First half hour: 3 panelists (not enough time to speak to anything concrete):
- Will Covey - Deputy General Counsel of US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). He advertised the pro-bono program.
- Jomarie Fredricks - Trade Public Advisory Committee (TPAC), Deputy General Counsel, Chief IP and Brand Counsel at Rotary International. She talked about diversity.
- David Cho - chair of TPAC, Assistant Vice President Legal Counsel-Trademarks and Copyrights at AT&T.
Next ~45 min 1-1 interview of Susan Del Bene, which is the only advertised speaker for today.
The interviewer and the house representative arrived in the middle of the first half hour.
The high heel of the interviewer knocked on the floor all around the room until they sat down.
The last few minutes is Q&A.
Will Covey brought some postcards with QR code for pro-bono programs for patent, patent trial and apeal board at USPTO (income requirement is 3 x proverty level). He mentioned that we visited the legal program at Seattle University yesterday, and advocates legal professional and students to volunteer in this pro-bono program.
I mainly signed up for this event to get inside of the Sphere.
It's open to public twice a week. You can sign up here, but I never bothered.
So after I registered at the front desk, instead of taking the elevator to the top (4th) floor, I walked the stairs. However, I had to hurry, was thinking I'd have more leisure after the event.
The plants are lush. Quite a few have labels. I was told that these plants are from mid and south America's rainforest. There are multiple steam vents pumping out visible and audible steam every few minutes. Here and there, there are tables and chairs. All very nice and airy indeed. No other visitors at this time (3-4:30pm). Unfortunately, on the way out, we weren't allowed to walk around. The only way down is the elevator.
Amazon also provided some petit four (all sweets) for this event, since Sphere is functioning as a restaurant, called Willmott's Ghost, named after horticulturist Ellen Willmott.
