IP @ the U

August 2024

Welcome to IP @ the U, a periodic newsletter for students, alumni, faculty and friends of the University of Utah College of Law's Program on Intellectual Property and Technology Law. This issue covers a range of IP highlights from the beginning of the Fall 2023 semester.

If you have news about IP events, accomplishments and milestones, please send them to our Program Director, Jorge Contreras.

WELCOME BACK!

We are pleased to welcome everyone back from what was hopefully a relaxing and/or productive summer break. Please join us for a host of exciting IP-related events during academic year 2024-25!

STUDENT IP SCHOLARS NAMED

We are delighted to announce the selection of two student IP Scholars for 2024-25: Breanna Hickerson and Amber Lundgreen. Breanna and Amber will be assisting our IP faculty with a range of research and writing projects during the year. Their positions are generously sponsored by the law firms Maschoff Brennan and Workman Nydegger, whom we thank for their continuing support of the IP Program!

2024-25 IP Scholars Amber Lundgreen and Breanna Hickerson

FACULTY ON THE HILL

In July, Professor Contreras testified in Washington DC before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet on the subject of the patent jurisdiction of the International Trade Commission (beginning at 1:30:54 of the linked video). His article on the topic of the hearings is forthcoming in the Harvard Journal of Law & Technology.

Prof. Contreras testifying at U.S. Congress, Jul. 2024

NEW SIPLA OFFICERS

The Student IP Law Association this year will be led by Braden Brown (President), Ashley Fink (Vice President) and Matthew McGrath (Treasurer). Congratulations to our new SIPLA officers!

(L to R) Ashley Fink, Matt McGrath, Braden Brown

IP AND HEALTH

Our IP faculty are deeply involved in issues surrounding the effect of IP policies on biomedical innovation and the healthcare system. Recent publications include work by Professors Aaron and Anderson on the Biden Administration’s policies toward drug pricing using march-in rights under the Bayh-Dole Act and Professor Contreras’s work with Arti Rai at Duke Law School on the listing of pharmaceutical patents in the FDA’s Orange Book and Ken Shadlen at the London School of Economics on COVID-19 vaccine programs.

MASCHOFF BRENNAN SCHOLARSHIP AWARDED

Congratulations to Breanna Hickerson, the winner of this year’s annual Maschoff Brennan student IP scholarship! Breanna distinguished herself among a highly competitive group of applicants for her excellent academic record, her interest in IP law and her entrepreneurial background which involved, among other things, starting a restaurant.

UTAH IP AROUND THE WORLD

Our IP Program continues to have a global impact. In June, Prof. Contreras spoke at the Annual Meeting of the European Society of Human Genetics (ESGH) in Berlin about the patenting of human genes and the litigation against Utah-based Myriad Genetics, which he discusses in his award-winning book, The Genome Defense. This summer, he also remotely taught an intensive two-week course on Technology Licensing, Standardization and Litigation in the Global Market at East China University of Political Science and Law (ECUPL) School of International Law in Shanghai, China. And in August, Prof. Contreras spoke at the Seoul AI Policy Conference sponsored by Seoul National University and the University of Pennsylvania. While in Korea, he had the opportunity to visit the University of Utah’s campus in Songdo, which offers a range of courses in academic disciplines from across the university.

European Society of Human Genetics 2024 Annual Meeting, Berlin, Germany

Prof. Contreras’s class on Technology Law at ECUPL, Summer 2024

Prof. Contreras at Utah’s Asian Campus, Songdo, South Korea