Building Your IP Litigation Tool Box

Rachel Lovejoy is currently Senior Counsel at Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), founded by entrepreneur Elon Musk to revolutionize space technology. She has more than 20 years of business-focused legal experience as a global transactional lawyer in the US, Middle East, and Latin America advising on numerous complex issues. Her experience includes both law firm and in-house positions, including technology transactions, intellectual property, international trade, real estate and more. She also served as an officer in the US Army Reserve.

Bridget Smith is Assistant General Counsel and Head of IP at Relativity Space, an aerospace company that manufactures launch vehicles with the world’s largest 3D printers, where she manages and strategizes all aspects of the company’s IP issues. In private practice, she worked on over 160 AIA trials, led a successful precedential win at the Ninth Circuit, and had her amicus work favorably cited in the Supreme Court case United States v. Arthrex. Bridget was twice named one of the top 50 women in PTAB trials by the PTAB Bar Association and has been repeatedly tapped as an IAM Strategy 300 top legal strategist. She currently serves as co-chair of the American Bar Association Section of IP Law Business and Trade Division, as vice chair of the American IP Law Association PTAB Trial Committee, as co-chair of the Orange County chapter of ChIPs, and on the steering committee for the Sedona Conference Working Groups 9 and 10.

As the General Counsel of Zoro, Aimee is responsible for developing and advising on a risk-aware legal strategy aligned with Zoro’s fast-paced, high-growth endless assortment model. She leads the Legal, Procurement, Product Compliance, Data Privacy, and Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) teams.

Before joining Zoro in 2024, Aimee served as the Vice President and Associate General Counsel for W.W. Grainger, Inc. Her team was responsible for legal support of technology and eCommerce matters as well as privacy, data protection and security, and all aspects of Grainger’s IP portfolio. These included patents, trade secrets, trademarks, copyrights, and domain names.

Bonnie Gaudette is Executive Director, Corporate Counsel at Replimune, Inc., a clinical stage biotechnology company located in Woburn, Massachusetts, whose mission is to revolutionize the treatment of cancer and develop novel immunotherapies. As Corporate Counsel for Replimune and a member of the Senior Leadership Team, Bonnie focuses on preparing the company for a potential near-term commercial launch and providing legal and risk management guidance to Commercial and Strategy colleagues as well to several corporate stakeholders from the Clinical, Regulatory, Quality, and Supply Chain departments.

Prior to joining Replimune, Bonnie was the head of the Legal function at La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company, where she built and led the Legal & Compliance team for a company that commercialized multiple innovative products for patients with serious, life-threatening conditions. Prior to working at La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company, Bonnie had an extensive career at Haug Partners, LLP working in the firm’s New York City and Boston offices, where she focused on patent litigations and anti-trust matters for several biotech and pharmaceutical clients. As part of her litigation work, Bonnie guided clients through document collection efforts, fact discovery and trial preparation.

Before joining Haug Partners, Bonnie was Shire Pharmaceutical’s Lead eDiscovery Legal Counsel, where she established and developed a comprehensive eDiscovery program. She managed the spectrum of eDiscovery functions from data preservation to document production for both Shire’s Commercial and Intellectual Property groups. Bonnie also served as a liaison between Shire’s Legal group and the Information Technology function providing risk assessment guidance across the company regarding preservation obligations, corporate policies and best practices, and the implementation of enterprise solutions while under document preservation obligations.

Bonnie graduated from Smith College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government and French Literature and received her law degree from Ohio Northern University’s Claude Pettit College of Law where she was a member of the Law Review and served on the Editorial Board.

Dr. Kuzmich serves as the co-chair of the firm’s Life Sciences practice group. Her practice focuses on patent litigation and strategic intellectual property counseling in the areas of pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and biotechnology. Recognizing that product life-cycle management is continuous and dynamic, she develops, manages, and protects diverse patent portfolios, taking into consideration a client’s immediate and long-term business objectives.

Her extensive experience in pharmaceutical patent litigation allows her to offer a distinctive approach to protecting and maximizing the value of intellectual property assets. She specializes in counseling clients on how to obtain strong and diverse intellectual property protection on pharmaceuticals and biological products during early research, and how to expand and defend that protection throughout development, product launch, and beyond.

Upon completion of her graduate degree in pharmacology, Dr. Kuzmich became a post-doctoral research associate with the Fox Chase Cancer Center where she investigated mechanisms of anti-cancer drug resistance. She spent several years in the private pharmaceutical sector, managing departments in the U.S. in the areas of drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics, and also collaborating with Asian and European counterparts to coordinate worldwide regulatory submissions.

Dr. Kuzmich serves on the Board of Directors for the Federal Circuit Bar Association, which includes being a frequent lecturer at various international conferences throughout the year.