By Michael Fisch
Law community
Suffolk Law has long been known for its IP expertise, and the Center will elevate our work at a time when IP is increasingly important to the local, national, and global economy.
We want to take full advantage of the IP expertise of alumni. As an example, we have more patent law partners in the state’s largest firms than any other school in the country. One in four patent law partners in these firms is a Suffolk graduate. They’re regularly at the center of major, precedent-setting IP cases and deals. The Center will share the lessons our graduates have learned, and doing so will help anyone interested in IP, including current students, better understand the constantly changing IP environment.
Suffolk Law Alumni Magazine editor Michael Fisch visited with the Law School’s Director of Intellectual Property Programs Jenn Karnakis to learn about the Law School’s new Intellectual Property Law Center.
Suffolk Law recently launched a new center for intellectual property (IP) law. Why do that?
We currently have six full-time IP professors regularly writing about the field, and we’ll disseminate their cutting-edge work to the IP community. Associate Dean Leah Chan Grinvald, for example, is an IP thought leader, sharing her ideas on NPR about the “right to repair” issue. She’s also written a plan in Berkeley Technology Law Journal for rethinking IP law for the gig economy. Professor Chris Gibson’s book about the intersection of IP and international investment law was named among the best IP books of the year. The ideas are powerful and important, and in many cases will introduce readers to a new approach.
We’ll also keep up with the latest news from our students in the IP & Entrepreneurship Clinic. They’ve won major cases against Monster Energy Drink and Nautica, and the victories keep coming.
Our students are also writing in the IP space, with articles in the Journal of High Technology Law (JHTL), our student-run publication—and in their blog—on cutting-edge IP law topics, like non-fungible tokens, music streaming copyright issues, and esports. Thomson Reuters recently featured JHTL articles from two recent graduates in its annual anthology of the best law review articles of 2021.
The IP Law Center will deepen the opportunities for our students to learn about IP and connect them with a thriving community— offering a place where we can talk to others who care about IP as much as we do.
How will the Center spotlight the work of the Suffolk IP community?
Our graduates are handling such important issues, from trademark and branding to prosecuting patents for the next generation of therapeutics. All of these issues are knotty, fascinating, and critical to the greater community, so all the better if our students, graduates, and faculty can put their heads together to understand the system, and perhaps make it better.
Are there IP experts out there who want to teach us about some element of this critical area? People who have IP questions that are animating them? We welcome the dialogue.
Readers can reach Jenn Karnakis at jkarnakis@suffolk.edu.
Images by MIchael J. Clarke
Suffolk graduates have a massive presence in biotech and pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer and Takeda, as well as global tech powerhouses like Google and Dell. How can you tap into that energy and experience?
Return to Table of Contents
Jenn Karnakis, director of Intellectual Property Programs
Suffolk Law has long been known for its IP expertise, and the Center will elevate our work at a time when IP is increasingly important to the local, national, and global economy.
We want to take full advantage of the IP expertise of alumni. As an example, we have more patent law partners in the state’s largest firms than any other school in the country. One in four patent law partners in these firms is a Suffolk graduate. They’re regularly at the center of major, precedent-setting IP cases and deals. The Center will share the lessons our graduates have learned, and doing so will help anyone interested in IP, including current students, better understand the constantly changing IP environment.
Suffolk Law recently launched a new center for intellectual property (IP) law. Why do that?
We currently have six full-time IP professors regularly writing about the field, and we’ll disseminate their cutting-edge work to the IP community. Associate Dean Leah Chan Grinvald, for example, is an IP thought leader, sharing her ideas on NPR about the “right to repair” issue. She’s also written a plan in Berkeley Technology Law Journal for rethinking IP law for the gig economy. Professor Chris Gibson’s book about the intersection of IP and international investment law was named among the best IP books of the year. The ideas are powerful and important, and in many cases will introduce readers to a new approach.
We’ll also keep up with the latest news from our students in the IP & Entrepreneurship Clinic. They’ve won major cases against Monster Energy Drink and Nautica, and the victories keep coming.
Our students are also writing in the IP space, with articles in the Journal of High Technology Law (JHTL), our student-run publication—and in their blog—on cutting-edge IP law topics, like non-fungible tokens, music streaming copyright issues, and esports. Thomson Reuters recently featured JHTL articles from two recent graduates in its annual anthology of the best law review articles of 2021.
The IP Law Center will deepen the opportunities for our students to learn about IP and connect them with a thriving community— offering a place where we can talk to others who care about IP as much as we do.
How will the Center spotlight the work of the Suffolk IP community?
Our graduates are handling such important issues, from trademark and branding to prosecuting patents for the next generation of therapeutics. All of these issues are knotty, fascinating, and critical to the greater community, so all the better if our students, graduates, and faculty can put their heads together to understand the system, and perhaps make it better.
Are there IP experts out there who want to teach us about some element of this critical area? People who have IP questions that are animating them? We welcome the dialogue.
Readers can reach Jenn Karnakis at jkarnakis@suffolk.edu.
Images by MIchael J. Clarke
Suffolk graduates have a massive presence in biotech and pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer and Takeda, as well as global tech powerhouses like Google and Dell. How can you tap into that energy and experience?
Law community
By Michael Fisch
Return to Table of Contents
Jenn Karnakis, director of Intellectual Property Programs