Law Students: the USPTO invites your school to participate in the 2020 National Patent Application Drafting Competition.

The objective of this competition is to introduce law students to issues arising in United States patent law and to develop their patent application drafting, amending, and prosecuting skills.

The program is an expansion of the International Patent Drafting Competition and is the brain child of Damian Porcari – Director of the Midwest Regional Patent Office in Detroit and longtime in-house IP counsel at Ford.

The competition:

Student teams will be given a hypothetical invention statement for which they will then search the prior art, prepare a specification, draft claims, and present their reasoning for patentability before a panel of judges comprised of patent examiners, practitioners, and high profile guest judges.

Students will draft various patent documents prior to the competition. Afterwards, the will head to their competition site for presentation and perhaps to respond to examiner input.

The initial phase of competition will consist of up to 15 teams in a regional round taking place in Detroit; Denver; San Jose; Dallas; and Washington, DC area. The winner from each region will be invited to compete in the National Final Competition at USPTO Headquarters in Alexandria, VA, on April 20, 2020 before a panel of senior USPTO officials and other esteemed judges.

Registration Closes December 15, 2019. Register here

2020 US Patent and Trademark Office National Patent Drafting Competition, Online Event # 77918334837.

See you there!