Cisco’s Top Patent Lawyer in Rarified Air

Cisco’s Top Patent Lawyer in Rarified Air

By Brenda Sandburg

Cisco Systems’ Mallun Yen

When Robert Barr decided to leave his post as Cisco Systems Inc.’s chief patent counsel, the company didn’t have to search for a successor. General Counsel Mark Chandler had just one candidate in mind: Mallun Yen. For the past three years, Yen has served as Cisco’s director of intellectual property.

“Mallun has three primary attributes that made her a very logical successor,” Chandler said. “She’s incredibly smart, tough as nails and a great team player.”

Yen, who recently returned from maternity leave, took the helm Monday as managing director of worldwide IP.

We are often asked about how we came up with the idea of ChIPs…

We are often asked about how we came up with the idea of ChIPs…

The idea of ChIPs was first “conceived” by co-founders Julie Mar-Spinola and Mallun Yen in 2005, when Mallun was promoted to the top patent counsel position at Cisco Systems. The Recorder wrote an article (Rarefied Air) about Mallun’s promotion and interviewed Julie (then of Atmel)…

She-roes: Women Strive to Promote Their Own in Silicon Valley IP Law

She-roes: Women Strive to Promote Their Own in Silicon Valley IP Law

Excerpt from www.abajournal.com

Never underestimate the power of visible trailblazers. They were sorely lacking when Anirma Gupta began as a patent attorney in 1993. “The firm I worked at had no intellectual property partners in the electrical/mechanical field,” says the deputy general counsel for litigation and IP at Intuit…

‘Chipsters’ Lobby For More Women In Silicon Valley Legal Departments

‘Chipsters’ Lobby For More Women In Silicon Valley Legal Departments

Excerpt from The Grindstone

We all know that women are underrepresented in the tech world. Turns out they are also sparse in tech companies’ legal departments. But that kind of gender heterogeny won’t be possible in the next generation, if a group of women who call themselves the Chipsters…