Virtual Water Cooler Chat

This episode of Virtual Water Cooler Chat features Amanda Do Couto (Duh-Koo-Toe), Lead Patent Counsel at Meta. As Lead Patent Counsel, Amanda is responsible for the global patent strategy for various products and tech areas, including WhatsApp, Instagram, Threads, and virtual reality products and research.  

After getting her Chemistry and law degrees from the George Washington University, Amanda practiced patent litigation at a le...

In this special, on-location episode of Virtual Water Cooler Chat featuring Sakina Isgandarova, we met at ROMAN in Reston Town Center. ROMAN is a manifestation of Turkey’s women fashion industry leader’s expansion efforts to global markets. 

With a remarkable 12-year tenure in the fashion industry, Sakina effortlessly navigates the diverse style needs of women in Washington, D.C. Despite the glamorous facade, she understands the re...

This episode of Virtual Water Cooler Chat on ADAPT features guest interviewer Nicole Cohen, VPG's Litigation Assistant (also known as Nico the tree frog in the VPG ecosystem.) Nicole chats with Gail Su, Senior Counsel on the Patent Transactions Team at Google.  

Ms. Su is an intellectual property attorney and United States registered patent attorney with experience in all forms of patent-related and intellectual property-related tr...

This episode of Virtual Water Cooler Chat features Dr. Samantha Rae Dickenson, also known as “Dr. Sam”. Dr. Sam is the leading DEI Strategist and CEO of DSRD Consulting. She's also the creator of the innovative app, DEI Offload™, designed specifically to support the mental health of individuals working in the DEI sector, and her program, DEI Blueprint®, designed to provide strategy development support to DEI and HR professionals.

W...

This episode of Virtual Water Cooler Chat features Administrative Patent Judge LiLan Ren. Judge Ren, or LiLan, received her undergraduate and master's degree in chemical engineering; attended the University of Houston Law Center as a night student while working as an engineer for a major petroleum company. After graduation, she spent a year in private practice followed by a clerkship at the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circu...

This episode of Virtual Water Cooler Chat features Meredith Schoenfeld, Associate Solicitor, Solicitor’s Office, USPTO. 

Meredith is an Associate Solicitor at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), where she serves as legal counsel on intellectual property law matters. At the USPTO, Ms. Schoenfeld defends decisions by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, among other responsibilities. Ms. Schoenfeld is a founding membe...

This episode of Virtual Water Cooler Chat features Jessica Nguyen, Chief Legal Officer of Lexion, the AI-powered legal intake and contract lifecycle management system – helping attorneys manage tasks and contracts in one place. 

Jessica plays an integral role in managing Lexion’s legal function and product and go-to-market strategy while also building a platform advocating for General Counsels, legal professionals, and women with o...

This episode of Virtual Water Cooler Chat features Micheal Binns, Head of Patent Portfolio Strategy for Meta’s Patents & Trade Secrets.  

Micheal chairs Meta’s Black@Legal affinity group, which focuses on ensuring an equitable experience for diverse employees in the legal department. He is also a founder and board member of ADAPT, a DEI collective, the board chair of Page Turners Make Great Learners in Atlanta, a board member o...

This episode of Virtual Water Cooler Chat on ‘Honor Your Light’ features Kavita Battula, Senior Associate at Medler Fero Woodhouse and Mills PLLC.  Kavita is a biotech patent attorney who has 20+ years of experience in top law firms and in-house. A certified Pilates, yoga, and cycle instructor, she is also an integrative nutrition coach, and is dedicated to building community, sharing experiences, overcoming fear, and breaking barr...

This episode of Virtual Water Cooler Chat features ‘Iolani L. Bullock, Vice President of DEI at The Carlyle Group.  

‘Iolani is a dedicated advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). She holds a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) from Georgetown University McDonough School of Business and graduated Magna Cum Laude from New York University with a B.A. in Africana Studies, Marketing, and Communications. In addition ...

This episode of Virtual Water Cooler Chat features Lisa Gable. Lisa Gable is a former US Ambassador to the World Expo to obtain billions of direct foreign investments in the US, to help build Intl’s brand management system as the company ultimately achieves a 73% share of the global semiconductor market. Lisa is CEO, UN delegate, and Wall Street Journal/USA Today’s best-selling author. Lisa speaks and leads on partnership, mentorsh...

This episode of Virtual Water Cooler Chat features Angela Evans, Founder of Waters of Hope. Angela has over twenty years of experience as an educator and initially met Ashley Cheung through an online Airbnb experience. She has since explored various creative writing and publishing projects with her and, most recently, worked with Ashley and Michelle Kim on Building a Leadership Habitat exploring leadership principles through the le...

This episode of Virtual Water Cooler Chat features VPG’s Junior Learning Engineer, Sydney Ricks, chatting with Dr. Coreena Brinck, Head of IP at IntuiCell, a Swedish Artificial General Intelligence start-up and founder of TheBrinckConsultancy, her Nordic/UK consultancy for strategy and CXO-level IP issues.  

Sydney is a Senior majoring in Statistics at Virginia Tech. She is also a music lover and enjoys learning about data analytic...

This episode of Virtual Water Cooler Chat features Natasha “Tash” Craig Durkins. Tash is a senior executive in the federal government and has served in several key leadership positions throughout her civil service career. She is also the celebrated author of a recently published book, Fiercely Joyful: 11 Keys to Living Authentically & Creating a Life You Love.  

In her recent roles, Tash has focused on reconciling the challengi...

This episode of Virtual Water Cooler Chat features Mishele Kieffer, IP Counsel at Medtronic, a global leader in medical technology. Mishele specializes in patent conflict resolution, working on projects like freedom to operate analyses, due diligence issues, and patent litigation.  

Before joining Medtronic, Mishele was in private practice, specializing in patent and general litigation, and served as law clerk to the Hon. Emmet G. ...

This episode of Virtual Water Cooler Chat features VPG’s Generation Innovation summer Litigation Assistant Kiana Soleiman interviewing Deepa Tharmaraj, Head of Legal at ECARX. Deepa has 25+ years of commercial and corporate law experience in tech, in various capacities and countries, in FTSE 100, Fortune 500, and now a Nasdaq-listed company. Her career has largely been driven by combining purpose, passion, and principles, which has...

This episode of Virtual Water Cooler Chat features Flor Da Valle. Flor is a contemporary art curator, professional photographer, artist & fashion designer from Buenos Aires. She has been an entrepreneur for more than ten years in the Arts and Fashion Industry and hosts Online Art Experiences for team-building events for companies around the world like Facebook, Google, Apple, Netflix, Amazon, Microsoft, among others. She has ex...

This episode of Virtual Water Cooler Chat features Grace Wang, an attorney at Allen & Overy LLP’s New York office. Grace relies on her Ph.D. in electrical engineering from MIT and patent prosecution background to advise her clients in inter partes review proceedings and requests for ex parte reexaminations. Her practice also focuses on litigation in the International Trade Commission and district court, as well as patent validi...

This episode of Virtual Water Cooler Chat features Judy He, a patent attorney at Crowell & Moring LLP. Judy has a significant amount of experience with litigating and resolving complex patent, trade secret, and commercial licensing disputes. She is on the board of the Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago (IPLAC) and teaches legal writing as an adjunct professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. Judy loves ...