Why Attend
Protecting Trade Secret information is a critical competency for today’s innovative industries. Companies are required to create sound internal & external policies to preserve confidentiality and reduce the likelihood of misappropriation.
As we’ve seen in recent blockbuster cases such as: Coca Cola, Waymo and Genentech, trade secret theft can lead to both commercial and criminal liabilities costing millions of dollars.
At the Trade Secret Protection & Management USA Summit you will build strong strategies and meet the leading figures in the West coast trade secret space.
This is a cross-industry event designed for innovative industries looking to build a comprehensive trade secret strategy. It is a must-attend for in-house, solution providers and private practice specialists working within trade secrets.
Highlights Include
- Interact with the leading innovative companies from across the West coast and form a formidable IP strategy.
- Form your industry-specific trade secret approach with our “Connect and Discuss” roundtable series.
- Create a comprehensive trade secret litigation strategy by understanding the latest trends from an end-user perspective.
- Gain practical methods of trade secret IP protection and discover the fundamental misappropriation risks with our in-house industry panels.
CONFIRMED ATTENDEES INCLUDE

Co-Chairs
Ms. Merchant is a seasoned executive with deep healthcare experience, which includes companies spanning the market cap spectrum. From her contributions at a Fortune 5 public healthcare company, where she provided steady guidance on complex issues, to her strategic counsel at a nimble pre-IPO start up where she oversaw several transactions and financings just prior to its $375 million merger with a public company, Ms. Merchant has provided legal counsel and regulatory oversight on all aspects of corporate matters.
She is the General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, and Corporate Compliance Officer at Aspira Women’s Health Inc., (Nasdaq: AWH), a bioanalytical-based women’s health company. Prior to joining Aspira, Ms. Merchant served as General Counsel, Corporate Secretary and Corporate Compliance Officer at Genome Medical Inc., a private telegenomics company. Prior to that, she served as Associate General Counsel, Global Director of Litigation & Human Resources at Myriad Genetics where she provided legal and strategic guidance on all matters of healthcare regulations, compliance, privacy commercial relationships, federal and state regulations and clinical trials. Ms. Merchant began her corporate career at McKesson Corporation, a Fortune 5 company and the largest pharmaceutical distributor in the nation, where she served Chief Counsel after one decade in private legal practice. Ms. Merchant began her career in law after graduating from UCLA School of Law where she was the Joseph Drown Fellow. Ms. Merchant has served as President of the Vietnamese American Bar Association of Northern California, and was the inaugural co-chair of the National Conference of Vietnamese American Attorneys in 2008.

Minh Hoang-Merchant
Ms. Merchant is a seasoned executive with deep healthcare experience, which includes companies spanning the market cap spectrum. From her contributions at a Fortune 5 public healthcare company, where she provided steady guidance on complex issues, to her strategic counsel at a nimble pre-IPO start up where she oversaw several transactions and financings just prior to its $375 million merger with a public company, Ms. Merchant has provided legal counsel and regulatory oversight on all aspects of corporate matters.
She is the General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, and Corporate Compliance Officer at Aspira Women’s Health Inc., (Nasdaq: AWH), a bioanalytical-based women’s health company. Prior to joining Aspira, Ms. Merchant served as General Counsel, Corporate Secretary and Corporate Compliance Officer at Genome Medical Inc., a private telegenomics company. Prior to that, she served as Associate General Counsel, Global Director of Litigation & Human Resources at Myriad Genetics where she provided legal and strategic guidance on all matters of healthcare regulations, compliance, privacy commercial relationships, federal and state regulations and clinical trials. Ms. Merchant began her corporate career at McKesson Corporation, a Fortune 5 company and the largest pharmaceutical distributor in the nation, where she served Chief Counsel after one decade in private legal practice. Ms. Merchant began her career in law after graduating from UCLA School of Law where she was the Joseph Drown Fellow. Ms. Merchant has served as President of the Vietnamese American Bar Association of Northern California, and was the inaugural co-chair of the National Conference of Vietnamese American Attorneys in 2008.
Rachel is currently Senior Counsel (Chief IP Counsel) at Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), a company founded by Elon Musk that designs, manufactures, launches and operates advanced rockets and spacecraft. She manages all aspects of the company’s intellectual property, including patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets, and negotiates complex technology transactions across SpaceX’s lines of business. In her almost 9 years at SpaceX, she has also advised on issues of confidentiality, privacy and security, real estate, and whatever other issues arise on a given day.
Rachel has over 25 years of experience working with high-tech companies. Prior to joining SpaceX in early 2014, she worked for IBM for 11 years in various roles in San Francisco, New York, Dubai and Sao Paolo. Earlier in her career, she worked in Silicon Valley with high-tech startups, both in private practice and in-house. Rachel received her undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame, and her law degree from Harvard Law School. She also served for 8 years as an officer in the US Army Reserve.

Rachel Lovejoy
Rachel is currently Senior Counsel (Chief IP Counsel) at Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), a company founded by Elon Musk that designs, manufactures, launches and operates advanced rockets and spacecraft. She manages all aspects of the company’s intellectual property, including patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets, and negotiates complex technology transactions across SpaceX’s lines of business. In her almost 9 years at SpaceX, she has also advised on issues of confidentiality, privacy and security, real estate, and whatever other issues arise on a given day.
Rachel has over 25 years of experience working with high-tech companies. Prior to joining SpaceX in early 2014, she worked for IBM for 11 years in various roles in San Francisco, New York, Dubai and Sao Paolo. Earlier in her career, she worked in Silicon Valley with high-tech startups, both in private practice and in-house. Rachel received her undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame, and her law degree from Harvard Law School. She also served for 8 years as an officer in the US Army Reserve.
CROSS-INDUSTRY IN-HOUSE EXECUTIVES INCLUDING:

2023 Speakers

Laurel Beeler
United States Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler was appointed in 2010 to the Northern District of California. She has presided as a trial and settlement judge over hundreds of civil cases, including intellectual-property, employment, civil-rights, and commercial disputes

Cathy Bencivengo

Rachel Lovejoy
Rachel is currently Senior Counsel (Chief IP Counsel) at Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), a company founded by Elon Musk that designs, manufactures, launches and operates advanced rockets and spacecraft. She manages all aspects of the company’s intellectual property, including patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets, and negotiates complex technology transactions across SpaceX’s lines of business. In her almost 9 years at SpaceX, she has also advised on issues of confidentiality, privacy and security, real estate, and whatever other issues arise on a given day.
Rachel has over 25 years of experience working with high-tech companies. Prior to joining SpaceX in early 2014, she worked for IBM for 11 years in various roles in San Francisco, New York, Dubai and Sao Paolo. Earlier in her career, she worked in Silicon Valley with high-tech startups, both in private practice and in-house. Rachel received her undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame, and her law degree from Harvard Law School. She also served for 8 years as an officer in the US Army Reserve.

Minh Hoang-Merchant
Ms. Merchant is a seasoned executive with deep healthcare experience, which includes companies spanning the market cap spectrum. From her contributions at a Fortune 5 public healthcare company, where she provided steady guidance on complex issues, to her strategic counsel at a nimble pre-IPO start up where she oversaw several transactions and financings just prior to its $375 million merger with a public company, Ms. Merchant has provided legal counsel and regulatory oversight on all aspects of corporate matters.
She is the General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, and Corporate Compliance Officer at Aspira Women’s Health Inc., (Nasdaq: AWH), a bioanalytical-based women’s health company. Prior to joining Aspira, Ms. Merchant served as General Counsel, Corporate Secretary and Corporate Compliance Officer at Genome Medical Inc., a private telegenomics company. Prior to that, she served as Associate General Counsel, Global Director of Litigation & Human Resources at Myriad Genetics where she provided legal and strategic guidance on all matters of healthcare regulations, compliance, privacy commercial relationships, federal and state regulations and clinical trials. Ms. Merchant began her corporate career at McKesson Corporation, a Fortune 5 company and the largest pharmaceutical distributor in the nation, where she served Chief Counsel after one decade in private legal practice. Ms. Merchant began her career in law after graduating from UCLA School of Law where she was the Joseph Drown Fellow. Ms. Merchant has served as President of the Vietnamese American Bar Association of Northern California, and was the inaugural co-chair of the National Conference of Vietnamese American Attorneys in 2008.

Vineet Kohli
For over 20 years, I have had the privilege of working on various patents in the biology space including cell biology, cell-based assays, gene editing, recombinant genetics, and bioprocessing including process engineering. I have worked at several large companies such as Merck, Johnson and Jonson, and Roche as well as small companies such as Lundbeck Research USA and biotech startups. As a result of these experiences, I have a seasoned perspective on how to be a strategic business partner albeit with a patent law background in various industries such as Pharmaceuticals, Diagnostics, Medical devices, and the food industry.
I always wanted to be a story teller, which I believe is what prompted me to seek a career in the patent field. As patent attorney, I can tell a story of a discovery (the patent specification) that began in the lab and thereafter provide a compelling reason as to how it would benefit society and those in need of the discovery. I have a graduate degree in cell biology, and I am a registered patent attorney.

Paul Liu
Paul is the Global Head of Intellectual Property at TuSimple, a self-driving truck company based out of San Diego, California. At TuSimple, Paul oversees the intellectual property function with a team of attorneys, patent agents, and paralegals to align the company’s intellectual property with the business to obtain proactive, high impact, and creative protections via patents, trademarks, trade secrets, and copyrights. He is a subject matter expert for intellectual property assets associated with mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and computer science technologies. He has been recognized by leading industry publications such as Intellectual Asset Management (IAM) as one of “The World’s Leading IP Strategists.

Shui Li

Bridget Smith

Matthew Hulse

Micheal Binns
Micheal Binns is Head of Patent Portfolio Strategy for Meta’s Family of Apps and an Associate General Counsel on the Patent, Licensing, and Open Source team at Meta, formerly Facebook. Michael also leads Meta’s IP Trade Secret and Design Patent protection strategies. As a registered patent attorney, Mike’s helped protect global copyrights and trademarks in addition to patent rights for a wide range of industries. At present, he advises on global IP portfolio strategy and risk mitigation related the future of social networking, AR/VR, and the metaverse. Micheal has and continues to protect the knowledge, systems, and inventions that are business-critical drivers of revenue.
Before joining Facebook, Micheal was the Atlanta Office Development Partner at Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP, where his experience included the litigation, counseling, and prosecution of all forms of intellectual property related to a variety of industries and technologies.

Rose James

Dimitri Kirimis
Dimitri is Principal Counsel for Intellectual Property at Cruise, an autonomous vehicle (AV) company that offers rides in several cities, including San Francisco, California; Austin, Texas; and Phoenix, Arizona. At Cruise, Dimitri handles patent licensing, patent defense strategies, and patent prosecution across a variety of AV technologies.
Prior to Cruise, Dimitri was a partner at several law firms and an attorney at a startup company focusing on wireless technologies. He is a Patent Attorney admitted to practice law in the State of California and before the USPTO.

Katie Nolan-Stevaux

Nicholas Arico

Yu-Ming Dammann

Jeri Rouse Looney

Monica Baig-Silva
Monica Baig-Silva (Vice President, Intellectual Property at Thermo Fisher Scientific) provides strategic counseling and intellectual property support for Thermo Fisher’s biotechnology, pharmaceutical and clinical trials businesses. With over 15 years of experience, Monica routinely handles all matters of intellectual property protection. In addition, Monica has extensive experience advising on matters related to IP infringement, employment agreements, contract negotiations, and cyber security. A champion of trade secret protections, Monica founded Thermo Fisher’s trade secret and risk assessment committee for internally monitoring company trade secret practices. Monica is currently a member of the Intellectual Property Organization’s trade secret committee.

Sanjesh Sharma

TJ Fox
TJ Fox is IP and Compliance Counsel for DivX, a video technology company. He oversees the legal aspects of DivX’s consumer and business licensing efforts and helps manage DivX’s patent portfolio. Before joining DivX, TJ worked in the Business Litigation Section of the California Department of Justice, representing state agencies in tax, real estate, tort, and other matters. Prior to that, TJ worked in the patent litigation group at Fenwick & West, primarily defending technology companies in District Court litigation. TJ holds a J.D. from U.C. Davis and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

Jerry Gnushke

Alesya Nasimova
Alesya Nasimova is the Senior Director & Associate General Counsel, Product & Privacy at Fundbox where she leads and focuses on product counseling, data privacy & protection, and IP. Prior to Fundbox, she was Senior Product & Regulatory Counsel, Global DPO at Bolt where she has built and led the Compliance and Privacy Programs for scalability, sustainability, and international expansion, as well as spearheading the IP incentive program to drive product innovation. Alesya has served as in house counsel within the fintech industry for over 7 years holding positions such as Deputy General Counsel and Head of Legal and Compliance, having started her career working in the Commercial Real Estate and Investment Funding sector as well as devoting her time to pro bono work representing defendants in Consumer Debt Litigation. Alesya is an Advisory Board Member of the IAPP Privacy Education Board, and active member in the tech community advocating for innovation, diversity, inclusion, and belonging.

Arwen Johnson

Marc Rasich

Gregory Bombard

Matt Murphy

Jason Murata

Seth Gerber

James Gale

Mary Guzman
Mary Guzman is an insurance industry veteran and pioneer. She has over 25 years experience advising clients on a myriad of risks to their businesses, most recently with a focus on all things related to technology, media, and intellectual property. Mary is an industry trailblazer and disrupter. Mary was one of the first in the industry to develop a cyber insurance policy in 2000. She is a published author and speaker, having done over 125 speaking engagements on risks/solutions to threats arising from the convergence of all things intangible. She has been a government liaison as part of the DHS cybersecurity and insurance working group during the Obama administration. She is part of the Trade Secret committee of the American Intellectual Property Legal Association (AIPLA). She is also on the board of the USIPA and has been tasked with starting/Chairing the Trade Secret committee for them

Jonathan Singer
Jon is a principal in the firm’s San Diego office and heads the life sciences litigation practice. He appears regularly as lead counsel in his matters and handles all aspects of litigation, including leading jury and bench trials, trying cases to administrative and arbitration panels and conducting briefing and arguments before the U.S. Courts of Appeals and the PTAB. Jon is annually named one of the nation’s finest life sciences trial attorneys and is an expert in proceedings under the Hatch-Waxman Act. His clients consistently praise his innovative and ground-breaking work and over the past two decades, he has successfully handled dozens of cases covering all aspects of the life sciences.

Neel Chatterjee

Jeff Pade

John Parmley
Find out more
View the full Trade Secret IP Protection & Management USA agenda to find out about our full list of speakers, sessions, roundtables and networking opportunities
Download the Agenda
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In partnership with
Platinum Partner
Gold Partners
Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider, LLP
Website: https://www.axinn.com/
Axinn combines the skills, experience and dedication of the world's largest firms with the focus, responsiveness, efficiency and attention to client needs of the best boutiques. The firm was established in the late 1990s by lawyers from premier Wall Street firms with a common vision: provide the highest level of service and strategic acumen in antitrust, intellectual property and high-stakes litigation. Axinn's lawyers have served as lead or co-lead counsel on nearly half a trillion dollars in transactions and, in the last 10 years alone, have handled more than 300 litigations.
Crown Jewel Insurance
Website: https://www.crownjewelinsurance.com/
Please visit our website for more information.Media Partners
CTC Legal Media (Patent Lawyer Magazine)
Website: https://ctclegalmedia.com/
CTC Legal Media are globally renowned publishers of The Trademark Lawyer and The Patent Lawyer Magazines, reporting on core IP matters. Each and every edition is full of exclusive special features including guest interviews with in-house counsel, case comment, and the latest developments in the IP Industry, delivered to a combined hardcopy and digital global readership of over 93,000+ IP professionals.
World Intellectual Property Review
Website: https://www.worldipreview.com?utm_source=Kisaco+Research&utm_medium=Trade+Secret+IP+Protection&utm_campaign=Media+Partnerships
60,000+ IP professionals rely on World IP Review (WIPR) as their leading source of news and analysis on patents, trademarks, and copyright worldwide. No other online resource offers such a wealth of insight and guidance on trending topics within the IP sector. WIPR ensures IP professionals stay on top of new developments and key market issues. To access our e-magazines, daily news articles or to learn more about upcoming events, visit our website: www.worldipreview.com.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WorldIPReview
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/world-intellectual-property-review
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WorldIPReview/
4IP Council
Website: https://www.4ipcouncil.com/
4iP Council is a European research council dedicated to developing high quality academic insight and empirical evidence on topics related to intellectual property and innovation. Our research is multi-industry and cross sector. We work with academia, policy makers and regulators to facilitate a deeper understanding of the invention process and of technology investment decision-making.
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