Speakers

Shara Aranoff (Chairman), a Democrat of Maryland, was nominated to the Commission by President George W. Bush on April 27, 2005, for the term ending December 16, 2012. Prior to her appointment, Chairman Aranoff was Senior International Trade Counsel on the Democratic staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, where she was responsible for legislative and policy issues on international trade and investment, including the Trade Act of 2002; negotiations involving the World Trade Organization, the Free Trade Area of the Americas, and numerous free trade agreements; trade remedy laws; Trade Adjustment Assistance; and trade-related environment and labor issues.

Jonathan D. Baker has more than 13 years of experience litigating patent and trade secret cases. He has tried several cases before the U.S. International Trade Commission, and has served as lead counsel in district courts throughout the country and in appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He recently won summary judgment of invalidity on behalf of 3DLabs in one of the first cases applying the Federal Circuit’s Bilski test for patentable subject matter to software patents. Mr. Baker was also a key member of the patent litigation team that defended Gateway, Inc. against Lucent Technologies in the Southern District of California. The team achieved a number of significant pre-trial rulings in this high-profile dispute, and in 2007 was recognized by The National Law Journal on its annual “Defense Hot List” for “exemplary, cutting-edge work in civil defense.”

Robert Barr is the Executive Director of BCLT and the former Vice President for Intellectual Property and Worldwide Patent Counsel for Cisco Systems in San Jose, California, where he was responsible for all patent prosecution, licensing and litigation. Robert has degrees in Electrical Engineering and Political Science from MIT and a JD from Boston University School of Law. He is a frequent speaker on patent reform and has testified twice at the Federal Trade Commission hearings on Competition and Intellectual Property Law and Policy in the Knowledge-Based Economy. He was named by the Daily Journal as one of the top 25 Intellectual Property Lawyers in California in 2003, and as one of the top 10 in-house intellectual property lawyers in 2004.

Charles Bullock has served as an ALJ at the ITC since 2002. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and a law degree. Prior to serving as an ALJ at the ITC, he served as a trial attorney and ALJ at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and as an ALJ at the Environmental Protection Agency.

G. Brian Busey‘s practice focuses on complex intellectual property matters, especially those before the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and in federal district courts. In addition to litigating more than twenty Section 337 cases, G. Brian is highly experienced in cross-border intellectual property disputes in a variety of areas, including patents, trademarks, and trade secrets. He also has counseled clients concerning intellectual property licensing and has substantial experience in alternative dispute resolution. G. Brian is sought out as a speaker and has written extensively on ITC practice and procedure, both in the U.S. and in Asia. G. Brian is a leader in the ITC Bar, and is the 2010 President Elect of the International Trade Commission Trial Lawyers Association.While earning his J.D., Mr. Busey was Editor of the Georgetown Law Journal.

Carl C. Charneski has served as an ALJ at the ITC since 2007. He holds a bachelor’s degree and a law degree. Prior to serving as an ALJ at the ITC, he served as an attorney at Department of Labor (Mine Safety and Health) and as an ALJ at the Social Security Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Ruffin Cordell is a Principal of Fish & Richardson in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. His practice emphasizes all aspects of intellectual property litigation, including patent, copyright, and trade secret law. He appears regularly as lead counsel before federal district courts in Virginia, Texas, California, and throughout the country, and has extensive experience before the ITC in Section 337 proceedings. Ruffin has handled patent and trade secret cases involving microprocessors, operating system software, flash memory, product activation software, hybrid vehicles, graphics controllers, imaging sensors, dense wave division multiplexed telecommunications systems, unified messaging systems, Ethernet network systems, multi-protocol routers, DSL devices, digital loop carriers, class IV tandem switches, cellular switches, metro class drop add multiplexers, optical switching platforms, supervisory signaling point equipment, broadband access systems, unified frame buffer structures, three dimensional graphics platforms, digital memory structures, and storage devices. He has also handled cases involving complex ophthalmic devices, optoelectronic devices, pharmaceuticals, and automotive devices. Prior to joining Fish & Richardson, he was an examiner in computer interface device technology at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Ruffin was named one of the Legal Times’ “Leading IP Lawyers in D.C.” in October 2003. He was also named to the 2006, 2007, and 2008 editions of The Best Lawyers in America. Most recently, Ruffin was named as one of the “Top 50 Under 45” attorneys in IP Law & Business in May 2008.

Andy Culbert received a bachelor of arts degree in biology from Williams College, Williamstown, Mass. After college, he served in the Peace Corps for two years in Butembo, Congo Zaire), teaching biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics in French to Congolese high school students. At William & Mary Law School, Andy was a Legal Writing Course Instructor and a member of the William & Mary Law Review. Following law school, he worked in the litigation department and became a partner at Drinker, Biddle & Reath, LLC, where he focused mainly on intellectual property law. Andy is currently Associate General Counsel for Microsoft Corporation and head of Microsoft’s worldwide patent infringement docket. He manages all of Microsoft’s worldwide patent infringement litigation, including hiring and supervising of all outside counsel, directing strategic and tactical handling of the cases (currently about 50), editing briefs and presenting oral arguments, and advising the client about its patent assets and liabilities. Andy is also an adjunct professor in the intellectual property LLM program at the University of Washington School of Law. He has tried a number of cases in federal courts across the country, and has written and spoken extensively on intellectual property issues

Mark Davis is a partner in the patent litigation practice at Weil Gotshal and is based in the Washington, DC office. Mr. Davis focuses on litigation of intellectual property rights and associated antitrust issues. He has significant experience representing clients before the International Trade Commission and both district and appellate federal courts. In addition, Mr. Davis taught patent enforcement for many years as an adjunct professor at the George Washington University Law School. He has also written and spoken extensively on intellectual property and international trade related issues.

Michael Diehl is Counsel to USITC Chairman Shara L. Aranoff. Since 2005, he has advised the Chairman on section 337 investigations and import injury investigations. Before joining the Chairman, Mr. Diehl served in the USITC’s Office of the General Counsel for nine years. While there, he represented the Commission before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the U.S. Court of International Trade, and WTO and NAFTA Panels.

David Djavaherian is the Vice President of Litigation and Associate General Counsel for Tessera, Inc. Tessera is a publicly-traded semiconductor technology company based in San Jose, California, which invests tens of millions of dollars annually in research and development in the semiconductor and optics industries. Mr. Djavaherian oversees the company’s intellectual property enforcement efforts, including management of multiple International Trade Commission proceedings from filing through post-trial appeal and enforcement proceedings. Mr. Djavaherian taught Intellectual Property Law and Strategy at the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine. He is an Officer and Director for the Federal Bar Association, and serves on the IPO’s ITC Committee. Prior to joining Tessera, Mr. Djavaherian specialized in patent litigation at Irell & Manella LLP. He received his undergraduate and law degrees from UC Berkeley, and an M.A. from Georgetown University.

Theodore R. Essex has served as an ALJ at the ITC since 2007. He holds a bachelor’s degree and a law degree. Prior to serving as an ALJ at the ITC, he served as an attorney at the Department of State, various legal positions in the U.S. Air Force, and as an ALJ in the Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals.

E. James Gildea has served as an ALJ at the ITC since 2008. He holds a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree in management, and a law degree. Prior to serving as an ALJ at the ITC, he served as an attorney in private practice, as an assistant U.S. attorney, and as an ALJ in the Social Security Administration.

Wayne W. Herrington is Assistant General Counsel at the U.S. International Trade Commission. He obtained his J.D. from Columbia University and his LL.M. from George Washington University. He served as law clerk to Judge Giles S. Rich of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and is the co-author of Intellectual Property Rights and United States International Trade Laws (Oceana Publications, 2002).

Noreen Krall is Senior Director at Apple Inc., managing patent litigation. Prior to joining Apple in 2010, Noreen was Vice President of Intellectual Property Law and Litigation for Sun Microsystems. Noreen started her career at IBM in New York, and held various positions in both engineering and legal in several IBM divisions. She has a bachelors degree in electrical engineering from Manhattan College and a masters degree in computer science from Iona College along with her degree in law from the University of Denver.

Lynn Levine is the Director of the Office of Unfair Import Investigations (OUII) at the United States International Trade Commission. Before becoming Director of OUII she had served as a Supervisory Attorney in that office, as well as a Staff Attorney in both the Commission’s Office of General Counsel and OUII. Prior to joining the staff of the Commission, Ms. Levine was engaged in private practice in Washington, D.C. with the firm of Howrey & Simon, where she concentrated on litigation and counseling in the fields of antitrust and trade regulation. Ms. Levine holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hamilton/Kirkland College and a Juris Doctor degree from Cornell Law School. She has spoken at numerous intellectual property law conferences throughout the United States.

Paul J. Luckern has served as an ALJ at the ITC since 1984 and has been Chief ALJ since 2008. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, a master’s degree in Organic Chemistry, and a law degree. Prior to serving as an ALJ at the ITC, he worked as a chemist, a patent examiner (at the U.S. PTO), a technical advisor at the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals (the predecessor court to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit), a patent consultant, a patent attorney, a government intellectual property trial attorney, and an ALJ with the Social Security Administration.

Anthony Peterman serves as Dell’s chief patent counsel and manages Dell’s legal team responsible for patent related legal issues worldwide. His practice includes strategy and counseling for Dell’s patent portfolio, patent litigation and other patent issues. Mr. Peterman joined Dell in 1998 as a member of the intellectual property legal team, and he was promoted in 2003 to Legal Director. He assumed the role of chief patent counsel in August of 2009. Prior to joining Dell, Mr. Peterman was an associate with Baker Botts, L.L.P. He was a member of the Baker Botts Intellectual Property Group, and represented technology clients on litigation and transactional IP matters.

Peter S. Menell is Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law. He co-founded and serves as a Director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology. Professor Menell earned his S.B. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, his M.A. and Ph.D. (economics) from Stanford University, and J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review. After graduating from law school, he clerked for the Honorable Jon O. Newman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. Professor Menell joined the law faculty at the University of California at Berkeley in 1990, where his research and teaching have focused on the fields of intellectual property, the digital technology and entertainment industries, environmental law, property law, and law and economics. He has written more than forty articles and numerous books, including Intellectual Property in the New Technological Age (with R. Merges and M. Lemley, 5th ed. 2010); Software and Internet Law (with M. Lemley, R. Merges and P. Samuelson, 3rd ed. 2006). Professor Menell has organized more than 30 intellectual property education programs for the Federal Judicial Center since 1998. Building on those activities, he co-authored “Patent Case Management Judicial Guide” (Federal Judicial Center 2009) (with Lynn Pasahow, James Pooley, and Matthew Powers).

Matthew Powers is co-chair of the firm’s 500-lawyer Litigation department. He specializes in trying patent and trade secret cases. He has litigated and tried cases all over the world involving a wide range of technologies, including semiconductor devices and manufacturing equipment and processes, DNA sequencing, medical devices and other biotechnologies, computer hardware and software, communications (network and telephony) and the Internet. Powers is an Editor-in-Chief of the Intellectual Property & Technology Law Journal, and has published extensively on various aspects of intellectual property law and litigation. He is a frequent lecturer nationally and internationally on intellectual property litigation issues. Mr. Powers also teaches a patent litigation course at the University of California, Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law, and has lectured on patent law at Stanford University and Santa Clara University. He serves on the firm’s overall Management Committee.

Sturgis Sobin is a partner in the firm’s Washington office. He has represented clients in more than 40 intellectual property cases before the U.S. International Trade Commission under Section 337, as well as in related U.S. District Court litigation. This fast-paced litigation has involved patent, trademark, copyrights and trade secret issues, and has often required the development and implementation of complex worldwide litigation and licensing strategies. Mr. Sobin has served as lead trial counsel in multiple large and complex trials covering a range of technologies and commercially valuable IP rights. In addition to extensive practice of international trade and IP litigation, Mr. Sobin has represented clients involved in large-scale, high technology antitrust and unfair competition cases and complex economic damages. Mr. Sobin has represented and counseled clients in all of the major areas of the international trade regulation field, including Section 337, antidumping, countervailing duty, Section 301, Section 201 and WTO proceedings. His section 337 practice has been noted in such publications as The Wall Street Journal, The American Lawyer, The Recorder, and Legal Times. He has been invited to speak on Section 337 and international IP enforcement issues before professional and business groups, including the California, District of Columbia, Federal Circuit, and America Bar Associations.

Ronald M. Whyte is a federal judge in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose. He was nominated by President George H.W. Bush on July 26, 1991, confirmed by the United States Senate on February 6, 1992, and appointed on March 2, 1992. Judge Whyte received an A.B. degree in Mathematics from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut in 1964, and a J.D. degree from the University of Southern California Law School, Los Angeles, California in 1967. From 1967 to 1968 Judge Whyte was in private practice in Claremont, California. He then served as a Lieutenant, Judge Advocate General Corps., U.S. Naval Reserves from 1968 to 1971, after which he returned to private practice working at Hoge, Fenton, Jones & Appel Inc. in San Jose, California until 1989 when he was appointed a Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge by Governor George Deukmejian.

Quicklinks

Support

Quicklinks

For Students

Speakers