IP Licensing Support IP Litigation Support Patent Brokering Support Portfolio Management Reverse Engineering Technical Library
Our Team
Pierrette Breton
President & CEO

U.S. & Canadian Patent Agent
Experience
Pierrette Breton has over 25 years of experience in the field of semiconductor technology. Before founding Global Intellectual Strategies in August 2000, she spent eight years with Northern Telecom’s Semiconductor Group in wafer fabrication and device testing, followed by ten years in integrated circuit design analysis; four years with Semiconductor Insights, and six years with Chipworks. This extensive and functional experience has laid the foundation for her work in support of Intellectual Property Management.

Since 1994, Pierrette has consulted in patent matters involving licensing strategies and claim application. She has been deposed on numerous occasions in support of Patent Litigations and has testified at trial as an Expert Witness within the semiconductor discipline.

Education
Pierrette Breton is a registered U.S. and Canadian Patent Agent and is a named inventor in two U.S. and corresponding Canadian patent applications. She holds a diploma in Electro Mechanical Engineering from Algonquin College in Ottawa, ON.

Professional Associations
LES Member



David Fraser
Director – Patent Services

Canadian Patent Agent
Experience
David Fraser has over 20 years experience in the fields of intellectual property and electronic engineering. Prior to joining GIS, David was a Principal at Semiconductor Insights working in licensing strategies and patent claim applications with a particular emphasis on semiconductor devices and computer systems. He also provided patent portfolio analysis and evaluation services. Previously, David spent 15 years in various technical positions in Canada and Japan where he worked on designing electro-optical systems for the telecommunications industry as well as conducting research in parallel computing, computer architecture, ATM and SONET network systems. David has published articles in the EE Times and presented at LES meetings.

Education
David Fraser holds a M.A.Sc in Electrical Engineering from the University of British Columbia and a B.Sc.Eng. in Mathematics and Engineering from Queen’s University, Kingston, ON. David has published articles in the EE Times.

Professional Associations
LES Member, Professional Engineers of Ontario.



Carolyn Hayden
Senior Consultant – Patent Services
Experience
Carolyn Hayden brings over 20 years of experience in the semiconductor industry. Prior to GIS, Carolyn was a consultant with Semiconductor Insights and iPWERX where she provided services in IP management, licensing, litigation, trade secret misappropriation and open source software due diligence. Carolyn has been deposed in support of patent litigation and has testified at trial as a witness in the area of semiconductors. The majority of her roles were held with Nortel Networks in the area of manufacturing, testing of semiconductors, as well as, hardware design support, software management, hardware design IP management and licensing for Nortel’s global hardware design community.

Education
Carolyn Hayden holds a B. Eng. in Electrical Engineering from Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec. Carolyn has published IP articles in the EE Times and the Korean IP Exchange (KIPEX).

Professional Associations
LES Member, Chair LES Women in Licensing Ottawa Chapter, Chair-Elect LES Women in Licensing Committee



Dr. Marc Pépin
Manager - Patent Intelligence and R&D
Experience
Marc Pépin has over eight years of work experience in Intellectual Property, which includes drafting and prosecuting patent applications for inventions in the high technology realm. Marc’s drafting experience has provided him with extensive exposure to the telecommunications sector. Before joining GIS in 2006, Marc was a patent consultant at Smart & Biggar/Fetherstonhaugh, an Ottawa-based law firm practising exclusively in intellectual property and technology law.

Education
Marc Pépin holds a PhD in Physics from Memorial University of Newfoundland and M.Sc. and B.Sc. degrees in physics from Queen’s University, Kingston, ON. His doctorate and post-doctorate work was related to polymer science. He conducted simulations of polymers in melts and solutions, and he studied single chain dynamics. His research was directed to a large number of applications including plastic materials (blends), micelles, thin films, polymer brushes, bio-materials, DNA sequencing, and lab-on-a-chip devices, for example, and he has published over a dozen scientific papers in these areas.

Professional Associations
LES Member



Alfio Ferrara
Engineering Services Manager
Experience
Alfio Ferrara has over 20 years of experience in the engineering field. Alfio started his career as a hardware designer developing non-destructive test equipment, followed by developing point to multi-point communications hardware for S.R.Telecom in Montreal. He spent nine years at Harris’ Microwave division (formerly Farinon) where he led a H/W design team in the development of several successful point to point radio systems. Alfio joined Alcatel-Lucent (formerly Newbridge) in 1997, where he continued his career managing ATM hardware and ASIC design groups. Prior to joining GIS, Alfio was Director of Engineering at GenieView, Inc. where he led a small team of R&D engineers in new product development of extremely low data rate video products.

Education
Alfio Ferrara holds a B. Eng. from McGill University, Montreal, Quebec.

Professional Associations
Professional Engineers of Ontario



Ellen Brayton
Operations Manager
Experience
Ellen Brayton brings a broad range of knowledge and experience in her role as Operations Manager with more than 20 years of experience in the semiconductor industry. Before joining GIS in May 2004, she spent five years with SiberCore Technologies in a Marketing Communications role. Prior to this, Ellen spent 18 years with Zarlink (formerly Mitel Semiconductor) where she held various positions from a technical documentation specialist to a managerial role in marketing communications.

Ellen is responsible for overall management of the day-to-day operations for the Company including the following functions: human resources, research, marketing, purchasing, facilities management, and IS.