Trade Secrets Under Pressure From the Winds of Public Policies (RECORDING)

Ken Corsello is IBM’s U.S. Trade Secrets Counsel. He is a member of IPO’s Trade Secrets committee, which he chaired from 2016 to 2021, and a member of the Standards Setting committee and IP Licensing and Related Issues committee. Ken is a frequent speaker on Trade Secrets topics and in 2018 he testified on behalf of IPO about the Defend Trade Secrets Act at a hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives, Commerce Committee, Subcom. on Courts, Intellectual Property & the Internet. During his 17 years at IBM, Ken’s work has included patent procurement, litigation, client counseling, product clearance, and transactional matters. Before joining IBM, he was a law clerk to Chief Judge Glenn Archer at the Federal Circuit; an Associate Solicitor in the USPTO; and in private practice at law firms in Washington, D.C.   

Dawn Mertineit is a Partner at Seyfarth Shaw LLP. For more than a decade, Dawn has represented corporations and their directors and officers in a number of industries in complex commercial litigation, litigating partnership, franchise, real estate, and whistleblower disputes, with a special emphasis on noncompete and trade secrets litigation. She understands that many clients rely on noncompete and nonsolicitation agreements to protect their most valuable assets, while others face hurdles in recruiting and onboarding new employees bound by such restrictive covenants. Dawn brings her experience and knowledge of state and federal laws to help her clients navigate these issues, from drafting agreements and executing rollout and enforcement strategies, to analyzing competitor agreements and proposing recruitment and onboarding plans, and prosecuting or defending against claims related to misappropriation of trade secrets or breach of restrictive covenants.

Thomas S. Valente is the Senior Director for Global Affairs at the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) in Washington, DC. IPO is an international trade association representing companies and individuals in all industries and fields of technology who own, or are interested in, intellectual property rights. Mr. Valente is the IPO staff lead on international IP matters. During his career, he has also practiced with law firms, both big and small, covering a wide range of IP issues. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law and served as a law clerk for the Honorable Peter W. Hall of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.