Adventures with Intellectual Property & Patent Law Deputy General Counsel

Thankfully, many of us experience impactful teachers and mentors who help coach and guide us along our professional journey. Kerri Braun, Kids2 VP, Deputy General Counsel, was one of those students who decided to take a turn during her college education and consider a different career path. 

Initially enrolled at a pharmacy school majoring in biology for pre-med, Kerri found herself considering other professional opportunities during her elective business law classes. While taking the law course, Kerri would often advocate different views on her papers with professors and thankfully had one teacher question whether a career in law would be a better fit. After a few office visits, her teacher decided to sit her down and discuss how she could find a profession she loved in debate combined with her interests and skills in science.

After the collegiate nudge, Kerri learned more about the benefits attorneys with backgrounds in science can have in intellectual property law. She switched majors and started studying to become a patent attorney. Though she jokes she may have done things backwards, Kerri pursued her passions to specialize in her combined interests of both science and law to earn her Juris Doctorate and become a member of the Patent Bar. In the process, she realized how much she enjoyed studying trade secret, trademark, and copyright law and further expanded her interest to obtain her masters in intellectual property.

Future in Law

After graduation, Kerri was recruited by an Atlanta law firm. With a few fellow classmates, she spent 15 years practicing with private firms. Throughout the years as the economy ebbed and flowed with the roller coaster job market, Kerri was thankful to have developed multiple specialties within her law degree relating to licensing, prosecuting, and litigating copyrights, patents, and trademarks instead of focusing on only one specific field. She believes this background makes her especially suited for in-house intellectual property (IP) work, where you need to be a bit of an "IP generalist" to give the best advice.

Her favorite fundamental, Think and Act Like an Owner, was the exact thought she had when she decided to step out of private law and go in-house. While working on a case, Kerri realized if she worked directly for a company with a "Think and Act Like an Owner" mindset, she could put herself in the owner’s shoes to live and breathe the business she supports, allowing her to better perform under the projects she defends. Now working directly for Kids2, she can recommend next steps and has a deeper understanding of how it best helps the company perform.

Joining Kids2 during the XRT Oball litigation, Kerri started months before going to trial on the case. She was a perfect fit with her trade secrets and contractual background and was delighted to join the company in time to help with this successful case. Working directly as a team member of our organization, Kerri realized this was the type of work she always dreamed of.

Bucket List Achiever and Memory Lane

Kerri loves to try new things, from cooking made-from-scratch butternut squash ravioli with brown butter pecan sauce to making her own ricotta cheese or homemade lye soap. In her personal life, Kerri and her husband spend two weeks each year backpacking through major national parks. An adventurer at heart, Kerri never looks past an exciting opportunity. The couple loves checking things off their bucket list. In fact, they finally achieved a dream hike through the famous "Hole in the Wall" in Montana, an especially difficult backpacking trip due to the distance, extreme elevation changes, and limited times of the year you can hike through it. For most of the year, the trail is closed because of too much snowfall or dangerous animal activity, like mountain lions or grizzly bears. On one lucky trip, Kerri and her husband were one of four sets of hikers to secure permits to hike the 68 miles at a high elevation through the site. 

Kerri and her husband were married two years ago after they hiked to the floor of the Cloudland Canyon in northwest Georgia - and yes, she did it in that dress! Between her and her husband, Kerri is a mother of five. Her children grew up with several Kids2 toys and spent much of their early years playing with our activity gyms and gear. 

When supporting our Strategic Partners team, she often feels nostalgic working with Baby Disney and Sesame Street.  When Kerri was little, her absolute favorite toy was a Grover doll with a rip cord you could pull to have him talk to you. She also remembers listening to her Sesame Street Disco 8-track, singing along with their classic "C is for Cookie" song.

Kerri continues to collaborate with the global Kids2 team based in the Atlanta area creating more tiny wins with both our intellectual property law victories and future product solutions.