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IP @ the U
April 2026
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 highlights from Spring 2026.
If you have news about IP events, accomplishments and milestones, please send them to our Program Director, Jorge Contreras.
If you are interested in receiving IP advice from the IP Clinic, please complete this online form.
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IP PROGRAM RANKED #1 IN MOUNTAIN WEST | | |
We are proud that our Program on Intellectual Property and Technology Law was ranked by US News & World Report as the #27 IP Program in the nation (of approximately 200 law schools), #9 among U.S. public universities and #1 in the Mountain West (MT, CO, WY, NM, AZ, NV, UT, ID). We are grateful for the outstanding efforts and hard work by our faculty, students and staff that continue to raise the national profile and ranking of our IP Program.
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28TH ANNUAL UTAH STATE BAR ANNUAL IP SUMMIT | | USPTO Director John Squires and Utah State Bar IP Section Chair Scott McMillan having a “fireside chat” at the 28th Annual IP Summit at the College of Law | In February, the Utah State Bar IP Section held its 28th Annual IP Summit at the College of Law. Among the notable speakers featured at the event were John Squires, U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce and Director of the USPTO and Judge Ray Chen of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Professor Contreras moderated a panel on the impact of AI technologies on the practice of IP law. | | UTAH STATE BAR IP SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS | L to R: Prof. Jorge Contreras, Hannah Bruce (3L), Prof. Jonas Anderson, Circuit Judge Ray Chen, Christopher West (1L), Braden Brown (3L) | Congratulations to Hannah Bruce (3L), Braden Brown (3L) and Christopher West (1L), who were awarded the Utah State Bar IP Section’s student IP scholarships this year at the Annual IP Summit. | | L to R: Prof. Sam Noel, Matthew McGrath (3L), Ken Takeda (USPTO), Tim Rooney (USPTO), Hannah Bruce (3L), Braden Brown (3L), Dalton Yerke (2L), Prof. Jordan Cobabe, Zachary Shear (3L), Prof. Jorge Contreras, Prof. Jonathan Love | | In March the College of Law was pleased to welcome Timothy Rooney from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) Office of Enrollment and Discipline and Ken Takeda, acting head of the USPTO Rocky Mountain Regional Outreach Office located in Research Park at the University of Utah. Our USPTO guests met with faculty, staff and students in the IP Program, the IP Clinic, the Office of Career Development, Experiential Learning, the Center for Medical Innovation, the Technology Licensing Office and Dean Elizabeth Kronk Warner. | | BENCH TO BEDSIDE COMPETITION | The College of Law’s USPTO-certified pro bono IP Clinic was pleased to advise teams participating in the Center for Medical Innovation’s annual Bench to Bedside Competition on patent and trademark prosecution advice. Clinic students Braden Brown (3L), Hannah Bruce (3L), James Finn (2L), Matthew McGrath (3L), Zachary Shear (3L) and Dalton Yerke (2L) supervised by Adjunct Professors Jon Love and Sam Noel advised 21 teams and filed 12 provisional patent applications and one non-provisional application for competition participants. | | Annual Bench to Bedside (B2B) competition held at the Sorenson Center for Medical Innovation at the University of Utah | | Hannah Bruce (3L) with members of the DualFlow B2B team. | | GLOBAL BOOK LAUNCH – FRAND CASES IN CONTEXT | | |
In January, Professor Contreras’s new edited volume, FRAND Cases in Context, was published by Edward Elgar with contributions from leading scholars in North and South America, Europe and Asia. The College of Law was pleased to co-sponsor launch events in both Asia (hosted virtually by The Chinese University of Hong Kong) and Europe, hosted by City St. George’s University of London.
| | Prof. Contreras with Amandine Leonard (Univ. of Edinburgh), Christopher Rademacher (Waseda Univ.), Juan Camilo Contreras (Pontificia Univ. Javeriana) and Enrico Bonadio (City St. George’s Univ. of London) at the European launch event for FRAND Cases in Context | | Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Arnold of the UK Court of Appeal discussing FRAND Cases in Context | | | | |
USPTO PATENT DRAFTING COMPETITION | | L to R: Eric Maschoff, Mark Ford, Braden Brown (3L), Prof. Ken Horton, James Finn (2L), Prof. Jorge Contreras | James Finn (2L) and Braden Brown (3L), coached by Prof. Ken Horton and sponsored by Maschoff Brennan, represented the College of Law this year in the USPTO’s annual Patent Drafting Competition. The team took second place in the regional round of the competition. Congratulations James and Braden! | | In January, we celebrated the launch of our IP Clinic with an event attended by alumni, faculty, students and guests. | | IP Clinic Launch Event (Prof. Sam Noel, at podium) | | Utah State Bar IP Section Chair Scott McMillan, Victoria Tomoko Carrington (’23), Prof. Jonas Anderson | | | | |
PATCON 14 – THE PATENT CONFERENCE | | |
In April, Professors Anderson and Contreras participated in the 14th Annual Patent Conference held at University of Kansas School of Law. Professor Anderson presented new work on patent jurisdiction in the Eastern District of Texas, and Professor Contreras presented a study conducted with Zachary Shear (3L) on Director-Ordered Reexamination of issued U.S. patents.
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Professors Anderson (L) and Contreras (R) with conference organizer
Prof. Andrew Torrance of the University of Kansas (C)
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Other recent faculty scholarship can be found here. | | Learn more about the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law's Program on Intellectual Property and Technology Law on our website. | | | | |
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