About

The Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Law Clinic of the American University Washington College of Law prepares students to be effective and thoughtful practitioners through direct experience in this rapidly evolving area. Our students learn a range of essential lawyering skills and acquire a critical understanding of the values and value conflicts that shape the development of intellectual property law and policy. Through its activities, the Clinic strives to promote the public interest in copyright, patent, trademark and related fields.  The Clinic is made possible by a generous donation from Robert Glushko and Pam Samuelson of Berkeley, California.

The Clinic employs the methodology of WCL’s nationally acclaimed Clinical Program. Our students take primary responsibility for every stage of the cases and other matters to which they are assigned, under the close supervision of an experienced team of full-time faculty members. In addition, clinic seminars give students the opportunity to hone basic skills and theoretical understanding in a classroom setting, and provide the opportunity for reflection on the experience of client representation and the meaning of the public interest in the realm of intellectual property.

Cases and matters assigned to students in the Clinic involve issues drawn from the full range of intellectual property specialties (copyright, patent, trademark, and beyond). Over the course of a year in the Clinic, students will be exposed to experiences in client counseling, transactional lawyering and litigation, as well as administrative and legislative advocacy.

The Clinic represents individual creators and users of intellectual property, small businesses and communities of rights-holders and consumers, not-for-profit institution and associations, and other entities – all without fee. We will consider any and all cases and matters on behalf of clients who require quality intellectual property representation that they are unable to obtain in the general market for legal services.

The IP Clinic petitioned for the creation of, and was one of the first law school clinics admitted into the USPTO’s Law School Clinic Certification program.  The program allows law students enrolled in a participating law school’s clinic program to practice Intellectual Property Law before the USPTO under the guidance of Faculty Clinic Supervisors.  The IP Clinic is certified to practice both trademark and patent law before the agency.  For more information see:

http://www.uspto.gov/ip/boards/oed/practitioner/agents/law_school_pilot.jsp

Read more about the creation of the IP clinic and the goals of clinical legal education in IP:

CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION AND THE PUBLIC INTEREST IN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW by founding faculty members PETER JASZI, VICTORIA PHILLIPS, JOSHUA SARNOFF, CHRISTINE HAIGHT FARLEY & ANN SHALLECK