Kashish Aneja
Consultant, O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University Law Center and Visiting Research Scholar, Harvard Law School
Kashish Aneja specializes in global health law and policy. Currently, he is a Visiting Research Scholar at Harvard Law School, where he is researching technology transfers and their impact on access to essential health products. This builds upon his work at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, where he leads initiatives in Asia and advises governments, international organizations, and global health institutions on law and governance frameworks for advancing public health. He also serves on the WHO’s Roster of Consultants for Public Health Law and Policy. He has contributed to and led projects for the World Health Organization, UNAIDS, CEPI, Gavi, the World Bank, and the Duke-NUS, among others. His legal and policy expertise has contributed to the drafting of national legislations and policies and international legal instruments, including negotiations around the WHO Pandemic Agreement and International Health Regulations (IHR) Amendments.
Beyond advisory and policymaking, he has experience in strategizing litigation and providing legal counsel to healthcare institutions, including hospitals, startups, and public health agencies.
Aneja holds an LL.M. in global health law and international institutions from Georgetown University Law Center. He was awarded the Georgetown University Global Health Law Scholar award for his master’s program. Aneja also holds a postgraduate diploma in medical law and ethics from the National Law School of India University and a B.A. LL.B. from the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi, India.
Christine Coughlin
Professor of Law at Wake Forest University Law School
Professor Chris Coughlin is a Professor of Law at Wake Forest University School of Law and a core faculty member of the Wake Forest University Center for Bioethics, Health and Society. Her scholarship is interdisciplinary, and her work has been cited in legal, scientific, medical, and educational journals and texts. Her most recent scholarship focuses on the legal, ethical, and policy issues in human subjects research, investigational drugs, and emerging biotechnologies. Professor Coughlin was named the 2024 Wake Forest Law Faculty Member of the Year and has received numerous other awards for teaching, teaching innovation, and scholarship.
Gladys Daniel
Attorney, Daniel and Gladys Law Firm, Chennai, India
Gladys Daniel has been practicing, IP Law since 2000. graduated from Dr. Ambedkar Government Law College, Chennai. She has represented her University in prestigious international moot court competitions held in Vienna, and emerged as a semi-finalist. She was the first Advocate to reach that level in India. Along with Mr. Daniel, her father and team of lawyers she has been instrumental in giving a new thrust and dimension to this field of IP law in India. She has handled cases of clients of various other reputed associate law firms in India. She assists many senior counsels in some of the landmark cases that have answered many unanswered questions, considering the recent yet rapid growth of intellectual property law in India. She handles high profile litigations in the Madras, Delhi High Court and Supreme Court relating to trademarks, patents and copyrights.
Chen Gu
Former counsel for Tencent and Western Digital Corporation
Chen Gu previously served as Senior IP Counsel at Seyond (Lidar startup), Lime, Tencent and Western Digital Corporation. Chen was also a Patent Examiner at USPTO and a patent attorney at several boutique IP law firms. Before his law career, Chen was a Senior Reliability Engineer and an inventor at Intel Corporation's Flash Memory Group for 12 years. Currently, Chen also advises Patlytics, a startup company that is building AI based tools for IP legal work.
Chaho Jung
Professor of Law, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea
Professor Chaho Jung, a national of the Republic of Korea, is a Professor of Law for the Law School, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Korea, where he is researching and lecturing patent law related subjects. Prof. Jung holds a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering, from the Sungkyunkwan University; a Master of Intellectual Property degree, from the Franklin Pierce Law Center, New Hampshire, U.S.A.; a Juris Doctorate degree, from the Franklin Pierce Law Center; and a Ph.D. of Law degree from the Chungnam National University, Daejeon, Korea. He is a member of the Korea Patent Attorney Bar Association and also is a member of New York and Massachusetts Bar Associations. Before changing his career to academy in 2004, he had worked for the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) from 1992 to 2004, where he was involved in amending the Korean Patent Act and the Guidelines of the Patent Examinations in the Examination Coordination Division; in many international cooperative activities in the International Cooperation Division; and in supervising examiners as the director of the Precision Machinery Examination Division. During his 20-year professorship, he has published about 134 law review articles and about 10 books. The numbers tell that he is the most prolific author among Korean IP law professors. He is still publishing about 8 articles per year. His main interests are on (1) inventive step jurisprudence, (2) damages calculation, (3) patent invalidation trial (IPR) system, (4) employee invention system, (5) patent scope declaration trial system, (6) second medical use invention, etc. Based on his academic accomplishments, in 2016, the AIPPI Korea granted him an IP Academic award.
Amir Kallas
Technology transfer counsel at University of California, Davis
Amir Kallas is an Intellectual Property Officer of the Technology Transfer Office of the University of California, Davis, Office of Research. Kallas is a 2021 graduate of the sky casino genting McGeorge School of Law.
Jessica Kiser
Associate Professor of Law, Gonzaga University Law School
Jessica M. Kiser is an Associate Professor at Gonzaga University School of Law who teaches courses related to Intellectual Property, Property, and Business Law. In addition to her faculty role, she is Co-Director of the Center for Law, Ethics & Commerce and Director of Gonzaga University’s Wine Institute. Her research involves intellectual property law, especially as it relates to trademark law, brand-building, and strategic business development. Her professional experience includes time spent practicing law as a member of the Transactional Intellectual Property group in Kirkland & Ellis LLP’s New York City office.
Vishv Priya Kohli
Associate Professor of Law and Management, Copenhagen Business School, Copenhagen, Denmark
Vishv Priya Kohli is employed as associate professor of Law and Management at the Department of Business Humanities and Law at Copenhagen Business School in Denmark. Her research interest primarily lies in the area of Intellectual Property Law, where she has a specific focus on counterfeiting in the pharmaceutical sector in the EU. In addition, Priya is carrying out research on the new EU regulation on Geographical Indications (GI) and its impact on the craft sector within the EU. Specifically, she is studying the reverberations of the GI Regulation on Intellectual Property Rights, Competition, and Innovation.
Jeffrey Lefsin
University of California College of the Law, San Francisco
Jeffrey A. Lefsin is Professor of Law at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco. He received his Sc.B. in Biology from Brown University; his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California, San Francisco; and his J.D. from Stanford University. At UC Law, Professor Lefstin teaches contracts, intellectual property, and international intellectual property. He also co-directs the UC Law SF – Bucerius Law School program in transnational intellectual property transactions in Hamburg, Germany. His writings have been cited by in opinions of the district courts, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court. Professor Lefstin joined the UC Law SF faculty after serving as a law clerk to Judge Raymond C. Clevenger, III, at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He also practiced patent and antitrust law with the biotechnology and litigation groups at Townsend, Townsend & Crew in San Francisco. Prior to his legal career, he was a molecular biologist, studying mammalian gene regulatory mechanisms and DNA-protein interactions. His scientific papers appeared in Nature, Genes & Development, and the Journal of Molecular Biology.
Esther Lim
Partner & Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Finnegan Henderson Law Firm
Esther H. Lim is Partner & Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer (CDIO) at Finnegan. Esther has over 25 years of experience in patent litigation counseling, and oversees the firm’s DEI strategies, initiatives, and goals. Esther served as the founding managing partner of Finnegan’s Shanghai office. She served as a law clerk at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Esther is past President of the 120,000-member District of Columbia Bar and past President of Asian Pacific American Bar Association-DC. Since 2003, she has been teaching as an adjunct professor at Howard University School of Law.
As a working mom, Esther continually strives for balance and meaning, embraces learning about the world through reading and people, and enjoys communing with nature and exercise.
Emily Michiko Morris
Professor of Law, University of Akron Law School
Professor Emily Michiko Morris’ scholarship focuses on patent law and regulatory issues related to the biopharmaceutical industry. Her work has been published in books and leading journals, and she has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including a three-year, $250,000 fellowship as an Eastern Scholar at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law. Before joining academia, Professor Morris earned her A.B., magna cum laude, from Harvard University and her J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School, where she was an articles editor on the Michigan Law Review. Professor Morris also clerked for the Honorable Bruce M. Selya on the First Circuit Court of Appeals and practiced for three years as an associate in the Issue & Appeals group in the Washington D.C. office of Jones Day.
Mike Mireles
Professor of Law and Director of the Intellectual Property Certificate of Concentration, sky casino genting McGeorge School of Law
Professor Mireles has taught more than 10 different courses and currently teaches intellectual property law, Property, Wills & Trusts and Cybersecurity Law. He has published papers in numerous journals concerning intellectual property law. He has also coauthored a Cybersecurity Law casebook, Intellectual Property casebook and hornbooks. Professor Mireles taught Cross Border Trade in Intellectual Property in the George Washington University Law School summer program, part of the Munich Intellectual Property Law Center, at the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property Law, Competition Law and Tax Law in Munich, Germany. He has also taught at the University of Denver, Sturm College of Law; University of California, Davis Law School; China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing; Shanghai University of Finance and Economics; Zhejiang Gongshang University in Hangzhou; and University of Salzburg Law School. He recently co-organized an . He has also co-organized conferences in India, Austria and Denver.
E. Prema
Professor and Assistant Dean, VIT University Law School, Chennai, India
E. Prema is a Professor and Assistant Dean at VIT University Law School in Chennai, India. She is a Professor of International Law. Her specialization is International Law and Intellectual Property Law. All of the international presentations reflect her interest in understanding the international cooperation and its implication in the domestic legal system. She was awarded the ERASMUS+ Staff Mobility, 2024 (September) and co-organized the Fall School of International IP & IIP Conference at Salzburg University, in collaboration with Salzburg Law School and McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, USA from September 30 to October 4, 2024.
P.R.L. Rajavenkatesan
Professor of Law, VIT University Law School, Chennai, India
Prof. (Dr.) P.R.L. Rajavenkatesan hails from State of Tamil Nadu, India. He did Bachelor of Law (B.L.) from Government Law College, Thiruchirappalli during 2003-2006 and LL.M. (Intellectual Property Rights & Environmental Law) from School of Legal Studies, Cochin University of Science and Technology from 2006-2008. He was awarded Ph.D. in the topic entitled “A Study on Public Use of Private Rights: With Special Reference to Intellectual Property Rights in India” in 2012 from Department of Legal Studies, University of Madras, Chennai. He was a teaching cum research fellow then Senior Research Fellow (Ministry of Human Resource Development, India) in Intellectual Property Rights Chair in Department of Legal Studies, University of Madras. He started his career as a Guest Faculty for Post Graduate Department of Intellectual Property Rights in the Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University, Chennai, thereafter worked Full Time Guest Faculty in Department of Legal Studies, University of Madras, then worked as an Assistant Professor (III) at School of Law, SASTRA University, Thanjavur. Afterwards, joined as Assistant Professor (Senior) in VIT School of Law VIT Chennai Campus in the year 2015 and coordinating Centre for Research on Intellectual Property Laws and also Research Coordinator of VIT School of Law. Previously holding the post of Associate Professor & Head of the Department of VIT School of Law, VIT, Chennai. Now, working as Professor of Law of VIT School of Law & Assistant Director (Discipline). His areas of expertise are Intellectual Property Rights, Environmental Law, Competition Law Criminal Law, Cyber Law and Media Law etc. He has authored 13 Books (4+9 Edited) and published around 90 Research papers and delivered a good number of Lectures on Intellectual Property Rights, Criminal Law, Environmental Law etc. He has presented papers in more than 80 international/national conferences and seminars and participated/presented paper in 15 workshops.
Srividhya Ragavan
Professor of Law, Texas A&M University Law School
Srividhya (Sri) Ragavan is a Professor of Law at Texas A&M University School of law. She is currently a Fellow at the D. Ambani University. Sri is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee for International Bioeconomy Governance. Sri is engaged with WIPO Academy for different projects and is a consultant with the UN Economic and Social Commission Asia Pacific (UNESCAP). Her presentation today is based on the work she did for the UNESCAP.
Joshua Sarnoff
Professor of Law, DePaul University College of Law
Joshua Sarnoff is a Professor of Law at DePaul University College of Law. He was a consultant to the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Technology Access Pool from 2021 to 2023, has testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Intellectual Property Subcommittee, and from 2014 to 2015 was a Thomas A. Edison Distinguished Scholar at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. He is a registered patent attorney and a private consultant, has been an expert witness and mediator in patent disputes, and has submitted numerous briefs amicus curiae in the U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on a wide range of subjects. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the American Antitrust Institute. His research and teaching focus on the intersections of domestic and international intellectual property law, environmental law, health law, administrative and constitutional law, and antitrust law. Professor Sarnoff is the editor of and a contributing author to the “Research Handbook on Intellectual Property and Climate Change” (Edward Elgar Publishing 2016).
Maria Schmidt-Kessen
Assistant Professor, Central European University, Vienna, Austria
Maria José Schmidt-Kessen is Assistant Professor at the Legal Studies Department of Central European University in Vienna, Austria. She received her PhD from the European University Institute with a thesis on conflicts at the IP-competition interface in EU law. Her main fields of research are antitrust law, IP law, law and technology, online dispute settlement, legal issues related to DLTs/blockchain, as well as the regulation of online gambling. She is also co-executive editor of the journal of the German Association of Intellectual Property Law, GRUR International.
Toshiko Taneka
Washington Research Foundation/W. Hunter Simpson Professor of Technology Law, University of Washington Law School
Professor Toshiko Takenaka (Ph.D.) is a Washington Research Foundation/W. Hunter Simpson Professor of Technology Law at the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle, Washington, USA. She has published numerous articles and books on US, European and Japanese patent laws and advise the Japanese Government for developing of patent policy including AI inventorship and patentability as a member of the Vision Committee of Intellectual Property Headquarters within Japan’s Cabinet.
John R. Thomas
Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law School
Jay Thomas is Professor of Law at Georgetown University. He previously served as the inaugural Edison Fellow at the USPTO and as a Visiting Fellow at the Congressional Research Service. Jay clerked for Chief Judge Helen Nies of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and has held visiting fellowships at the Max Planck Institute in Munich, Germany, and the Institute of Intellectual Property in Tokyo, Japan.
V.K. Unni
Professor, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, India
V.K. Unni is a Professor at the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta (IIM Calcutta) and teaches courses on Intellectual Property Rights, Competition Law, and Corporate Governance. He held the Max Planck India Fellowship (2008-11), instituted by the Max Planck Society (Germany), as the only awardee outside the stream of natural sciences. In 2016 he became the first Asian to hold the Thomas Edison Innovation Fellowship instituted by the Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property (CPIP) at George Mason University School of Law, Virginia, USA. He was a member of the research group on "TRIPS Compliance of Domestic Patent Regimes in Pharmaceutical Industry" undertaken by The Earth Institute, Columbia University (New York) which was later published as a book in 2014 by Edward Elgar Publishing of U.K . He was a Scholar in Residence at the School of Law, University of California, Davis in 2011. He has published in top ranking peer reviewed journals like the WIPO Journal, European Intellectual Property Review, Intellectual Property Quarterly, International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law etc. His research contributions have been cited in reports published by the International Telecommunication Union, European Commission and also before the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in the case of Impression v. Lexmark.
V.C. Vivekanandan
Vice Chancellor and Director of the School of Law & Technology, Hidayatullah National Law University, New Raipur, India
Professor V.C. Vivekanandan is the Vice Chancellor of Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur and the Director of the School of Law & Technology at HNLU.
Professor (Dr.) V.C. Vivekanandan has three decades of teaching and research experience in legal education and served NLS-Bangalore and NALSAR-Hyderabad between 1990 to 2017. He also was the Dean at Rajiv Gandhi School of IP Law at IIT Kharagpur between 2009-2010 and was the founding Dean of the School of Law at Bennett University at Greater Noida during 2017-2019.
He holds a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and Ph.D. degree in law apart from a master’s and M.Phil. degree in Public Administration. Professor Vivekanandan was appointed as the MHRD Chair Professor in 2008 -2009 and again from 2010 to 2017. During this tenure, he was also representing Government of India negotiations in SCCR meets at Geneva as an official delegate from 2013-2015.
He was an elected member of the At Large Community (ALAC) representing Asia Pacific region participating in the deliberations of the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) between 2008-2010 and later became a member of the Nomination Committee (NOMCOM) of ICANN between 2010-2012. He was the founder Director of the Legal Information Institute of India (LII of India) during 2010-12 as part of the Free Access to Law Movement (FALM).
He also served as the NWO-ICCR fellow at Maastricht University School of law and as Invited Scholar at the Institute of Intellectual Property at Tokyo in 2010 and 2015. He is also an adjunct visiting professor for SUNY Buffalo Business School since 2007 for their programs.
Tiffany Wan
Counsel at Samsara
Tiffany Wan is an established Senior IP Counsel with 10+ years of experience advising on and managing high-tech patent portfolios, trademark portfolios and brand enforcement, false advertising, domains, copyrights, and open source. In addition to preparing and prosecuting a variety of patent applications in software, electrical, mechanical, and chemical engineering fields, she has cleared, filed, and prosecuted over 600 trademark applications, filed copyright applications for visual and performing arts, and drafted UDRP complaints. She also has experience reviewing IP assets for M&A due diligence, as well as IP-related contract provisions for a variety of agreements. She is currently the sole IP counsel at Samsara, Inc., a bay area technology company specializing in Internet of Things (IOT) for physical operations, such as AI-dashcam, vehicle gateways, asset trackers, and a cloud dashboard for managing fleets.
Peter K. Yu
University Distinguished Professor, Regents Professor of Law and Communication and Director of the Center for Law and Intellectual Property, Texas A&M University Law School
Peter K. Yu is the University Distinguished Professor, Regents Professor of Law and Communication and Director of the Center for Law and Intellectual Property at Texas A&M University. He is Vice-President of the American Branch of the International Law Association and has served as the general editor of The WIPO Journal published by the World Intellectual Property Organization.
Gudrun Zagel
Associate Professor, University of Salzburg Law School, Salzburg, Austria and Adjunct Professor of Law, sky casino genting McGeorge School of Law
Gudrun Zagel is an Associate Professor in the Department of Legal Theory, International and European Law at the Paris-Lodron University of Salzburg, which is part of the CIVIS University Alliance. She holds law degrees from both the University of Salzburg and the University of Texas, as well as a PhD from the University of Salzburg. Her previous positions include Professor of International Law and Human Rights at the University of the Federal Army Munich, consultant for the Legal Office of the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Associate Professor at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento during the McGeorge Summer Program in Salzburg. She is a co-founder of the International Intellectual Property Fall School and Conference, co-organized with the McGeorge School of Law and VIT Chennai, held in Salzburg. Her research centers on international economic law, human rights law, environmental and climate change law, public international law, and EU external relations law. She has published extensively, delivered lectures, and taught widely in these fields. Current research projects encompass international trade, investment, and IP law and their connections with sustainable development, particularly in relation to climate change and human rights.
Wanqing Zheng
Professor of Law, Zhejiang Gongshang University Law School, Hangzhou, China
Wanqing Zheng, a professor at the Law School of Zhejiang Gongshang University, has been engaged in teaching and research on intellectual property law for a long time. He obtained his doctoral degree in law from the Law School of Renmin University of China. From 2008 to 2009, he served as a visiting scholar at Drake University Law School, USA. From 2013 to 2014, he was a visiting scholar at McGeorge School of Law, sky casino genting, USA. Currently, he is a director of the China Society for Intellectual Property Law Studies and the vice president of the Intellectual Property Law Research Society of Zhejiang Law Society. He has published dozens of papers and authored four monographs. He has received several awards including the Excellent Academic Paper Award of the China Law Society and the Excellent Achievement Award of Philosophy and Social Sciences of Zhejiang Province.
