long story short

The last six years have been infuriating under this incompetent and nefarious administration. And the last six months have been exasperating and troubling because it once again highlighted how badly the machinery of a lying, arrogant, indolent, thick-headed son of a dictator has tried to revise and erase our history. Amidst all this, however, came an unexpected surprise. A glimmer of hope. A seeming light at the end of the tunnel. I never thought I would actually begin to have faith in a leader again, until VP Leni showed us all what it means to be a true public servant.

"More and more, in a place like this, we feel ourselves part of wild Nature, kin to everything."

— John Muir

When my UP law friends from New York and DC asked me to come with them to Acadia National Park last week, I could not say no. I said yes willingly and excitedly although their spring break didn't quite coincide with my winter break. (Winter never ends in New Hampshire, it seems.) I really wanted to go. I figured an extended weekend trip for this would be worth it because not only do I get to meet up with friends from back home, but I'd also have a reason to see a new place that I otherwise would not have been able to visit by myself. 

I am so glad that I did. 

It took me long enough, right? It's -15° C, right after a snowstorm, and my third-going-on-fourth month of winter. You'd think I have more to say about it. The truth is it's hard to encapsulate the feeling of wonder, fascination, and — admittedly — slight exasperation that comes with everyday sub-zero temperatures. Though some days can be a struggle, there's a lot of joy in it too. Skiing, sledding, tubing, you name it, I've tried it. How can I not when I'm at the heart of one of the coldest states in the whole New England region? I'm right smack in the middle of a Hallmark winter-in-a-charming-little-town movie, to be honest.

Our winter break is almost over (yes, we have winter break instead of spring break) and as expected, I spent most of it indoors and trying to get ahead on my papers and assignments. But hey— I'm not that much of tita. As much as I would have loved spending this entire week just nestled comfortably under my thick blankets, I also figured I needed to take advantage of this winter weather as much as I can, because even though I am not loving it right now (my bones hath frozen over), I am pretty sure I will miss it when I'm back in the scorching heat of Manila. 

For the first half of January, I was fortunate enough to be selected for the course titled “IP Strategies in Tech Industries," held in Silicon Valley, California.

We had to apply for this course last semester and the professor had to evaluate our credentials, as well as our personal essays, before being accepted into the class. The seminar aims to address recent IP issues in the tech field by going through the patent battles caused by converging technologies, such as the smartphone wars, automotive wars, and FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory) licensing terms. It also targets critical discussions on looming issues in the space of cloud wars, data privacy, and AI.

We were able to meet and learn from the chief legal counsels of Microsoft, Google, Facebook/Meta, Qualcomm, Samsung, Apple, and many others. This was under the tutelage of Prof. Micky Minhas, the director of our IP Center and the former general counsel of Microsoft. It was really an incredible and amazing experience because we got to meet the tech giants and personally ask them about legal and business strategies, as well as their career paths towards heading these companies. 

Everything I learned about patent law and technology licensing last semester came in handy for this course. Without that, I would have been twenty times more overwhelmed with our readings and assignments. But all that knowledge was upended by practical learnings as well. Coming into this, I thought patents per se are valuable to each company because they are obviously assets that can be commercialized. But this doesn't seem to be the case for big tech companies. Their portfolios are actually liabilities too: exposure to patent trolls, source of sunk costs due to litigation and maintenance fees, and a possible reason for bad PR. It was really an eye-opening course — one that challenged my preconceived notions, stock knowledge (or what little of it I had), and beliefs about the tech world. 

Anyway, here are a couple more photos from our Silicon Valley immersion. I sneaked in a few from our visit to the Google Campus too!

At Microsoft Campus with my Microsoft Surface Go :P #loyal

Lobby of the Microsoft SV Building

Silicon Valley at dusk

Some of us international/hybrid students

Thank you, Microsoft, for letting us in despite the threat of Omicron

Learning about Qualcomm's licensing strategy 

Can you find me on Google Maps?

I think this was actually someone's bike

Indeed.