Soyeon (Karen) Pak Laub is a partner in the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery LLP. Karen focuses her practice on intellectual property (IP) law, including patents, trade secrets, copyrights, litigation, licensing and counseling. She represents a variety of technology companies—from Fortune 500 to start-ups—engaged in the semiconductor, circuit, computer hardware, software, cloud computing, digital processing, image processing, optical, display, automotive, medial devices, chemical, materials, nanotechnology, energy and communications industries.
Karen was named one of the most powerful and influential women in California by California Diversity Council.
Prosecution, Portfolio & Opinion: Karen has extensive experience in helping companies bring inventions to market, maximize profits from IP and reduce risks of infringement. She has prepared and prosecuted US and foreign patent applications, strategically planned and managed IP programs, harvested inventions for competitive advantage, performed IP due diligence and acquisition, and prepared patentability, infringement, validity and freedom-to-operate opinions.
Litigation: Karen has litigated patent, copyright and trade secret cases involving integrated circuit designs, high data-rate multiplexers and demultiplexers, RF modulators, semiconductor equipment, disk drive controller chips, computers, virtual private networks, encryption, information distribution software and other software. Her litigation experience includes cases before the Federal Courts and the International Trade Commission (ITC).
Licensing, Agreements, M&A: Karen has also structured, drafted and negotiated numerous licensing, development, manufacturing, chip design, sales, distribution, service, joint-venture, interoperability, e-commerce, alpha/beta testing, software, hardware, settlement, employment and merger and acquisition (M&A) agreements.
Karen has negotiated complex technology agreements including intricate ownership, license and restrictions over pre-existing, third-party, joint and newly developed IP, improvements, exclusive vs. non-exclusive license, right to use, make, have made, sublicense, create derivative works and distribute (at different levels), restrictions on field-of-use, territory, marketing and competition, warranty, limitation of liability, indemnity, infringement work-around, residuals, most favored customer provisions, and exit strategies.
In-House Counsel Experience: She has substantial corporate intellectual property and legal experience, having served as in-house general counsel for a leading chip company for telecommunication and wireless products.
Industry Experience: Karen’s experience in the high-technology field spans beyond the law. Prior to joining McDermott, she worked for over six years at Hughes Research Laboratories, which focuses on groundbreaking ultra-high-performance computing, semiconductor, optical, materials, chemical, and automotive products. She utilized her extensive technical experience to help build multimillion dollar signal processing computers for aircraft. The computer was selected by and delivered to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, a world-renowned museum of science. She is the principal inventor of U.S. Patent No. 5,744,284 relating to a novel semiconductor interconnect technology. In addition, Karen has co-authored numerous publications regarding 3-D computers in the International Conference on Wafer Scale Integration, Nepcon, the Journal of VLSI Signal Processing and other technology-related publications.
Education: While at Loyola Law School, Karen was elected to the Order of the Coif. She received a Master’s degree in electrical engineering from UC Berkeley (with Fellowship) and a Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from UCLA, where she received the Outstanding BS Candidate Award at graduation. Karen was on the National Dean’s List awarded to the top 0.5 percent of students in the nation.
Bar Admission: Karen is admitted to practice in California and before the U.S. District Court for the Northern and Central Districts of California. She is also registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Speaking Experience: She speaks and writes on topics related to intellectual property law and practice. Some of the forums where she has presented include Intellectual Property Management Roundtable, Advanced Patent Law Institute, National Diversity Council, California Minority Counsel Program, University of California, Intellectual Property Institute of the State Bar of California, Seoul National University Center for Law and Technology, Korea Patent Attorneys Association, Korea Advanced Nano Fab Center, Yonsei University, and Korean American Bar Association.
Karen understands the language and culture of Korea and Japan, as she was born in Korea, attended Yewon School in Seoul, Korea, and attended International School of Sacred Heart in Tokyo, Japan. She has taught Korean School and Sunday School.
Technical Areas
- Electronics – Analog & Digital/Wireless & Wired:
cell phone, transceiver, DAC, signal processing, MPEG encoder, multiplexer, modulator, tuner, data compression, error correction, DQPSK, phase array antenna, cellular, GPS, phased locked loops, power amplifiers, quadrature ring oscillators, chirp generators, filters, current interpolators - Semiconductors & Integrated Circuits: FETs, CMOS, bipolar, silicon, polysilicon, SiGe, III-V, CVD, sputtering, lithography, plasma etching
- Fabrication: carbide, nitride, boride, oxide, or metal-containing thin film, sputter targets, solar cells
- Nanotechnology: nanotube transistor and capacitor, nanotube random access memory (NRAM), refractory metal nanoparticles, coatings, soldering
- Chip Packaging: CSP, flip chip, ball grid array (BGA), stacked chip, high-frequency package, thermally-enhanced package
- Display Devices: LED, LCD, CCD
- Computers & Peripherals: digital image processor, signal processor, reconfigurable computer, CD/DVD controller, memory, modem, ATA
- Software and Cloud Computing: on-demand delivery, multimedia redirection, HTTP video streaming and seeking, remote session management, HTML remote computing, e-commerce transactions over the Internet, voice-over IP software for voice and data packets and video graphics, porting tool for cell phones, operating systems, graphical animation, 3D virtualization and graphics, electronic games, USB over network, embedded software
- Secure Networking: encryption, VPN, IPSec, TLS, authentication
- Optical Devices: diode, optical sensor, photonic receiver, tunable optical add-drop multiplexer, optical switching, tunable Michelson interferometers, laser remote sensing, power combining, infrared lasers, optical controller, Mach-Zehnder modulators, coherent optical receiver
- Automotive: fuel combustion catalyst, automotive security, control
- Medical: medical imaging and equipment, patient treatment management
- Computer Programming Languages used: C, PASCAL, FORTRAN, BASIC, LISP
Technical Experience
- Hughes Research Laboratories (6 years), www.HRL.com, Member of the Technical Staff—Research and Design Engineer:
Built multi‑million dollar signal processing computers for aircraft. Being the fastest in the world for its size and weight, the computer was selected by and delivered to Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Designed and oversaw CMOS circuit fabrication. Developed vertical interconnect technologies. Developed novel power & ground distributions and thermal techniques for high-performance computing. Developed device modeling software using C. Performed high-speed heterojunction device modeling.
Education
- Loyola Law School-Los Angeles, J.D. (cum laude), 1996
- University of California-Berkeley, M.S.E.E., 1986
- University of California-Los Angeles, B.S.E.E. (summa cum laude), 1985
Languages Spoken
- English
- Japanese
- Korean
