DePaul Law News

DePaul students earn runner-up title at national patent law moot court competition

After a demanding six months of preparation for the American Intellectual Property Law Association’s Giles Sutherland Rich Memorial Moot Court Competition, Nick Restauri’s and Rachel Schweers’ hard work and dedication paid off with a regional first place finish, two best brief awards and the national title of runner-up.

Restauri and Schweers formed a team in November 2011, soon after the release of the competition problem. The brief writing process took them through the end of the year, and in mid-January, they finalized their briefs for the regional competition held in Chicago in March. Unlike most moot court competitions that require participants to write one brief, the patent moot requires students to write briefs for both sides of the argument. Schweers, a patent agent with a Ph.D. in biochemistry and a recipient of the Robert and Clytia Chambers Endowed Prize for Excellence in the College of Law, says, though this requirement made more work for the team at the onset of the writing process, “It also facilitated our ability to more effectively advocate for either side of the issues.”

“Rachel and I spent a great deal of time going back and forth over our briefs,” says Restauri, a third-year student who received the 2012 Allen J. Hoover Memorial Award. “We scrutinized every sentence and rewrote portions multiple times. The process was long and very tedious, but Rachel and I played off each other’s individual writing strengths and eventually arrived at the final products.” The team received awards for best appellant brief and best appellee brief at the regional level, where they competed against 26 teams to win first place and advance to the national competition in Washington, D.C., in April.

To prepare for oral arguments, the team practiced two days a week for seven weeks before the regional, and after winning, continued to rehearse two days a week until the national competition. They also benefited from the assistance and support of DePaul intellectual property law professors, the Center for Intellectual Property Law & Information Technology, and alumni who previously competed in the patent moot.

Professor Livingston to have article published in Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Professor Margit Livingston’s article entitled "Copyright Infringement in Music Cases: Determining Whether What Sounds Alike Is Alike" (co-authored with musicologist Dr. Joseph Urbinato) will be appearing in volume 15, issue 2 of the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law, to be published in December 2012.

DePaul IP alumnus named partner of Cherskov Flaynik & Gurda, LLC

DePaul IP Alumn Szymon M. Gurda ('07) was recently named partner of Cherskov Flaynik & Gurda, LLC. The firm specializes in Intellectual Property issues for small and medium size clients. Mr. Gurda holds a B.S. in Computer Science from the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL, an M.S. in Computer Science from Depaul University, Chicago, IL, and a Juris Doctor, also from Depaul University.  He graduated from the J.D. program, Magna Cum Laude, and is a member of the Order of the Coif.

 

Professor Sarnoff quoted extensively in a recent BNA BioTech Watch article

Professor Joshua Sarnoff was quoted extensively in a recent BNA BioTech Watch article on the remand of the Myriad gene patent regarding the application of the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in a case that found a medical treatment method not be to patent eligible subject matter, High Court's Mayo Standards Applicable To Myriad Remand Despite Case Differences, and was also quoted in a BNA Patent, Trademark & Copyright Journal article in regard to medical treatment method case, High Court's Unanimous Mayo Decision Provokes Mixed Reactions From Stakeholders.

DePaul wins American Intellectual Property Law Association’s regional moot court competition, advances to nationals

DePaul law students Rachel Schweers and Nick Restauri won first place in the American Intellectual Property Law Association’s Giles Sutherland Rich Memorial Moot Court Midwest Regional Competition held in Chicago March 16-18, 2012. The team also received awards for Best Appellant Brief and Best Appellee Brief. 

Twenty-six teams, including teams from the University of Chicago, University of Michigan and Indiana University Maurer College of Law, competed in the regional competition. Professor Barbara Bressler, director of the Center for Intellectual Property Law & Information Technology, coached the DePaul team. Professors Joshua Sarnoff and Anthony Volini mooted and consulted with the team.

DePaul is one of only eight teams that advanced to the national competition, which will be held in Washington, D.C. on April 18-20, 2012.

 

DePaul hosts 2012 National Cultural Heritage Law Moot Court Competition

DePaul’s Center for Art Museum & Cultural Heritage Law, Center for Intellectual Property Law & Information Technology and Appellate Moot Court Society and the Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation (LCCHP) held the annual National Cultural Heritage Law Moot Court Competition at the Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago on February 24 and 25, 2012. 

Seventeen student teams from across the country addressed issues concerning the Theft of Major Artwork Act (18 U.S.C. § 668). The first issue focused on Congress' Article I, Section 8, authority to regulate interstate commerce and the second issue focused on statutory interpretation of the act. This year's champion team, Richard Poskozim and Filip Zucek, is from IIT Chicago-Kent School of Law. A full list of winners is available on the competition's website.

Throughout the two-day competition, more than 50 DePaul law students volunteered, served as a ghost team and assisted in writing the bench memo, and more than 100 attorneys, including many nationally renowned cultural property experts and DePaul law faculty, served as judges. Additional support was provided by international auction house Sotheby’s. 

The final round was judged by the Hon. William J. Bauer, U.S. Court of Appeals for 7th Circuit, Hon. Diane P. Wood, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, Hon. Mary Mikva, Circuit Court of Cook County, and Hon. Warren Wolfson, Illinois Appellate Court (retired).

Established by DePaul and LCCHP in 2010, the competition is the first and only in the nation to focus entirely on the field of cultural heritage law.

The 2013 National Cultural Heritage Law Moot Court Competition will take place on February 22 and 23 in Chicago. For more information and to view the 2012 results, photo gallery and final-round video, visit the competition website.

 

DePaul team wins first IP LawMeet

DePaul third-year students Michael Comeau and Julie Krupa won the inaugural national IP LawMeet held at Drexel University on February 23 and 24. The team defeated Northwestern Law in the final round, and also received the Best Draft award for the term sheet that they drafted on behalf of their client.   

The IP LawMeet is an interactive competition that focuses on transactional skills and negotiation. Each participating team represented one of two parties to a proposed transaction involving the transfer of intellectual property rights to a portfolio of social network games.

Professor Sarnoff presents at Emory and Oxford Universities

On February 9^th, Professor Josh Sarnoff presented developing work on government choices for innovation in technology development and transfer as part of the Thrower Symposium at Emory University School of Law and on February 23^rd at St. Peter’s College, Oxford University.

Professor Gerstenblith speaks at conference on Military Cultural Heritage Resource Management

 On December 9, DePaul law professor Patty Gerstenblith spoke at a conference at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The one-day conference focused on the U.S. military’s efforts to develop cultural expertise.

While the military has made the goal of increased cultural knowledge and awareness a priority since the mid-2000s, these developments have yet to be accounted for as part of a broad interagency conversation among military and nonmilitary stakeholders. The increasing relevance of the military’s approaches to cultural challenges to the work of other government agencies and nongovernmental actors, including diplomacy, development and humanitarian relief, makes the present moment opportune for a fruitful exchange regarding the relationship of culture to security.

Professor Gerstenblith’s panel focused on Military Cultural Heritage Resource Management. A webcast of the conference is available from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Legal education helps alumnus climb to top of IBM

Since its founding 100 years ago, IBM has bestowed only a small handful of employees with the prestigious title of IBM Fellow. The position represents the highest technical honor that an employee of the company can receive. DePaul law alumnus Kerrie Holley (LAS ’76, JD ’82) is one of the several dozen recipients of this title.

“IBM Fellows are folks that created the DNA of a lot of the technology that we use in the market today,” Holley explains. “They are all inventors and have something that they are famous for in the tech field.”

Holley's claim to fame is a concept known as Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), which allows businesses to build application software the same way someone would build a structure out of LEGO blocks. Holley also serves as the chief technology officer (CTO) of IBM Global Business Services.

“As CTO, I provide thought leadership in terms of how we differentiate ourselves in the marketplace,” Holley says. “I also work with clients on some of our most challenging projects.”

Holley chose to attend the College of Law for practical reasons. He received his undergraduate degree in mathematics from DePaul, so he was familiar with the college's respected reputation. He also found the location exceptionally convenient.

“Because I was working in downtown Chicago, I could walk over to DePaul in the evening for classes,” Holley says.

It was at DePaul that Holley began to develop the leadership and managerial skills he would later use in his career.

“I found the Socratic approach challenging,” Holley explains. “The intensive Q&A has this way of making you think and build confidence if you lack it. And it will help you stand toe-to-toe with someone more knowledgeable than you, like a professor. I still use a lot of the content and lessons from that education in what I do today.”

Though Holley does not directly practice law in his current position, he still finds many applications for the skills and knowledge he acquired in law school.

“There is a strong technical flavor to what I do, but there also is a strong people flavor,” he says. “I have to engage with senior executives; I have to identify issues quickly; and I have to be succinct and help them solve problems, which are all part of the training I obtained in law school.”

Contributor: Keith Ecker