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The Association will hold its annual Fall Meeting on September 25-26 at the Kiawah Island Golf Resort on Kiawah Island, SC. The program will begin Friday afternoon at 1:00 PM at the West Beach Conference Center. The Friday CLE program will then be followed by a cocktail reception on the West Beach Conference Center Lawn. In the event of inclement weather, the reception will be hosted in the Grand Hall inside the Conference Center. Breakfast will be available on Saturday morning at 8:00 AM. The Saturday CLE program will begin at 8:30 AM and conclude at 12:40 PM.
CLE SPEAKERS AND PRESENTATIONS
This year’s Fall program will include approximately 7.0 hours of CLE credit. We are excited to have the following speakers with more to come:
Doug Lineberry of Maynard Nexsen will present “Intellectual Property in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Who Owns the Robot’s Idea?”
Doug Lineberry is a seasoned intellectual property attorney with a strong fundamental and technical understanding of the industry. His practice focuses on the protection of intellectual property through patent, trademark, and copyright prosecution, as well as intellectual property litigation. He approaches each case with compassion and insight, recognizing the added value that trust and clear communication can bring to strong client relationships.
He has extensive experience prosecuting patent applications across mechanical, medical, and chemical technologies. Additionally, he has continually advised clients on building and protecting trademark portfolios, including monitoring for third-party use and pursuing enforcement actions when necessary.
Doug earned his B.S. in Biology and B.A. in Chemistry from Emory & Henry University. He earned his J.D. from Mercer University School of Law. He never wavered in his desire to become a lawyer, understanding that serving as an attorney perfectly combined his innate desire to help others achieve their goals with his strong technical and scientific background. His curiosity, dedication, and passion uniquely position him to handle a wide range of intellectual property matters.
Erica Madden of bloom. will present “When Being Right Gets in the Way: Communication, Curiosity, and Professionalism Under Pressure.”
Erica Madden is the founder and owner of bloom., a values-based consulting practice that has spent over a decade helping companies and organizations grow through strategic planning, leadership development, and organizational culture work. With a background spanning corporate consulting, entrepreneurial ventures, and municipal partnerships, Erica brings a unique ability to ask hard questions, connect big-picture goals to daily practice, and foster authentic alignment within teams and leadership. Erica specializes in helping professionals navigate difficult conversations, strengthen leadership, and build healthier organizational cultures through practical, interactive learning experiences. Her work is rooted in curiosity, collaboration, and a deep belief in the power of authentic relationships to drive results.
Tom Vanderbloemen of Vanderbloemen Law Firm will discuss the Van Leeuwen ice cream case, the Buc-ee’s enforcement phenomenon, and the latest on the Bad Spaniels dog toy trademark case.
Tom Vanderbloemen founded the firm in 2017 after over fifteen years of experience in larger firms in the Southeast. Vanderbloemen began his legal practice in Atlanta with the
intellectual property and technology team of the international law firm King & Spalding LLP. After moving to Greenville in 2004, he served as a law clerk to the Hon. William B.
Traxler, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and practiced with Gallivan, White & Boyd, P.A., where he was a shareholder and leader of the firm’s Business &
Commercial practice group.
Vanderbloemen graduated from Duke University School of Law, magna cum laude, where he was a member of the Duke Law Journal. During law school, Vanderbloemen clerked
for Cleary Gottlieb in its Washington, DC and Brussels, Belgium offices and worked as an intern for Senior U.S. District Judge W. Earl Britt, Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the
Eastern District of North Carolina. He also participated as a member of Duke University’s moot court teams in international law competitions, including a competition conducted in
Europe and briefed and argued in French. Vanderbloemen received his undergraduate degree from Davidson College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and majored in chemistry and French. He is also a proud graduate of the North Carolina School of Science & Mathematics.
Vanderbloemen is admitted to practice in South Carolina, Georgia, and the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, where he is a registered patent attorney.
Anuj Desai of Arnall Golden Gregory, LLP will present “Creative Review,” a process by which companies run all creative assets through a review process to catch and correct IP, regulatory, PR, brand guardrail, etc.
Anuj Desai is a partner in the Intellectual Property practice, head of Trademarks, and a member of the International practice. Anuj has a hybrid practice in the brands and advertising space, with nearly 20 years of hands-on experience in managing, protecting, and resolving disputes involving a variety of intellectual property assets. He delivers strategic and practical advice to help clients develop, protect, and enforce intellectual property rights in both the U.S. and abroad. Anuj also focuses a significant part of his practice on assisting businesses with advertising law compliance and disputes, as well as creative asset review, especially in the Food and Beverage and Life Sciences industries. He is looked to as trusted counsel by start-ups to multibillion-dollar international corporations. Anuj and his team are early adopters of artificial intelligence (“AI”) tools and strategies to provide more effective advice to the firm’s clients.
Matthias Schuhmacher, M.Sc., LL.M. of Pearl Cohen’s STEM Practice Group (Partner) will present “The Emerging Jurisprudence of the Unified Patent Court: Implications for European Patent Protection and Enforcement”
Matthias Schuhmacher is a Partner in Pearl Cohen’s STEM Practice Group. He lives in the United States and splits his time between Munich and Washington, D.C. Matthias is qualified as a European Patent Attorney, German Patent Attorney, and Representative before the Unified Patent Court. He advises technology companies on complex intellectual property protection, enforcement, and strategic portfolio management, with a particular focus on transatlantic patent strategy. His practice includes advising U.S. and European companies on patent prosecution, enforcement considerations, freedom-tooperate issues, and the strategic use of European patent rights, including in view of recent developments before the Unified Patent Court.
The presentation will be structured as a practical CLE program for U.S. patent attorneys, covering recent European legal developments, the early experience of the Unified Patent Court, and key strategic considerations for U.S. applicants when deciding whether and how to pursue patent protection in Europe.
Thomas L. Irving of the Marbury Law Group, PLLC, as well as Paul Browning & Collette Corser of Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP, will present their always highly acclaimed “Patent Year in Review”
Tom Irving, a Senior Partner of The Marbury Law Group, has more than 47 years of experience in intellectual property law. His U.S. pharmaceutical practice includes America Invents Act (AIA) post-grant proceedings, due diligence, counseling (particularly on strategy and tactics), patent prosecution, reissue, and reexamination. In addition to advising on procuring strong U.S. patents, Tom counsels clients on a wide range of pharmaceutical and life sciences matters, including pre-litigation, Orange Book listings of patents covering FDA-approved drugs and methods of use, infringement issues, enforceability, supplemental examination, and validity analysis. He has served as lead counsel in numerous patent interferences, reissues, reexaminations, and AIA post-grant proceedings, as well as an expert witness in patent litigation.
Tom’s current practice is heavy on due diligence analysis, particularly for innovative targets and has driven deals where the target garnered more than one billion dollars, as well as for innovative suitors, AIA post-grant proceedings, and how to evaluate and enhance the strength of U.S. patents in the pharmaceutical space to be listed in the Orange Book and strengthened to withstand PTAB post-grant challenges and district court litigation. Tom has directed the preparation of highly complex IPRs, which worked out well for the innovative pharma patent owner. Tom also focuses on 35 U.S.C. §112(f), supplemental examination, writing claims likely to be infringed, and Sanofi v. Watson-type claims, all of which he considers to be under-utilized.
Tom has been extensively involved in counseling, due diligence, prosecution and prelitigation matters involving major drugs such as Kalydeco®, Orkambi®, Aloxi®, Tecfidera®, Lorcaserin®,Pulmicort®, Respules®, Taxotere®, Eloxatin®, Lantus®, Crestor®, Targretin®, Brilinta®, Halaven®,Allegra®, Apidra®, Epiduo Gel®, Rilutek®, Ramipril®, Jakafi®, Duexis®, Viracept®, KEVEYIS®, and, prior to FDA approval, other drugs such as Rimonabant®, VX-661, and HMPL 0004®. He successfully reissued the patent for the low molecular weight heparin drug, Lovenox®, a blockbuster product.
For more than 25 years, Tom served as principal teacher of the now defunct Patent Resources Group (PRG)Chemical Patent Practice course, a comprehensive three-day course on U.S. chemical and life science patent law taught twice a year, and he coauthored the multi-volume treatise used in the course. He originated PRG’s Orange Book and Due Diligence courses, which helped prepare patent owners, through effective application drafting and prosecution, to withstand the rigors of AIA’s inter partes review (IPR) and post-grant review (PGR), as well as patent litigation. He presents analyses of U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) decisions for many state bar association groups and national trade and bar association meetings, such as Intellectual Property Owners Association, American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA), North Carolina and South Carolina Bar Associations, Ohio Bar Association, Texas Bar Association, CAIL in Plano Texas, and American Bar Association. Tom has lectured at many law schools, such as Harvard, Howard, Emory, Ave Maria, the University of Utah, and BYU in the United States and also law schools in China, and at the Patent Office of the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) of the People’s Republic of China. He has participated in well more than 150 Strafford Webinars on U.S. patent law topics, including several that dealt with 35 U.S.C. § 112(f), Sanofi v. Watson-type claims, supplemental examination, inducement to infringe, claim construction, enablement, written description, claim definiteness, REMS patents, CCPA cases, and AIA post-grant proceedings. Over his 47 years, Tom has trained literally thousands of patent professionals in the U.S. and abroad.
Tom has been recognized by Intellectual Asset Management as a global IP leader and leading patent prosecutor in the D.C. metro area, as well as nationally for post-grant procedures. The Legal 500 U.S. has recognized him for patent portfolio management and licensing, and he has been ranked as a patent “IP Star” by Managing Intellectual Property (MIP) since 2016. Tom was inducted into the LMG Life Sciences Hall of Fame and recognized as the Patent Strategy & Management Attorney of the Year for the District of Columbia. In 2022, the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) declared him a “Titan of the IP Bar” and the Bar Association of D.C. named him Patent Prosecutor of the Year. Tom is very proud that just this year, the Howard Law School gave him a Lifetime Achievement Award for IP Social Justice.
Tom is deeply committed to DEI, and particularly seeks to advance the interests of women in patent law, including minority women in patent law. That contribution was recognized
by the North Carolina Bar Association in March 2023.
Paul Browning, Ph.D., is a first chair litigator focusing on patent litigation and appeals, primarily in the chemical and pharmaceutical areas, including Hatch-Waxman litigation. He has tried cases before judges in various U.S. district courts and has handled arbitrations and mediations. He also advises on patent portfolio strategy with an eye toward success in litigation.
Paul’s broad litigation experience includes taking and cross-examining witnesses at trial, briefing and arguing dispositive motions, drafting appellate briefs, and arguing cases on appeal. He has also managed day-to-day litigation activities in actions involving multiple parties. In addition to his litigation practice, Paul advises clients on a variety of patent matters, including strategic development of their patent portfolios and coordination of prosecution and U.S. and foreign litigation strategy and related proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).
Paul frequently lectures on various topics in chemical patent law and has been recognized as a litigation star by Benchmark Litigation. He designed laser systems and conducted spectroscopy of small molecules while earning master’s and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Chicago.
Paul devotes a portion of his practice to pro bono matters and previously led the firm’s pro bono committee. He represents military personnel seeking enhanced compensation for injuries received while serving in the military, including injuries received in combat. He also represents veterans in cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Collette Corser focuses her practice on patent litigation and client counseling in various technical areas, with an emphasis on the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Collette is involved in all aspects of patent litigation, having gained experience serving as a judicial law clerk at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Collette’s work includes pre-litigation analysis, fact and expert discovery, claim construction, motions practice, and handling day-to-day litigation activities. She has experience with Section 337 investigations before the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), as well as post-grant proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
In addition to her litigation practice, Collette counsels clients on patent portfolio management and assists with the prosecution of chemical patents.
LODGING
Rooms in the block can be booked by visiting https://kiawahresort.com/reservation-request/cptcla-fall-meeting-1641/ ; calling Kiawah Resort at 1-800-654-2924 and requesting a room for the “CPTCLA 2026 Fall Meeting” ; or emailing reservations@kiawahresort.com. The per night rates for the block are $225 for 1BR or $305 for 2BR plus taxes and fees. Please make room reservations by August 24, 2026.
CANCELLATION POLICIES
CPTCLA cannot control or dictate charges incurred as a result of room cancellations which are not timely made in accordance with Kiawah Island Golf Resort’s Reservation Policy. Please call Kiawah Island Golf Resort directly with any questions regarding room cancellations.
