Cathy has been in house counsel at Mastercard since 2006.  She is currently Assistant General Counsel for the US Region, the company’s largest region responsible for 40% of the revenue.  Her responsibilities include end to end support for all legal issues within the US Region, including providing timely, concise and business-focused legal advice on various areas of the law, negotiating various agreements and engagements with financial institutions, merchants, non-traditional and digital partners as well as regulatory and policy issues.  She is a co-lead of the Law and Franchise Integrity Department’s Community Service Volunteer efforts, personally logging over 300 hours in 2017.

 Prior to MasterCard, Cathy was Chief IP Counsel and Senior Associate General Counsel for Instinet Incorporated, an electronic broker dealer in New York which is now a part of Nomura Securities.  Cathy was responsible for all intellectual property, transaction, technology and contractual matters for Instinet as well as responsible for providing legal input on intellectual property and technology strategies across the company.  Prior to moving in house, Cathy began her career as an associate in the Advertising and Marketing group at Hall Dickler Kent Friedman and Wood in New York.

 Cathy is a graduate from Franklin Pierce Law Center (now known as the University of New Hampshire School of Law) where she earned both her Juris Doctorate and LL.M in Intellectual Property.  She received her B.A. in Administration of Criminal Justice in 1991 from the Pennsylvania State University in State College, Pennsylvania.

 Outside of work, Cathy has been heavily involved with the International Trademark Association since 1995, serving on the Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition Committee, moving up to lead that committee and recently finished a 3 year term on INTA’s Board of Directors. 

Jeff Kobulnick is the Chair of the Firm’s Intellectual Property Practice Group. He regularly litigates claims for copyright and trademark infringement, unfair competition, false advertising and related claims under both federal and state laws. He also has significant experience handling Internet-related intellectual property issues, such as domain name registration and dispute resolution, and the protection and enforcement of copyrights and trademarks on the Internet. In addition, Jeff extensively counsels and represents clients on the selection, clearance and registration of trademarks and service marks worldwide.

Jeff advises and represents clients across a wide range of industries in their intellectual property matters to develop, protect and enforce such rights around the world. He has also guest lectured on intellectual property issues at law schools including the USC Gould School of Law, Loyola Law School, and Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles. Prior to joining Brutzkus Gubner, he spent more than eight years as an intellectual property and litigation attorney with national law firms, most recently Foley & Lardner LLP.

In addition, Jeff is an active leader within the International Trademark Association (INTA). He is a past National Chair of the Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition Committee, is the current Chair of the Competition’s newly formed Los Angeles region, and has served as a Project Team Leader for INTA’s Pro Bono Committee. Jeff also regularly serves as a judge for both the Saul Lefkowitz and other moot court competitions relating to trademark and copyright law issues.

Jeff is also well known for his commitments to pro bono and community involvement. He serves as a coordinator for Bet Tzedek Legal Services’ Holocaust Survivors Justice Network, assisting Holocaust survivors and their widows/widowers obtain reparation pension benefits for work performed while residing in German-controlled ghettos. In 2009, he was awarded Bet Tzedek’s Elyse S. Kline Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year Award. He has also received the Wiley W. Manuel Award from the State of California several times for distinguished pro bono legal services. Jeff has also coordinated attorney participation in Lawyers for Literacy, an annual event that benefits Everybody Wins! Los Angeles, a nonprofit literacy program helping children improve their reading skills and self-esteem. He was awarded the Lynford Lardner Community Service Award in 2006.

Julius has an unparalleled knowledge of trade mark, registered design and copyright law, and applies this in a commercial way to provide practical and proactive advice for his clients.  Clients appreciate Julius’s ability to combine a relaxed manner with an ability to grasp key issues quickly and provide focused advice.

He has extensive experience in contentious trade mark proceedings.  In the UK his experience includes many appearances before the Appointed Person, and he is the most often heard trade mark attorney in inter partes proceedings at the UK Intellectual Property Office.  He also has experience of proceedings before the UK High Court and the Patents County Court.  Julius also has vast experience of dealing with oppositions, cancellations and appeals before OHIM and of further appeals to the General Court and the European Court of Justice.

He provides advice on management and organisation of IP portfolios, trade mark and domain name policies, as well as IP strategies.  He has substantial experience in IP issues relating to tax restructuring and in respect of licensing issues.
Julius has extensive experience in dealing with domain name complaints, and has had many successes before ICANN and Nominet and other domain tribunals.  He also has considerable experience in advising on the acquisition of domain names, and in particular top-level domains.  He has advised on and gained experience of the Companies House Tribunal.
Julius has served on the Organising Committee for the International Trade Mark Attorneys’ Annual Meeting and is a regular speaker at INTA and other events.  He trains candidates for the CITMA exams and has also lectured on International Trade Mark Law at Manchester University.

He spends his spare time studying for additional degrees, and relaxes by playing golf (in which he has represented his country) and making jewellery (commissions welcome).

David is currently Global Head of Trademarks at Sandoz International GmbH, located in Holzkirchen, Germany, leading a team of experienced trademark professionals handling all trademark, domain name and copyright matters for Sandoz Group worldwide. David is also currently leading a multi-country litigation involving non-traditional trademarks. David joined Sandoz in November 2015 and was previously Senior Trademark Attorney at Novartis Pharma AG in Basel, Switzerland, where he was responsible for worldwide trademark, design and domain name portfolios and various related pan-European litigation matters.
Before joining Novartis Pharma AG in January 2010 as Trademark Attorney, David was, since 2006, Head of Trademarks and Domain Names at Virbac S.A., a company in the animal health sector located in Carros, France. There, David was in charge of the worldwide trademark, design and domain name strategy for the Group. David started at Virbac as an intern in 1999 before joining as Trademark and Domain Name Counsel in 2001.David also acted as Legal Counsel for the company in 2002, mainly in charge of drafting and negotiating agreements. 
David obtained law degrees at Nice Sophia-Antipolis University in France, where he also lectured on IP law, and diplomas from Oxford Brookes University in the UK and from the CEIPI in Strasbourg, France. David is currently Vice-President of INTA and serves on the Executive Committee of the INTA Board of Directors. He is also a member of the Brand and Innovation Committee of INTAD. David is a French national and speaks French, English and Italian, with a business knowledge of Spanish.

María José Sánchez is a lawyer from Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá Colombia. She holds an LLM in Intellectual Property Law from Universidad de Alicante in Spain and a Master´s degree on corporate law at Universidad del Rosario in Bogota.   Maria Jose has been practicing Intellectual Property Law since 2009 mainly in the trademark field but also has experience in GIs, patents and copyright.   
For the past 2 years she has been working as the Intellectual Property Coordinator at Federación Nacional de Cafeteros – Colombian Coffee Growers Federation. Her team is responsible for designing intellectual property strategies that ensure the proper protection and exploitation of intangible assets seeking at all times the benefit of the coffee growers and profitability of our organization.   As part of our main duties, we are also responsible for the administration of the appellation of origin Colombian Coffee.  
Intellectual Property has been her passion since she was studying law at the University but since she joined the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation, she has been able to witness how the IP profession can positively impact the lives of more than 540 thousand coffee families. This gives even more meaning to her life and profession.

Phil is Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer for Grounded World - a boutique social innovation and brand activation consultancy based here in New York. Grounded helps brands, retailers and non-profits articulate their purpose, activate their brand and accelerate their impact – often at retail – through exponential thinking, commercial innovation and social enterprise.   
Prior to ‘Getting Grounded’, Phil was Head of Strategy for Geometry Global HQ in New York and led the Unilever business across North America and was also the brand strategy and retail activation planner  behind one of the best long term CSR campaigns (PAMPERS / UNICEF One Pack, One Vaccine), which provided enough vaccines to eliminate Newborn / Neonatal Tetanus from the world today.    
Phil is also an adjunct professor at Michigan State University for the department of advertising and PR and a consultant and advisor to several non-profits and a portfolio of tech and social impact start-ups.  

Kim serves as Senior Vice President and Global Head of Design for Barbie and Fashion Dolls at Mattel Inc. She has held this position since February 2019.

Kim and her award-winning team of product and graphic designers are committed to keeping the brands they steward innovative and reflective of the world kids see around them. Kim is entrusted with the creative direction of Mattel’s flagship brand Barbie – a category leader in innovation and a source of inspiration to children around the world for over 60 years.

Prior to her current expanded role, Kim was Vice President of Design for Barbie. From 2013-2019 she was responsible for all product and packaging for the brand. During that time, she helped launch the popular @BarbieStyle Instagram channel that now has over 2.2 million followers and unprecedented social media engagement within the toy industry. Kim also served as Vice President, Consumer Products Design from 2010 - 2013, setting the creative vision for style guide development and licensed product design for Mattel’s global dolls brands, including Barbie, Monster High and Polly Pocket. In this role she led Mattel’s licensing design teams around the world and developed product in over 50 categories in partnership with licensees in over 150 countries.

Kim started her career at Mattel in 1999 as a designer for Barbie. Throughout her 20-year tenure at the company, Kim has maintained a creative process that emphasizes purpose-driven, human-centric design. As featured in the Hulu documentary Tiny Shoulders: Rethinking Barbie, in 2015 she led the design of the most ethnically diverse doll line in the brand’s history. That line included the introduction of three new doll body types - curvy, tall and petite. This bold product reinvention generated 5 billion media impressions, led to a TIME cover, was named one of the “Top 25 Inventions of 2016” by the magazine and received the Barbie brand’s first-ever “Doll of the Year Award”, a coveted honor from the Toy Industry Association. Today Barbie is the most diverse doll line on the market.
Further pushing diversity and inclusivity efforts across the doll portfolio, Kim oversaw design of Creatable World, the first gender-inclusive doll line to challenge traditional views around who a doll was for. The line, inviting all kids to play, sparked cultural conversation heard around the world and was named one of Time’s 2019 Best Inventions.

Kim resides in West Hollywood, California, and is originally from New Orleans, Louisiana. She holds design degrees from Louisiana State University and Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles. Prior to joining Mattel, she co-founded and was creative director of the Los Angeles-based textile art studio, The Design Garage Inc. She is passionate about the advancement of women and girls, supports the arts and LGBTQ+ organizations in her community and serves on the board of directors for the Wright Institute Los Angeles, a mental health non-profit organization and clinic, Chickenshed NYC, a non-profit inclusive children’s theater company and she is a member of The Toy Association’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

Signe Naeve is director, corporate counsel for intellectual property at Starbucks Coffee Company where she oversees the trademark strategy for North and South America. Prior to joining Starbucks, she was a Law Lecturer and Director of the Intellectual Property LL.M. Program at the University of Washington School of Law, teaching Copyright, Trademark, International IP and First Amendment and IP classes. She also managed the trademark practice as Of Counsel for Hughes Media Law Group. Signe began her career as a litigator at Perkins Coie LLP, and clerked for the Hon. Bobbe J. Bridge, Washington State Supreme Court, and externed for the Hon. M. Margaret McKeown, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She has degrees in Journalism and English from Washington State University and a J.D. from the University of Washington.