yale Law Journal, Journal of Legal Studies, Jurimetrics, Review of Law & Economics, and other scholarly journals. He also regularly comments in the press and at conferences on legal and policy issues concerning antitrust and intellectual property.

He joined USC in 2006 and was a visiting professor at NYU School of Law in 2010. He is also an academic affiliate of the International Center for Law & Economics. Prior to academia, Barnett practiced corporate law as a senior associate at Cleary Gottlieb LLP in New York, specializing in private equity and mergers and acquisitions transactions. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Barnett received a MPhil from Cambridge University and a JD from Yale Law School.

Robert Armitage, Intellectual Property Consultant

Robert A. Armitage serves as a consultant on intellectual property strategy and policy matters. He completed a decade of service as Senior Vice President and General Counsel for Eli Lilly and Company at the end of 2012. Prior to assuming his general counsel role at Lilly, Armitage had been Lilly’s Vice President and General Patent Counsel. Before his Lilly career, he spent six years as a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Vinson & Elkins LLP (1993-1999), where he established and led its D.C.-based IP practice. Among other positions, he has served as an adjunct professor of law at George Washington University Law School (1996-2000), a member of the board of directors of Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (1995-1999), president of the board of directors of Hospice Care of Southwest Michigan, Inc. (1985-1987), a member of the Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy (ACIEP) to the U.S. Department of State (2009-2014), and as chief intellectual property counsel for The Upjohn Company (1983 to 1993), where he began his professional career as a patent trainee in 1974.

Chris Israel, Senior Partner, ACG Consultants

Chris Israel is a Senior Partner at ACG Advocacy and is also the co-lead of the firm’s technology and intellectual property group. 

He joined ACG in 2010, after serving in the George W. Bush Administration as Deputy Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Commerce and later becoming the first U.S. International Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator. 

At ACG Advocacy, Chris works with a diverse range of clients including some of the largest and most innovative companies in the world to support their efforts to build a policy environment in the U.S. that promotes and protects their investments in intellectual property.  He has also developed a unique focus leading a coalition of top venture capitalists and innovative startups to pursue a policy agenda that has led to improvements in tax policy, investments in R&D, and strengthening patent protection. 

Chris maintains a leadership profile working on IP and innovation issues and has been a frequent public speaker and has testified before Congress multiple times both as an Administration official and since he left public service.  He was previously named one of the 50 “Most Influential People on IP” by Managing Intellectual Property magazine. 

His international experience in government, particularly in working with China, has enabled him to successfully engage clients on global trade and technology matters ranging from the negotiations of trade agreements, tariff policy, and engaging international organizations.  His client relationships have included automakers, global manufacturing companies, shipping companies, and Chinese e-commerce and social media platforms seeking to better understand the U.S. market. 

Chris’ experience leading coalitions has also included serving as Executive Director of the musicFIRST Coalition during the lead-up to the passage of the landmark Music Modernization Act.  During this time he was named to Medium’s inaugural “Power 10” list of music policy leaders. 

Within ACG Advocacy, he provides guidance on the firm’s day-to-day interaction with all its clients and helps lead ACG’s extensive policy research team.  He has also launched the firm’s podcast focused on policy trends and developments in Washington.

Valencia Martin-Wallace, USPTO Acting Commissioner for Patents

Valencia Martin Wallace is the Acting Commissioner for Patents of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). As Acting Commissioner for Patents, Ms. Martin Wallace 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.

Prior to her acting role, Ms. Martin Wallace was the Deputy Commissioner for Patents. In that role she manages and leads the Patents organization’s efforts related to international IP harmonization and provides executive oversight over patent-examining functions in technology centers that examine in the technologies of communication, mechanical engineering, manufacturing, and medical devices and processes. Regarding international IP harmonization, she specifically provides executive leadership on international patent legal issues and various work sharing efforts with international partners. 

As part of her 32-year career at the USPTO, she recently served as Deputy Commissioner for Patent Quality where she was responsible for sustaining the high quality of the USPTO’s patent examination processes and products. She also served as Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Patent Operations, where Ms. Martin Wallace oversaw operations in the software technology centers, served as executive co-lead on the implementation of the AIA First-Inventor-to-File statutory framework, and led the implementation of the Office of Patent Examination Support Services.

Ms. Martin Wallace is a graduate of Howard University, where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, and The George Washington University School of Law, where she earned a Juris Doctorate. She has also received a certificate in Advanced Public Administration from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Public Administration. Ms. Martin Wallace was awarded the Presidential Rank Award.

Jennifer Vanderhart, PhD, Managing Director, Secretariat

Jennifer is a Managing Director at Secretariat. As a Ph.D. Economist based in Washington, D.C., she provides a range of services, including litigation support services and economic consulting. Dr. Vanderhart has more than 25 years’ experience in the evaluation and quantification of economic damages including claims arising from patent, copyright and trademark infringement, trade secret misappropriation, and contract disputes. She has also assisted companies in patent and trademark licensing negotiations, royalty investigations and calculations, and intellectual property asset valuations.

Jennifer has published on the subjects of valuation, damages, and intellectual property, and frequently speaks on these topics at conferences and lectures. She is listed in the IAM Patent 1000 and has been recognized in Who’s Who Legal as a Thought Leader in the area Quantum of Damages.

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.