*CANCELED* IEEE Leadership Seminar: Cathy Chen, U.S. International Trade Commission

Friday, April 6, 2018
12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m.
2460 A.V. Williams Building
Kara Stamets
301 405 4471
stametsk@umd.edu

*This event has been canceled and will be rescheduled.*

Why Every Engineer Should Care About Intellectual Property

Abstract:  The IEEE stated in its publication Intellectual Property and the Employee Engineer that “[e]very schematic, each piece of software code, and every drawing, diagram, and prototype has intellectual property rights attached upon creation” and “[t]hese rights are the legal essence of an engineer’s output, for if an actual disk or prototype is lost, another can always be had.  But if the legal rights are lost, the disk or prototype may be worthless—even if securely in hand.”

Intellectual property (IP) protection is critical for protecting a company’s proprietary inventions, processes, designs, and data that, if disclosed to competitors or made public, could ruin a company’s market advantage and reputation or lead to costly lawsuits.  As an engineer, you are often on the front line of innovation and should be familiar with patent and copyright law. 

I will share with you the importance of creating and protecting IP as an engineer, the role of an engineer in obtaining a patent, and how to avoid common pitfalls.  I will also share some lessons learned during my career transition from engineering to law and offer general career advice.

Bio:  Cathy Chen is an attorney in the Office of the General Counsel at the U.S. International Trade Commission, advising the Commission on the enforcement of unfair acts involving importation and sale of products in the United States, and defending the Commission’s decisions in court.  Prior to joining the Commission, Ms. Chen was an attorney at a D.C. based law firm, specializing in patent counseling, litigation, and prosecution before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.  Before becoming an attorney, Ms. Chen worked as a senior software engineer at General Electric Global Research and Lockheed Martin.  She holds a law degree from the New York University School of Law, a master’s degree in computer and systems engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering awarded magna cum laude from University of Maryland.

Audience: Clark School  Graduate  Undergraduate 

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