Shabnam Malek is a partner at Brand & Branch LLP and founding President of the National Cannabis Bar Association. Shabnam's background is in trademark law, and she cut her teeth on all things intellectual property as an associate at O'Melveny & Myers (OMM) in San Francisco. While at OMM, Shabnam developed a broad practice in ITC enforcement, district court litigation, Trademark Trial and Appeal Board disputes, and trademark prosecution strategy. She represented large, global companies as well as smaller technology startups and local food manufacturers. She also developed a robust pro bono practice representing imprisoned women before the California Board of Parole Hearings as well as representing houseless San Francisco residents through the Coalition on Homelessness. Since her days in "big law," Shabnam has expanded her practice to include promotions and sweepstakes law, advertising law, and the representation of lawful cannabis and hemp companies throughout the United States. 

During the launch of Brand & Branch, Shabnam and her law partner, Amanda R. Conley, founded the National Cannabis Bar Association, which recently expanded its reach to become the International Cannabis Bar Association (INCBA). Today, INCBA boasts a membership base of nearly 500 individual attorney members and a strong international presence. Shabnam and Amanda's vision for the organization was realized in the organization's flagship annual two-day legal educational event, the Cannabis Law Institute, at which they've spoken two years in a row. Shabnam and Amanda also co-founded the Bay Area chapter of Women Grow in 2014.

Shabnam's practice now focuses on advice and counsel to companies seeking to expand their presence or intellectual property portfolio across industries as well as across state and international borders. Clients benefit from Shabnam's expertise in the areas of regulatory compliance and intellectual property licensing, in addition to her well-developed understanding of the intersection of law, strategy, and business.

Shabnam regularly speaks and writes on the topics of trademarks, brand expansion, regulated industries such as cannabis and hemp, and the role of women in creating change. Her professional affiliations include holding a seat on the Board of Directors of the International Cannabis Bar Association, membership with the International Trademark Association and California Lawyers' Association, where she serves on committees, and memberships with the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Lawyers Guild, the Queen’s Bench, and the Bar Association of San Francisco. Shabnam was named a Northern California Rising Star three years in a row by Super Lawyers Magazine.

Cannabis (marijuana) is listed on Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, and the possession, sale, and use of marijuana remains unlawful at the federal level. Meanwhile, cannabis legalization is sweeping the nation on a state-by-state basis. This federal and state divide presents unique challenges to businesses serving patients and consumers in the cannabis industry and the lawyers who advise them.

This one-unit course will provide an overview of the current state of the cannabis industry, identify key legal and business challenges, and explore how lawyers are helping their clients address these challenges. The course will lay the groundwork for the type of issue spotting and creative thinking required to navigate the legal and business landscape of this emerging legal field.

Amanda R. Conley is a founding partner at Brand & Branch LLP. She helps creative entrepreneurs across a variety of industries protect, leverage, and enforce their intellectual property. She specializes in helping clients navigate highly-regulated industries and new and emerging technologies. She also advises on advertising, marketing, website, and labeling compliance.

Amanda graduated from NYU School of Law in 2011 and began her career at O’Melveny & Myers (OMM) in San Francisco with a focus on intellectual property counseling and litigation. Recognizing the need to provide nimble, tailored, practical legal services to clients operating in new and emerging industries, Amanda and her law partner Shabnam Malek founded Brand & Branch in 2015. Initially focused on providing intellectual property legal services to highly regulated industries, Brand & Branch has expanded its reach to serve clients across multiple industries by providing legal and business strategy advice meeting their diversity of needs. 

Amanda is an active member of the national business networking organization Provisors. Her other professional affiliations include the International Trademark Association, where she serves on a committee, the California Lawyers Association, and the Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom. She regularly speaks about growth and intellectual property issues pertaining to regulated industries and on intellectual property matters generally.  She also regularly speaks at legal and industry conferences throughout the U.S. and internationally on the topics of intellectual property, advertising, and the importance of diversity across all industries. Amanda has been named a Northern California Rising Star by Super Lawyers Magazine for the past two years.

Before attending law school, Amanda worked as a statistician for the Institute of Behavioral Sciences in Boulder, Colorado where she completed an MA program in Sociology.

Mark Ciotola combines law, science, and business to weaves together and work with innovative endeavors. He holds degrees in physics, economics, business and law. While a student at UNH Law, Mark interned after his 2L year for the Chief Counsel at the NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. Upon graduation from UNH Law, Mark went to work at the NASA-sponsored Joint Enterprise for Aerospace Research and Space Technology where he was involved in pioneering legal research for collaborations between NASA, industry and universities. He later engaged in other work at NASA in public affairs, technology commercialization, wind tunnel instrumentation and exoplanet atmospheres research. Although he became a member of the Minnesota Bar, and practiced private intellectual property law, most of his current work is in academia, in the startup community and technology roles. He has worked on information systems at firms including Applied Biosystems, Genentech, Intuit, Packeteer (Symantec) and JP Morgan Chase/Kessler Group, including developing systems handling billions of dollars in transactions. He has taught at Monash University in Australia, International Space University in France, and was Adjunct Faculty at Singularity University in Space and Physical Sciences in Silicon Valley. Over the years, he has served as an advisor to hundreds of inventors and dozens of start-ups. He is currently teaches intellectual property law and entrepreneurship at San Francisco State University and astronomy at Swinburne University of Technology. His current start-up SustainSpace is an affiliate company of the HudsonAlpha Institute in Huntsville, Alabama and was awarded the Astrosat Huntsville Prize and the European Space Agency’s Space Exploration Masters Overall Winner Prize. 

This course will concern the intersection between intellectual property and entrepreneurship, and how overlaps and conflicts regarding stakeholder interests create both opportunities and responsibilities for attorneys.  This course shall explore the realms of creativity and innovation, ethical considerations, research & development, idea evaluation, intellectual property protection, business plans, sales & marketing, licensing contracts, and other topics to understand the entrepreneurial process and considerations for legal practice. This course shall consist of lectures, presentations, readings, notes, discussions, resources and experiences designed to introduce the concepts associated with examining the entrepreneurial process. Some presentations may be made by guests.

Experienced attorney with a demonstrated history of working in intellectual property focused on hardware, computer software and the wireless industries. Strong professional skilled in all aspects of IP, particularly in patent licensing, patent law, prosecution, IP litigation, venture capital, M&A, software licensing, strategic partnerships, antitrust and privacy. Managed large teams focused on corporate wide IP issues including inbound and outbound licensing, patent preperation and world-wide prosecution, and patent litigation. 

Companies are using traditional forms of intellectual property in non-traditional ways – this is especially true for companies in new business areas, as well as established businesses that find themselves in new frontiers.

This one-credit course provides an overview of six companies in different technology areas that are currently in transformational situations.  Spotify, TikTok, 3M, Disney, Holdredge Wines and Allied Security Trust find themselves at the intersection of cutting-edge technology and unique circumstance brought on by new business models disrupting old ones, the global pandemic, new forms of intellectual property licensing and risk mitigation, and confluence of technology, the law and agriculture in the making of wine.

Each of the six lectures will bring the legal leader from each company, sharing their experiences, challenges and issues of first impression.  In addition to how each business uses copyrights, patents and trademarks, the course will also explore the challenges and nuances with privacy, antitrust, trade secrets and contracts.

Erich Andersen is Vice President and Global General Counsel at ByteDance/TikTok, where he reports to the CEO.  He has responsibility for the company’s international legal affairs and regularly works  with company leaders and policy makers at the intersection of law and technology.  

The company’s most well-known product in the US -- TikTok -- is a video sharing platform designed to entertain and bring joy to users.   It has grown rapidly in the last few years and is now one of the largest media platforms in the world.    

Erich previously worked at Microsoft for 24 years where he held numerous senior roles, including Chief IP Counsel.   He also served as Deputy General Counsel for the Windows and Office product groups and was based in Paris for three years while he served as head of legal and government affairs for Microsoft EMEA

Before joining Microsoft, Andersen served as a law clerk on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States District Court. He began his law practice with Davis Wright Tremaine in Seattle, Washington.  Andersen graduated summa cum laude from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1986 and from the UCLA School of Law in 1989, where he served as Chief Managing Editor of the law review.

Erich is married, has three children and two dogs who are treated as children in his family.   In his free time, Erich likes to exercise, read and travel. 

Russ Binns is the Chief Executive Officer and General Counsel for Allied Security Trust (AST).  AST is a cooperative of multi-billion global high-tech companies founded in 2007, including members such as: Google, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Facebook, etc.  AST identifies and analyzes high-technology patents being sold on the market, circulates those to its members through a proprietary platform and combines funds of interested member companies to purchase patents to minimize the risk of patent litigation. It then sells the patents subject to licenses granted to those members, with the proceeds returned to the members that funded the purchase.  AST also provides market research and analytics to our members.

Prior to AST, Russ served as Chief Intellectual Property Counsel for Avaya Inc., a global leader in telecommunications. Russ was responsible for all aspects of Avaya's worldwide intellectual property legal operations, including lobbying efforts associated with IP legislation, patent procurement and portfolio management, intellectual property monetization, IP litigation, IP transactional matters, trademarks, open source, and management of both internal and external legal counsel performing such functions. He created Avaya's IP strategy, and grew the company's portfolio and improved the company's performance in patent and industry benchmarks, while improving efficiency and reducing overall costs.  In 2013, Russ testified before the U.S. House, Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet, on Abusive Patent Litigation: The Issues Impacting American Competitiveness and Job Creation at the ITC and Beyond.

Before Avaya, Russ was an IP litigator and licensing attorney with Goodwin Procter in New York and Boston, and with a boutique law firm Weingarten, Schurgin, Gagnebin & Hayes in Boston, doing transactional, patent prosecution and litigation work. In 1995, he worked for the Honorable Judge Rader of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, DC.

Russ was born and raised in New Jersey and earned his Juris Doctorate from the UNH Franklin Pierce Law Center, and his Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Clarkson University.  In his spare time, he has served on the Rumson Board of Education for the past six years, and supports: Valerie Fund for Children with Cancer, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and Make-a-Wish Foundation.  He enjoys traveling, football, tennis, movies, wine and bourbon

Horacio Gutierrez is Head of Global Affairs and Chief Legal Officer at Spotify. In this capacity, he oversees the Company’s work on a wide range of areas around the world, including industry relations and partnerships, public policy and trust and safety, among others, and leads a global team of business, public affairs, government relations, licensing, and legal professionals. Mr. Gutierrez joined Spotify as General Counsel in 2016 after spending over 17 years at Microsoft Corporation, ultimately as General Counsel and Corporate Vice President for Legal Affairs. Throughout his career, he has been involved in a number of high-profile legal and regulatory matters and concluded numerous intellectual property deals, including licensing agreements with companies around the world. Mr. Gutierrez has played a leading role on technology and innovation policy issues, including competition policy, intellectual property policy and internet regulation. He holds a Master of Laws degree from Harvard Law School, which he attended as a Fulbright Scholar; a Juris Doctor degree summa cum laude from the University of Miami; a Bachelor of Laws degree from Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in Caracas, Venezuela; and a post-graduate diploma in corporate and commercial law from the same institution.

Chris Reed is senior vice president of intellectual property, content protection, and litigation at Fox Corporation in Los Angeles, where he oversees the company’s intellectual property portfolio, manages enforcement initiatives, and handles a variety of litigation involving First Amendment and other media law issues, as well as commercial disputes and antitrust matters. He was previously the head of global content protection at 21st Century Fox before the company was sold to The Walt Disney Company in March of 2019.

Prior to joining Fox in 2104, Chris was senior advisor for policy and special projects at the U.S. Copyright Office, where he advised the Register of Copyrights on a variety of issues relating to copyright law and policy, technology, and the Office’s registration and recordation systems. He previously served as a trial attorney in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he worked principally on matters relating to the media and entertainment industries. Chris began­ his legal career as a law clerk to the Honorable Steven J. McAuliffe, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire.

Chris writes and speaks frequently on intellectual property and related matters. His most recent book, The Unrealized Promise of the Next Great Copyright Act was published in 2019 by Edward Elgar Publishing. He previously wrote Copyright Workflow for Photographers: Protecting, Managing, and Sharing Digital Images, published by Peachpit Press in 2014.

Chris received his B.S. in economics from Lehigh University and holds J.D. and LL.M. degrees from the University of New Hampshire’s Franklin Pierce School of Law where he served as editor-in-chief of IDEA^®: The Intellectual Property Law Review. In addition to teaching at the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law, he holds an adjunct appointment at Claremont Graduate University where he teaches courses in media law and business.

This course offers broad exposure to various legal issues confronted by mass media enterprises, ranging from traditional broadcasters and similar internet-based services, to the major internet platforms and the new class of “media enterprises” that they spawned, such as YouTube influencers and TikTok stars. By examining current issues and events, students will navigate areas of law including defamation, rights of publicity and privacy, newsgathering and right of access, advertising, broadcast and internet regulation, intellectual property, and antitrust – to understand how the law’s staple doctrines apply to the business of producing and distributing news, information, and entertainment for mass audiences.

This course addresses legal issues related to patent licensing based upon general commercial needs and requirements. This course will focus on understanding the intersection of patent rights and limitations, contractual provisions and the objectives of the business. The course will look at key licensing agreement interpretation issues and restriction on patent rights that should be considered when licensing patent rights. Students will look to understand different business scenarios and how to think about structuring licensing relationships and agreements to fulfill the business objectives.

Judge Arthur Gajarsa, retired from the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, has joined us as the first Distinguished Jurist-in-Residence at the Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectual Property. He began teaching at UNH Law in the fall of 2012 and is working with us to enhance our practice-ready curriculum, as well as providing strategic guidance as we build the Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectual Property into a global hub for innovation.

Judge Gajarsa was appointed to the bench by President Clinton in 1997. Prior to this, he was a partner in the Washington, DC law firm of Joseph, Gajarsa, McDermott and Reiner. He also served as a patent examiner with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, worked as an attorney in the Department of Defense specializing in defense systems analysis and intellectual property rights, and served as special counsel and assistant to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs at the Department of the Interior.

He has long been an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, from which he received his JD. He also earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a master’s degree in economics from the Catholic University of America.

This course will explore the relationship between the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Each class will cover a Federal Circuit Decision and the certiorari petition filed in U.S. Supreme Court. The second hour of the class will be a complete and exhaustive discussion of the U.S. Supreme Court Opinion and the oral argument at the Supreme Court.

Jessica Harrison currently serves as adjunct faculty for the University of New Hampshire School of Law’s innovative online Patent Practice and Procedures II course. In the course, students from around the globe build on their basic intellectual property and claim drafting skills by learning the law, regulations, customs, and practices for interfacing with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Students simulate the patent prosecution experience by drafting a complete patent application and claims, as well as multiple Office action responses in Ms. Harrison’s course. 

Ms. Harrison is also a partner at Resolute Legal, PLLC where her practice focuses on all aspects of IP portfolio development and management, strategic patent advising, patent prosecution, trademark prosecution, opinion work, patent correction, and post-grant patent litigation. Ms. Harrison brings her extensive 30+ years of patent practice experience and her deep USPTO Agency experience to assist clients as a USPTO practice and procedure litigation expert. 

Ms. Harrison previously worked as a post grant proceeding specialist at Oblon where she gained expertise in patent post-grant litigation and patent prosecution and was a contributing author to the treatise “Post Grant Proceedings Before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board,” PLI 2013. At Oblon, Ms. Harrison’s practice focused on Post-Grant Proceedings including Inter Partes Reviews, Reexaminations and Reissues. 

Prior to joining attending law school, Ms. Harrison served over 24 years at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) where Ms. Harrison served in a wide variety of management roles across the Office. Ms. Harrison was an electrical SPE in Central Reexamination Unit as well as a SPE in various units of the games and amusement workgroup 3710. Ms. Harrison also served as a SPRE/QAS in Technology Center 3700. In this role, she gained subject-matter expert status in multiple areas of technology as well as multiple administrative areas including petitions, special laws cases, Reissues, Reexamination and Interference proceedings. Early in her USPTO career, she examined applications in electronic games and amusement devices, electronic education devices, computer based training systems, and electrical exercising devices. She also worked examining a wide variety of medical devices including cardiac pacing devices and endoscopic devices.

According to the Entertainment Software Association, the 2018 U.S. video game industry employed more than 220,000 people and produced more than $43 billion in annual revenue. Over 164 million adults in the US play video games and three quarters of all Americans have at least one gamer in their household. New Hampshire has at least 15 video game related companies adding over $64 million to the local economy. Looking forward as new technologies such as mobile gaming and cloud gaming emerge and grow, the video game market could become a $300 billion industry by 2025. Few industries have a brighter future and the need for lawyers versed in video game law will similarly grow. This issue-spotting overview course covers the essential intellectual property topics commonly encountered in the video game industry: content creation, content acquisition, content protection. Broader legal topics such as content distribution, revenue generation, and player management issues will be introduced as well.