Hon. Katharina McFarland

With over 30 years of government service, Katharina (Katrina) McFarland is widely recognized as a leading subject-matter expert on government procurement. She served as Chairman of the Board of Army Research and Development at the National Academies of Science, and as a Director on the Boards of SAIC and Transphorm, She was previously the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition (2012 to 2017) and acting Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics & Technology) (2016-2017). She was President of the Defense Acquisition University from 2010 to 2012 From 2006 to 2010, Ms. McFarland was the Director of Acquisition, Missile Defense Agency. She is an accredited Materials, Mechanical, Civil and Electronics Engineer. She has received an Honorary Doctoral of Engineering from the University of Cranfield, United Kingdom; the Presidential Meritorious Executive Rank Award, the Secretary of Defense Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service Award, the Department of the Navy Civilian Tester of the Year Award, and the Navy and United States Marine Corps Commendation Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service. Ms. McFarland brings substantial experience with the U.S. Department of Defense, Department of Army, and Intelligence Community procurement with focus on Space applications,  Artificial Intelligence, Cyber,  and IT technologies.in defense acquisition, program management, logistics and technology.

Explainer: Standard Essential Patents and National Security

By Christopher Borges Technology standards are a critical domain of international cooperation and competition in high technology. Standards create a common language for communication about technology and innovation, allowing firms to collaborate and develop interoperable products. At the same time, for some critical and emerging technologies such as telecommunications and artificial
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Assessing the Patent and Trademark Office’s Inventorship Guidance for AI-Assisted Inventions

By Alexander Kersten As new applications of artificial intelligence (AI) become more sophisticated, AI tools are increasingly used to assist in the process of invention. However, given that inventorship is limited to natural persons under U.S. law, AI’s growing utilization has raised questions around whether AI-assisted inventions should receive patents,
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Securing IP and the Future of Pandemic Preparedness

By Jeffrey Depp In December 2021, member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) at a Special Session of the World Health Assembly created an intergovernmental negotiating body (INB) to draft and negotiate a WHO convention, agreement, or other international instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response (“Pandemic Agreement”). The
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