Group of Incoming LLM Students Kicks Off Third Year of Highly Successful Law, Science & Technology Master of Laws Program

 

Gitanjli Duggal

Gitanjli Duggal, from India, received her Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from Campus Law Center, University of Delhi, India in July 1996, and also holds a Diploma in International Law and Diplomacy from the Indian Academy of International Law and Diplomacy, where she was awarded the Dr. V.K. Krishna Menon Memorial Gold Medal. She enrolled with the Bar Council of Delhi in 1997. Gitanjli has been working as a Senior Associate at Anand and Anand Advocates (a leading IP Law Firm in India) and was partner of a sister firm, Pravin Anand and Partners. Ms. Duggal is a litigator, practicing before the Supreme Court of India and the High Court of Delhi, and has worked extensively on matters pertaining to trademarks; copyright; patents; industrial designs; domain names; trade dress; dilution of well-known trademarks; Exclusive Marketing Rights (EMR); database protection; trade secrets; sports law (including ambush marketing); privacy, personality and publicity rights; defamation; and protection of geographical indications. In addition, she has assisted in managing the portfolio of the Indian Performing Right Society, a collecting society of lyricists and music composers, under the Indian Copyright Act. At present she is coauthoring a book titled Halsbury’s Laws of India, Intellectual Property to be published in late 2004.

Ms. Duggal authored a chapter titled “Intellectual Property in India,” which was published in IP Profiles 2002, Asia Law & Practice, Hong Kong, 2002, and has coauthored many chapters and articles, notable among them being a chapter on “Privacy, Publicity and Personality Laws in India” and a chapter titled “A Modern Approach to IP.” She is a Member of the Asian Patent Attorneys’ Association (APAA) and the International Association for the Protection of Industrial Property (AIPPI).


Takahiro Ikawa

Takahiro Ikawa, from Japan, earned an LLB from the University of Tokyo. His coursework there largely focused on commercial code, civil law, and the practice of international business law. While working towards his LLB, Takahiro joined the Society of Speech & Debate of the University of Tokyo. He has since been working as a junior/associate legal specialist with Fujitsu Limited, a Japan-based IT company. He has had opportunities to work on wide-ranging legal matters both in Japan and overseas, including IP matters, cross-border mergers and acquisitions, litigation, and general corporate matters. As a part of his legal practice, he conducted a successful settlement of a U.S. class action lawsuit that lasted over two years. He also handled and successfully settled litigation with Indian companies regarding a joint venture company in India. Takahiro is a member of Study Group of U.S. Antitrust Cases, sponsored by the Japanese Institute of International Business Law and chaired by Professor Nogimura of the Nihon University.

Why did you choose to get your LLM from Stanford Law? How do you hope the LLM Program in Law, Science & Technology will contribute to your professional legal training?

Takahiro: “I chose Stanford Law’s LLM program, because of its great reputation in the field of intellectual property law—my main influences are Professor Goldstein and Professor Lessig—and because I am working for a large IT company in Japan.”

Which courses are you most looking forward to taking at Stanford this coming year?

“I am looking forward to classes focusing on the treatment of intellectual property rights in business transactions.”

What is the most important legal issue in the field of technology law facing your country today?

“Enhancement of IP protection is really important. I am interested in exploring the extent to which it contributes to innovation.”


Eun Hyun Kim

Eun Hyun Kim, from Korea, earned his LLB and MPA from Kookmin University in Seoul. Fifteen years ago, upon graduation, he joined Samsung Electronics as a founding member of its legal department when corporate legal departments did not exist in manufacturing companies in Korea. After nine years of legal experience at Samsung, he was recruited by Microsoft to be the primary legal contact for the subsidiary. He proceeded to set up a legal team and run it for five years, handling corporate legal issues ranging from anti-trust and litigation to National Assembly hearings and contract negotiation. In addition, he enthusiastically participated in both academic and industry activities outside of the company and held several chair/director positions in industry associations. Serving as the chairman of Korea Committee of the Business Software Alliance (a nonprofit worldwide trade organization active in 65 countries) for the past two years, Eun has played an important role as the industry representative in the shaping of government policies regarding the Internet and software industries and the legislation of the related laws in Korea. His academic interest lies mainly in the Internet-related law and policy issues that arise as the speed of technological change makes it difficult for the “old” law—as it now stands—to solve various pressing legal issues on its own.


Philippe Lucet

Philippe Lucet, from Paris, France, received his JD in corporate and tax law from the Paris II (Assas) University and his post-JD degree in intellectual property and information technologies from the Paris XI University. He also received a master’s degree in finance and business from Sciences-Po Paris and holds the degree of Master of International Affairs from Columbia University. Philippe specializes in information technologies, music, sponsorship, and entertainment matters. He began his career in 1997 as a consultant for a French think tank specializing in media and IT issues and worked for two years as an associate for Arthur Andersen Legal’s IP/IT department before he was admitted to the Paris bar in 2000. He was then recruited by the IP/IT department of the international law firm Salans, where he advised, in particular, a major U.S. software company on the setup of its European subsidiaries and on numerous European intellectual property matters. After graduating from Columbia University, Philippe was sent abroad as a member of the French desk and IP/IT department of Salans’ New York office, where he assisted French and U.S. firms with the start-up and development of their businesses on both sides of the Atlantic and represented various international modeling agencies. As a French attorney-at-law, Philippe also developed his own practice and has represented, among others, a digital marketplace of EUR 15m capital founded by the four main French banks and a prominent European rock music festival. He lectured for two years in an intellectual property and information technologies course at the Master of Management and Information Technologies program of the Paris II University.


Asdis Magnusdottir

Asdis Magnusdottir, from Iceland, graduated from the University of Iceland Law School as a candidatus juris. She entered law school after working in the Icelandic Patent Office for one year. During law school, Asdis was an active member of the University of Iceland Student Union and served as chairman of the union for a year. Her final essay from law school was in the field of patent law: “Legal Protection of Biotechnology Inventions—New Directive of the European Union.” Since graduating, Asdis has worked for A&P Arnason, Intellectual Property Group, a specialized private IP consultation firm partly owned by LOGOS-Legal Services, the biggest law firm in Iceland. Asdis was the head of the trademark department there and worked with many of Iceland’s largest exporting firms. Within the firm, she led a special project aimed at educating the industry on IP-related matters. She has been an active member of SVESI, the Icelandic division of NIR, and was the executive director of a Scandinavian IP conference attended by more than 100 professionals. Asdis has also lectured in the field of patent law and has completed the requirements to plead cases before Icelandic courts.

Why did you choose to get your LLM from Stanford Law? How do you hope the LLM Program in Law, Science & Technology will contribute to your professional legal training?

Asdis: “I wanted to be able to join a special program in new science, technology, and law in the midst of Silicon Valley, and I wanted to study at one of the best law schools in the U.S. Choosing to attend Stanford was thus not a difficult choice. The faculty in the LST program is outstanding. I know that I will be better prepared professionally to handle IP matters after this year; furthermore, I am getting to know great people from all over the world! We are forming a network of professionals which will be very valuable in the future.”

Which courses are you most looking forward to taking at Stanford this coming year?

“I am having trouble limiting myself because I want to take so many! I am, however, really looking forward to taking the core courses like Patent Law with Professor Lemley and Copyright with Professor Goldstein. It will be a privilege to learn from someone who has had so much influence on the field we are studying. There is also the colloquium with Roland Vogl, where we will touch upon all kinds of topics with experts both within our special field of interest and others. When people from all over the world participate in such groups, the discussions are bound to be lively.”


Mineko Mohri

Mineko Mohri, from Japan, earned her law degree at Keio University in Tokyo. While a student, she was appointed to the Law Faculty Students’ Board, where she organized and chaired legal conferences and symposia with prominent professors and politicians. She served as a lecturer at Keio University, teaching Civil Procedure Law and Constitutional Law for their National Bar Exam Preparation Course. Mineko is an associate with YUASA and HARA, one of the five largest law and patent firms in the Asia Pacific region. There, she practices mainly in trademark, design, copyright, and patent law for domestic and global clients in brand marketing, counterfeit goods control, litigation, and Japanese business start-up support. While working at YUASA and HARA, she served on the committee of the Japan Patent Office and developed a new training system for patent attorneys. She also helped create teaching materials about patent litigation procedures. Mineko drafted the commentary on patent infringement litigation procedure for a textbook, and served as a lecturer at the Japan Patent Attorney Association, teaching a case study on patent litigation procedure. In summer 2004, she was awarded a scholarship for a joint research project on “Employee’s Invention in Japan” at the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law.

Why did you choose to get your LLM from Stanford Law?

Mineko: “I was interested in participating in the distinguished culture of interaction between technology, society, and law.”

Which courses are you most looking forward to taking at Stanford this coming year?

“Patent Law, Copyright Law, Law & Biosciences, Art & the Law”

What is the most important legal issue in the field of technology law facing your country?

“The law governing employee inventions is one of the most important issues facing Japanese companies today.”


Stefano Quintini

Stefano Quintini, from Italy, earned his law degree cum laude in 1998 from the Catholic University of Milan, and received a doctorate from the University of Pavia in 2004 with a doctoral thesis on “Domain Names and Good Faith Duties in the Use of the Internet.” For this thesis, he did extensive research at the Franklin Pierce Law Center in New Hampshire in 2001 and at the Max Planck Institute in Munich, Germany, in 2003. Stefano is the author of several publications and has given presentations on a variety of issues related to IP and IT Law. In 2004, Stefano has lectured on design protection issues within the Master’s Program in Fashion and Design at the Bocconi University of Milan, and on general IP issues within the LLM program at the LUISS University of Rome.

Professionally, Stefano has practiced in a “boutique” Milan-based law firm specializing in IP law for four years. At the beginning of 2003, he joined Baker & McKenzie’s Milan office as an associate of the IP/IT department. He has represented multinational companies in numerous IP/IT deals, including joint ventures for data processing services, outsourcing agreements, software licenses, trademark licenses, and distribution agreements. Stefano has also represented multinational companies in IP judicial cases, including chemical patent infringement actions, trademark infringement and invalidity actions, and industrial design infringement actions. He took part in Italy’s implementation of the antipiracy program of a leading U.S. computer company. Stefano is a member of the Milan bar.


Judit Rius Sanjuan

Judit Rius Sanjuan, from Spain, studied law and earned a master’s degree in international studies at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. With the assistance of an Erasmus grant, she spent one year studying at the University of Geneva (Switzerland) and also completed internships at the United Nations and the Spanish Mission. Upon graduation, Judit started working at the Information Highway Group, an information technology consulting firm associated with the leading Spanish business school, IESE, where she worked in the European Projects Department (personal data protection, online ADR, domain names, and jurisdiction) and cowrote a study on the legal aspects of e-commerce in Europe, which was given the highest possible assessment by the European Commission. Judit has also worked for Intelligent Software Components S.A. (iSOCO), a spin-off company of the Spanish Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (dependent on the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology), where she worked mainly in software licensing. Judit is the author of postgraduate IP courses on the legal implications of free software at the online Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). Until recently, Judit was working at the in-house legal department of Laboratorios Menarini, a leading international pharmaceutical company, where she had the opportunity to work on distribution contracts, pharmaceutical regulatory affairs, and IP law. In addition, Judit collaborates with different nonprofit organizations in Spain and abroad. Judit was awarded the La Caixa Scholarship in 2004 to support her LLM degree at Stanford.

Which courses are you most looking forward to taking at Stanford this coming year?

Judit: “I am planning to take a number of IP classes on copyright, patents, and trademarks; in addition, I will likely study contracts and some other technology-oriented issues. I would like to complement this range of study by taking some courses on human rights or NGO-related subjects.


Renata Streit

Renata Streit, from Brazil, earned her LLB from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, having acted as a teacher’s assistant in Constitutional Law for three years. Upon completion of law school, Renata pursued a specialist degree in civil-constitutional law from Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, where she studied the reform of the Brazilian Civil Code and its impacts on electronic contracts. Her broad academic background allowed her, in December 2002, to become the general coordinator of the Brazilian Centre of Internet Legal Studies (www.cbeji.com.br), which is the main virtual legal resource in Brazil and is dedicated to providing relevant content and stimulating the debate and development of information technology law in Brazil and abroad. Renata’s practical legal training includes an internship at the Roberto Marinho Foundation and a position, for the last three years, as an associate at Barbosa, Müssnich & Aragão Advogados, where she works with corporate law and information technology. Due to her previous experience in third sector law, Renata acts as a pro bono lawyer for several projects, including the Committee for Democratization of Informational Technology (CDI), the largest digital divide project in the world.


Celso Xavier

Celso Xavier, from Brazil, earned both his LLB and LLM (in civil procedural law) from the Pontificia Universidade Catolica de São Paulo. Since 1996, Celso has been practicing in the Litigation Department of Demarest e Almeida Advogados, the largest Brazilian law firm, where he is now a senior associate. He takes care of lawsuits involving biotechnology, IP, and unfair competition. Celso is a member of the Biotechnology Committee of the Brazilian Bar Association, São Paulo Chapter, and is also a member of the Brazilian Law Firms Center of Studies (CESA), where he is in charge of court and ADR issues. Academically speaking, Celso was invited in 2000 to be the assistant to a justice of the Brazilian Supreme Court in a Civil Procedure course he was teaching at Pontificia Universidade Catolica de São Paulo. Celso has authored numerous publications and has given presentations on a variety of issues related to biotechnology and civil procedural law.