WCL Glushko-Samuelson IP Clinic

The Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Law Clinic at American University celebrates @wipo’s World IP Day theme “IP and the Sustainable Development Goals” every day!

Clinic students David Chaykowski and Katie Casado recently met with Clinic client Scott Buga, Director of Marketing and Communications at Community Forklift. The Clinic is proud to help the organization leverage intellectual property to support its mission of eliminating waste and fostering a healthier environment by recognizing, retaining, and returning the value of used and surplus materials to the community. #WorldIPDay #ChampionWhatMatters

Glushko-Samuelson IP Law Clinic Students presented the 8th annual IP Tips and Tricks program for startups on April 15th for the Veloric Center for Entrepreneurship at American University’s Kogod School of Business. The Veloric Center entrepreneurs are either at the initial stages of their startup ventures or in the process of building their businesses. At the session the students drew on their clinic representations over the past year and shared some key IP “tips and tricks” for startups and entrepreneurs and provided preliminary legal counseling on copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, privacy and other issues. Clinic students Lex Baird, Tanner Harris, Alyssa Mottahed, Lauren Whyte and Tony, Brianna Barney, Peter Rozewicz, Spencer Spencer Seufert and Jill Crosby participated in this annual cross-campus collaboration between the IP clinic and the business school.

More than ten ventures were represented at the session including those working on a personalized language learning platform, financial education and professional development to women and underrepresented professionals, a process to turn food scraps into organic soil conditioner and quality animal feed and a multimedia children’s entertainment company creating content for under-represented children. For more information on these extraordinary Veloric Center startups see link below.

https://kogod.american.edu/students/entrepreneurship/current-ventures

Washington College of Law Intellectual Property Clinic student-attorneys Lex Baird and Isabel Thelen, and former student-attorneys Sumra Wahid, Eames Armstrong, Katharine Chamberlain, Helena Alvarez, Sydney Novoa, Isabel Garcia, Madeline Reed, Sheerin Tehrani, and Madeline Burkard have obtained a trademark registration for the Bethesda-based jewelry vendor, Viva Vida. The company’s founder, Mary Sapountzakis, incorporated elements of her cosmopolitan upbringing and family jewelry trade into her business, which she started in 2018 while battling leukemia. Clinic student-attorneys helped prepare and submit an application for the mark “Viva Vida”—”live life” in Portuguese—and supported Ms. Sapountzakis through various stages of administrative adversarial proceedings before obtaining a final registration in February, 2024. Ms. Sapountzakis hopes to expand her business with the federal protections afforded under the newly registered mark.

The American University Washington College of Law Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Law Clinic student attorneys, Demitra Karalis, Jordan Landers, Spencer Seufert, and Tanner Harris have successfully acquired the clinic’s fifth patent!

Independent inventor Camilia Smith was attending a concert when she noticed that women wearing high heeled shoes were carrying flat shoes to change into later in the evening.  To give women a stylish and easy way to carry comfortable footwear, Ms. Smith invented a purse that could convert into sandals. Through research and client counsel, student attorneys supported Ms. Smith in acquiring her first patent. Ms. Smith is excited to have protection from the United States Patent and Trademark Office and looks forward to working with the Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Law Clinic on future matters.

Image and Article Credit: Erik M. Pelton & Associates, PLLC (Link Below)

Chelsea Kaminski is an Associate at Erik M. Pelton & Associates, PLLC. She joined the firm after graduating from American University Washington College of Law (’21) where she quickly developed a passion for studying IP law. During her final year in law school, she worked as a Student-Attorney in the Glushko-Samuelson IP Law Clinic, which further strengthened her interest in listening to clients’ stories and helping them protect their ideas. As an undergraduate at University of Miami (’16), Chelsea studied Psychology with a minor in English. During her down time, she enjoys working out, reading, and cooking. Chelsea is licensed to practice in the District of Columbia. Law practice limited to federal trademark matters. Original Article: https://www.erikpelton.com/about/

Article authored by Andrew Erickson, Illustration by Jaylene Arnold for American University Magazine. (Link Below)

Pursuing Purpose: Securing Our Cyber Ecosystem

Our nation’s digital capabilities have grown, but so have the threats against them.

As the new deputy director of technology and ecosystem security at the Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD), Camille Stewart Gloster, WCL/JD ’11, takes a two-pronged approach to tackling that problem. She works to ensure both that the technologies of today and tomorrow are secure and resilient, and that education and training strategies are in place to prepare the cyber workforce for the challenges those technologies bring.

“We do a lot of work in cybersecurity focusing on securing the technology, but cybersecurity is technology, people, and doctrine all against the backdrop of an adversary,” Stewart Gloster says. “We’re not thinking about the people as much as we should.”

More than a decade of experience at the nexus of law, privacy, and cybersecurity has prepared Stewart Gloster for a brand-new role within a two-year-old office where she strives to stay ahead of a threat landscape that evolves by the day.

1990: Took her first programming class in BASIC. “My dad’s a computer scientist, so I was always on computers and tinkering around with technology.”

1995: Gathered witnesses and signatures to finalize her and her younger sister’s first contract: an allowance in exchange for good grades. “I knew I wanted to be a lawyer, so I started making my parents sign contracts for every promise.”

2003: Traveled to DC for the first time on a trip to visit her cousin. “I thought it was an interesting mix of history and activity. I got to see that there was life happening here, that it’s not just a work town.”

2004: Became a student court justice at Miami University (Ohio).

2006: Joined the Miami chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first intercollegiate sorority established by African American women.

Took an antitrust class at Miami that featured a technology case, reinforcing her desire to pursue law school. “I quickly realized that I could work on or around technology as a lawyer, but I had to figure out the path for myself because there were no cyber law classes at the time.”

2010: Participated in the Washington College of Law’s Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Law Clinic, one of the reasons she initially chose WCL. “It was exciting and affirming to actually do legal work rather than just learn about the law.”

Became a legal fellow on Capitol Hill, where she worked on policy for Representative Marcia Fudge (D-OH) and then Congressional Black Caucus chair Emmanuel Cleaver II (D-MO). “I got kicked off my parents’ insurance while working on the Affordable Care Act, and I had ongoing [health issues] that needed to be taken care of. Watching that law come to fruition was impactful for my career and probably one of the things that pushed me into being so connected to public service.”

2011: Graduated from WCL.

Recruited by Cyveillance, a Northern Virginia–based cybersecurity firm, where she focused on its online intellectual property service before delving into cybersecurity law. “The startup environment and the breadth of the work going on at Cyveillance showed me that the complex challenges I was looking to solve as a lawyer could be coupled with my technical acumen in a way that not many people were doing.”

2012: Launched consultancy MarqueLaw PLLC to help small businesses that lacked access to legal expertise—many of them women-owned—configure their intellectual property, privacy policies, and security policies.

2015: Appointed to the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Cyber, Infrastructure, Risk, and Resilience Policy as a senior policy advisor. “I got to come back and work for [President Obama]—who I saw make meaningful change from a healthcare perspective—on the issue that I was most passionate about. And I helped stand up a new office, which I like to do, apparently.”

2016: Received a letter of recognition from President Obama for her service at DHS, including her efforts to advance the United States’ cybersecurity relationship with Israel. Also received an award for exemplary service from DHS.

2018: Landed a cybersecurity policy fellowship with New America and also began leading a project with the Transformative Cyber Innovation Lab exploring sensitive technology leakage through the courts—all while working as a cyber risk manager at Deloitte. Stewart Gloster partnered with George Mason University to develop training for federal bankruptcy judges based on her research, which is still foundational to their training. “You can’t often get everything from one job. There were issues that I wanted to work on that I could not explore in my day job. Fellowships gave me an opportunity to keep that lifelong learner mentality.”

2019: Started a new job at Google—head of security policy and election integrity for Google Play and Android—and led projects involving misinformation policy, privacy, cybersecurity, and election integrity.

2020: Began a cybersecurity fellowship at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

Cofounded #ShareTheMicInCyber, a movement that enlists allies to amplify the voices and expertise of Black cybersecurity practitioners. “There was a conversation that needed to be had, and it wasn’t just about DEI for DEI’s sake. DEI is essential in cybersecurity and national security because to understand the risk we need to understand people and the context in which they operate. #ShareTheMicInCyber showed people that they individually have a role to play and that that can catalyze broader action.”

2021: Named Microsoft’s Security Industry Changemaker of the Year.

Promoted to global head of product security strategy at Google.

2022: Named to Washingtonian’s list of the “500 most influential people” in DC.

Received a call while working from home about joining ONCD. “To be frank, I was not looking to go back into public service at the time, but when they described the scope of the role and the opportunity to help cement an office that’s vitally important to how the federal government organizes itself around the cyber mission, I couldn’t pass it up. . . . I had not seen another opportunity to advance the technology security and workforce pieces of the mission in this way.”

Began hiring to fill out her two ONCD directorates. “I need the smart people to help me do this work.”

Original American University Magazine Article

IP Clinic student and artist Murphy Chen was selected by the National Homelessness Law Center to exhibit her work at their annual National Forum on the Human Right to Housing. Murphy also was asked to design this year’s Human Right to Housing Award. For 23 years, the NHLC has hosted the award ceremony to honor organizations, leaders, and change makers that work to bring awareness to and advance the solutions to homelessness and poverty. The exhibit and awards ceremony was held at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld on November 16^th.