McAndrews Attorneys Christopher V. Carani and Kirk A. Vander Leest Presented at Managing Intellectual Property’s “IP in Asia Forum” on Strategies for IP Protection in China
05.30.14
McAndrews, Held & Malloy shareholders Christopher V. Carani and Kirk A. Vander Leest presented at Managing Intellectual Property magazine’s “IP in Asia Forum” in Silicon Valley on May 28. Managing Intellectual Propertyis also hosting the IP in Asia Forum on May 30 in Seattle, where McAndrews shareholders Ronald A. DiCerboand Guy W. Barcelona Jr. will speak on trademark protection in Asia. McAndrews, Held & Malloy is a sponsor at this year’s Forum.
The IP in Asia Forum is designed for U.S.-based in-house counsel conducting business in Asia and drew world leaders in corporations, public health and the sciences, as well as local and global legal advisors. The panel sessions provided insights on topics such as patentability in China, IP monetization and licensing, and the newest IP trends and developments in Asia. Attendees left the Forum with a better understanding of how strong enforcement really is in China, how to enhance their IP rights and protection in Asia, and how to build a robust and profitable Asian IP portfolio.
Carani and Vander Leest’s panel, entitled “Writing Strong Patent Applications in China,” addressed:
- How to get the IP protection you are looking for
- Crucial differences in writing patent applications in China compared to the US
- What you should include in your application to support your patent claim
They were joined by four other panelists: Heather Molleur, corporate IP counsel at Symantec; Subroto Bose, IP counsel at Altera Corporation; Lili Wu, patent attorney at CCPIT Patent and Trademark Law Office; and Duo Chen, senior patent counsel at Oracle.
For the full agenda and list of speakers, click here.
Christopher V. Carani, Esq. is a leading authority and internationally recognized in the field of design law, having litigated numerous design disputes and published and lectured extensively on the topic, including presentations at the United States Patent & Trademark Office (Washington D.C.), Chinese State Intellectual Property Office (Beijing, China), the World Intellectual Property Organization (Geneva, Switzerland), and the European Union’s Office of Harmonization of the Internal Markets (Alicante, Spain). Carani counsels clients on strategic design protection and enforcement issues; he is often called upon to render infringement, validity and design-around opinions and serve as a legal consultant/expert in design law cases. Carani has worked with some of the world’s most design-centric clients to secure a wide array of design rights both in the U.S and outside of the U.S., including extensive filings in China.
Carani recently concluded a two-year term as the chair of the American Bar Association’s Design Rights Committee, and is also the past chair of the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) Committee on Industrial Designs. In the landmark design patent case Egyptian Goddess v. Swisa, he authored amicus briefs on behalf of the AIPLA at both the petition and en banc stages. Prior to joining McAndrews, Carani served as a law clerk to the Honorable Rebecca R. Pallmeyer at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. He was conferred his Juris Doctorate from The Law School at The University of Chicago and also holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Marquette University. He is currently licensed to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals and other U.S. District Courts. Carani is a registered patent attorney licensed to practice before the USPTO. He is frequent contributor to CNN on intellectual property law issues, and often is called upon to provide comment to other media outlets, including New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR, PBS TV, CNBC TV, BBC, Bloomberg TV, Reuters, InformationWeek, Fast Company, ComputerWorld, PCWorld, Washington Post, L.A. Times, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, Fortune, and FoxBusiness TV. Away from the law, Chris is a studied jazz musician playing upright bass on the Chicago jazz circuit.
Kirk Vander Leest has more than 20 years of experience in a wide variety of intellectual property matters. He regularly advises clients on issues such as portfolio development, infringement, due diligence investigations and acquisitions. His practice covers technologies including medical devices, electronics, telecommunications and automotive components. Vander Leest has extensive experience with practice before the Patent Office Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”), including interference and reexamination proceedings, and more recently with both covered business method and reviews. He has successfully litigated on behalf of multi-billion-dollar corporations, but also provided counsel at a cost structure that works well for midsize technology, industrial and manufacturing companies.