Susie Armstrong

Susan M. Armstrong started at Qualcomm working on Globalstar and then early CDMA base station projects. She was a pioneer in bringing internet protocols to the cellular industry, resulting in the first web surfing on a cellular phone in 1997, and Qualcomm’s commercialization of packet data in 1998. Since then she has held various leadership positions, first responsible for the development and commercialization of the all of the software that drives Qualcomm’s chipsets, and then as the head of worldwide Customer Engineering. In addition to her work on Qualcomm’s inventions and new technologies, she has worked extensively with base station makers, carriers, phone and device makers in the US, Asia and Europe to bring those technologies to market.

In 2015, Armstrong has joined Qualcomm’s Government Affairs group, where she brings an engineering and product background the Government Affairs work in worldwide public policy, including intellectual property protection, cyber security, STEM and STEM diversity.

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
Read More

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,
Read More

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
Read More