Sponsored Activities

IP Lecture Series

During the 2019-2020 academic year, the Program sponsored numerous lectures and conferences that featured leading academics and practitioners in the IP and technology law field. These included the following:

• Professor Kate Klonick from St John’s University School of Law presented her research on the design of the new Facebook Oversight Board in a lecture entitled The Site to Rule: Facebook’s Oversight Board and the Quest for Legitimacy in Private Global Governance.

• Professor Woody Hartzog from Northeastern University School of Law criticized privacy law’s emphasis on control in his lecture The Case against Idealizing Control . Professor Hartzog’s extremely well-attended lecture was co-sponsored by the Technology Ethics Center.

• Professor Bruce Boyden from Marquette University School of Law explored the development of the substantial similarity test for copyright infringement, and particularly the respective roles of judge and jury, in his lecture The Tar Pit of Substantial Similarity.

• Professor Yang Ming from Peking University School of Law spoke on China’s Legal System, focusing in particular on the unique aspects of Chinese patent law. The lecture was co-sponsored by a number of student organizations: the International Law Society, the Business Law Forum, and the Intellectual Property Law Society (IPLS).

IP in Practice Series

• Don McGowan, Chief Legal Officer for Pokémon International visited campus and spoke to Mark McKenna’s Information Privacy Law class about the General Data Protection Regulation. Mr. McGowan also gave a presentation to IPLS students about his experiences working as in-house counsel for Pokémon.

• James M. Silbermann, Senior Counsel for Enrollment and Intellectual Property Legal Services in the Office of the General Counsel at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, visited campus as part of the PTO’s clinic certification program and spoke to students in our IP & Entrepreneurship Clinic and to IPLS about careers at the PTO.

• Ken Germain, Senior Counsel at Wood Herron & Evans, spoke on The Unconstitutionality of Overlapping Trade Dress and Design Patent Protection, exploring the problem of overlapping design patent and trade dress protection for product designs.

• Faculty Director Mark McKenna moderated a conversation with Melinda Henneberger ‘80, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 2019, on the challenges of developing a business model for journalism in the current technological environment.

Conferences, Roundtables, and Events

• Our Program hosted the inaugural Design Law Scholars Roundtable at our Chicago campus, gathering many of the world’s leading design law experts. The Roundtable was created in partnership with the Chicago-Kent College of Law’s Center for Design, Law & Technology, with the intention that our schools alternate hosting the event. In addition to Notre Dame participants Mark McKenna, Felicia Caponigri, and Sarah Burstein (visiting at Notre Dame during the Fall 2019 semester), participants included leading design law and intellectual property scholars Ansgar Ohly from LMU Munich; Jerome Reichman from Duke University School of Law; Chris Sprigman and Jeanne Fromer from NYU School of Law; Chris Buccafusco from Cardozo School of Law; Rebecca Tushnet from Harvard Law School; Mark Janis from IU Bloomington Maurer School of Law; Jonathan Masur from the University of Chicago Law School; Graeme Dinwoodie and Ed Lee from Chicago-Kent College of Law; Jason Du Mont a fellow at Stanford Law School; Laura Heymann from William & Mary Law School; and Stacey Dogan from Boston University School of Law.

• We hosted a roundtable on Julie Cohen’s fantastic book Between Truth and Power: The Legal Constructions of Informational Capitalism . In addition to Professor Cohen (Georgetown Law), participants included a number of leading scholars in privacy law and technology law: Jennifer Daskal from American University Washington College of Law; Orly Lobel from University of San Diego School of Law; Neil Richards from Washington University School of Law; Ari Waldman from New York Law School; Andrew Keane Woods from the University of Arizona Rogers College of Law; Bill McGeveran from the University of Minnesota Law School; Dan Burk from University of California Irvine School of Law; Anupam Chander from Georgetown Law; Deidre Mulligan from the UC Berkeley School of Information; and Jessica Silbey from Northeastern University School of Law. Mark McKenna hosted and Felicia Caponigri participated. Second year law student Maggie King also attended and participated in the discussion. The Notre Dame Law Review Online will publish a Symposium based on contributions at the roundtable.

• We formed a new partnership with the Hesburgh Library, holding Public Domain Day in early January and a full week of events to celebrate Fair Use Week in February. Fair Use Week focused on appropriation art and fair use; digital preservation and copyright law; film and fair use; and the nature of a copy throughout history in a workshop held in Notre Dame’s Rare Books and Special Collections. Our IP & Entrepreneurship Clinic played an important part in Fair Use Week, holding the first on-campus pop-up IP Clinic for members of our Notre Dame community who encounter fair use issues in their academic scholarship. The Snite Museum of Art also participated in our Fair Use Week events.

• In July 2020 we jointly hosted a virtual event with colleagues at the Università di Padova in Italy on The Role of Law, Norms and Technology in Contact Tracing, in which we discussed the implementation of a new contact tracing app, “Immuni”, developed by a private company and promoted by the Italian government. Participants included Andrea Pin, Lamberto Ballan, Elisa Spiller, and Giuseppe Sartori from Padova; and Mark McKenna, Felicia Caponigri, and Kristen Martin from Notre Dame.

Networking Events and Student Advising

Our IP alumni are engaged with our Program, participating in many of our events and mentoring students both informally and as part of the Intellectual Property Law Society’s formal mentorship program through IrishCompass.

• Our first on-campus IP Homecoming, which we hosted immediately after the Law School’s Sesquicentennial Reception, was attended by IP alumni from across the country. This initial alumni gathering was effective in spreading the word on our Program and its growth.

• In the Fall semester, we held our regular IP curriculum information session, spotlighting the core, advanced, and related IP curriculum for students. As part of our webinar series, we also held an information session for Fall 2020 course selection.

• In March we held our annual Connect with IPTECH event, a networking reception following the annual Meet the Employers event hosted by the Law School’s Career Development Office for first year law students. Attorneys (both alumni and non) from the following firms attended: Baker Botts; Frost Brown Todd LLC; Greenberg Traurig LLP; Honigman LLP; K&L Gates; Kirkland & Ellis; Latham & Watkins; MBHB; Taft Stettinius & Hollister; Wood Herron & Evans; Jones Day; Locke Lord; and DLA Piper. This event was co-sponsored with the Career Development Office.

• Prior to the Connect with IPTECH event, we partnered with the College of Engineering to host a Careers in Intellectual Property Law panel for undergraduate engineering students. Over fifty-five undergraduate engineering students attended to hear Notre Dame IP lawyers Andrew Velzen, a patent agent at MBHB; Emily Pyclik, an associate at Baker Botts; and Tim Heverin, a partner at Jones Day, speak about the nexus of engineering and IP law and their careers. Second-year law student Maggie King moderated the panel.

• Brendan Regan, a trademark examiner at the USPTO and 1998 NDLS alumnus, returned to speak to our IP & Entrepreneurship Clinic regarding career opportunities at the PTO. At least two recent alumni, Shelby Niemann, a 2018 NDLS alumna, and Emma Sirignano, a 2015 NDLS alumna, were inspired by his previous talks and are now at the PTO.

• Since moving all our events online, we have also supported students in an informal setting by hosting our Wine and Cheese receptions on Zoom.

Spring 2020 Webinars

Due to the coronavirus, the Program canceled all of its on-campus events scheduled after Spring Break. The Program pivoted to online programming to support students during these challenging times.

• We hosted a webinar on Classes in the Time of the Coronavirus: How to virtually thrive in your IP lectures online to advise students on how to transition to online IP courses and thrive in a digital learning environment. Program professors participated and shared how they had adjusted their teaching methods for the benefit of students.

• Careers in the Time of the Coronavirus: How to network and identify job opportunities as firms are grounded explored how firms are dealing with the coronavirus and how students could continue to pursue career opportunities. The discussion included Carolyn Blessing, a partner at Locke Lord and a 2008 NDLS alumna. The Career Development Office also participated.

• Interviews in the Time of the Coronavirus: Presentation, Privacy, and Cybersecurity issues in digital media shared practical interview tips for students interviewing on video conferencing platforms in these extraordinary times. The webinar also explored the substantive privacy and cybersecurity issues that surround our increased use of technology and careers in privacy law. The discussion included our Career Development Office, Julie Kadish, an Associate at Sheppard Mullin and a 2015 NDLS alumna, and Christine Bannan of the Open Tech Institute, a 2017 NDLS alumna. A video of the event can be found here.

• Careers in Intellectual Property Law Beyond the Firm: Creativity, Public Interest, and In-House Opportunities explored career opportunities in intellectual property law in the arts sector, in-house counsel positions, and with the government. Participants included Brendan Regan, a trademark examiner at the USPTO and 1998 NDLS alumnus; Jan Feldman, Executive Director of Lawyers for the Creative Arts; Tim Flanagan, Associate General Counsel and 1998 NDLS alumnus; and Johanna Corbin, Vice President of Intellectual Property Law at AbbVie and a 1997 Notre Dame alumna.

• This summer, How to Thrive in your Remote IP Summer Experience gathered alumni and others in our network to share advice on remote work strategies for summer positions and effective networking under these circumstances. The webinar also spotlighted novel legal issues for IP attorneys raised by the coronavirus, ranging from postponed deadlines to new ways of communicating with clients. Panelists included Michael P. Shepherd, a 2002 Notre Dame alumnus and Principal at Fish & Richardson; James Silbermann, Senior Counsel for Enrollment and Intellectual Property Legal Services, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office; Shannon Hughes Mastick, a 2016 NDLS alumna and associate at Marshall Gerstein; Steven Nyikos, General Counsel at Dayblink and a 2015 NDLS alumnus; and Veronica Canton, an ABA-IPL Young Lawyer Fellow and a 2018 NDLS alumna.

During the 2019-2020 academic year, our Program also formally sponsored individual and group student initiatives, including:

• Student participation in the regional competition of the International Trademark Association’s Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition. The Law School’s official Moot Court Team, which won the national competition, was advised by Faculty Director Mark McKenna.

• The Program supported the Transactional Law Team’s travel to participate in the Duke Interscholastic Transactional Law Competition in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina.

• In light of growing student interest in privacy law and the Law School’s status as a Privacy Pathways school, our Program supported student interest in earning privacy certification by the International Association of Privacy Professionals.

• The Program highlighted the Journal on Emerging Technologies on our website and solicited submissions to the JETblog from practitioners and IP alumni in our Spring newsletter.

• The Program held its annual writing competition. First place went to rising third year law student Benjamin Perry for Why Heather Was Right: The Legal Implications of Convergence Culture on Modern Copyright Law. Second place awards went to 2020 graduate Victoria Hanson for Improving the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016: Against Preempting State Trade Secret Law and rising third year law student Nicole Barba for Patentability of 3D Printed Biomaterials.

The Program benefited from associated student research assistants during Summer 2020 to support academic writing projects of core faculty and to help with research and administrative work for the Program. Here is an interview with Brian O’Gara, a rising second-year law student who conducted research in the area of free speech and trademarks as well as other emerging areas in patent and trademark law for Professor Mark McKenna.