On March 6, 2023, Minnesota Intellectual Property Law Association (MIPLA) hosted its annual MIPLA Cup Moot Court Competition.  The MIPLA Cup is an Intellectual Property Moot Court Competition among teams from area law schools: University of Minnesota, University of St. Thomas, and Mitchell Hamline School of Law. It serves as a preview to the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) Giles Rich Moot Court Competition.  Using the same problems set and issues as the Giles Rich competition, the MIPLA Cup challenges the students and serves as a warm-up competition before they head off to regionals in the Giles Rich National Moot Court.

This year, hosted at the University of St. Thomas Law School's ceremonial courtroom, four teams (two from St. Thomas and one each from the University of Minnesota and Mitchell Hamline) squared off in a round-robin competition. The team were well prepared and faced difficult questions from the volunteer judges, all being seasoned IP litigators from Twin Cities firms that were elevated to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals (if only for one day).

The scoring was very close, but Team 1 (Kate Mares and Scott Meehan from the University of Minnesota) took first place.  Second place went to Team 4 (Morgen Dempsey and Erika Clyma from the University of St. Thomas Law School).  MIPLA will be awarding cash scholarships to these first and second place teams.

Special thanks go to the volunteer judges who put the students through their paces and gave helpful feedback as well: Peter Forrest, Jessica Gutierrez, Elvis Kim, Sharon Roberg-Perez, and Tony Zeuli.  Thanks also to the volunteer coaches for each team who have spent their time and energy to get the teams ready to compete.

We wish all of our local Moot Court teams success as they head off to the regional round of the Giles Rich Moot Court Competition!

Submitted by Kevin Conneely, MIPLA President

MIPLA was recognized as a "leader in giving" for its 2021 charitable contributions to Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid's Fund for Legal Aid. This recognition appeared in Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid's 2021 Legal Aid Annual Report.  MIPLA's contribution was in connection with the association's annual holiday happy hour event.  Numerous MIPLA members were also recognized in the Annual Report for their individual contributions.  Together, these contributions have helped support Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid's important work serving needs for legal services in the areas of housing, health care access, and independent living for seniors and people with disabilities.

On Wednesday. March 9, 2022, MIPLA held another successful version of its annual MIPLA Cup, an oral advocacy competition that serves as a friendly competition between the teams from three local law schools who are also competing in the AIPLA's national Giles Rich Moot Court Competition.

This year, like last year, the MIPLA Cup followed the format of the regional rounds for the Giles Rich Competition by conducting the whole thing remotely – reflecting the reality of arguing a case in the continuing pandemic.  We are hopeful that in 2023, we can return to an in-person format. Nonetheless, it was good to be back "in court."

The teams all argued the case well, leading to very close scoring by the judges, but in the end, teams from University of St. Thomas Law School grabbed first and second place. Congratulations to Natalie Thomas and Sara Engemann for winning 1^st Place and to Jessica Hughes and Javier Romay for nabbing 2^nd Place.  This year, MIPLA awarded a total of $3,000 in scholarships for the students' efforts.

We also thank Tony Zeuli from Merchant & Gould and new-to-the-bench Navin Ramalingam from Robins Kaplan.  These judges served very well and were generous with their time and advice to the participants. We already look forward to next year's MIPLA Cup!

Submitted by Kevin Conneely

On Thursday, March 11, 2021, MIPLA held another successful version of its annual MIPLA Cup, an oral advocacy competition that serves as a friendly competition between the teams from three local law schools who are also competing in the AIPLA's national Giles Rich Moot Court Competition.

This was the first year that the MIPLA Cup, like the Giles Rich Competition, has been conducted remotely – reflecting the reality of arguing a case in the continuing pandemic.  In fact, there was no MIPLA Cup in 2020 due the timing of the COVID outbreak, so organizers, the teams, and the many attorneys who volunteer as judges and coaches were glad to be back "in court."

The teams all argued the case well, leading to very close scoring by the judges, but in the end, the team from University of St. Thomas Law School grabbed first place, and there was a literal tie for second between teams from the University of Minnesota Law School and MitchellHamline School of Law.  This year, MIPLA awarded a total of $3,000 in scholarships for the students' efforts.

We thank Sharon Roberg-Perez and Ryan Dornberger from Robins Kaplan and Peter Forrest from Dicke Billig for generously giving their time as judges.  We already look forward to next year's MIPLA Cup, when we can hopefully gather in person. 

Submitted by Kevin Conneely

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We received notification today that the Saint Paul Curling Club is closing for the season due to the COVID-19 outbreak and as a result, we will be cancelling our MIPLA Curling Championships 2020 event that was scheduled on April 21.

Thank you for your understanding and be well!

The MIPLA Board of Directors

The 2019 MIPLA Business Development Workshop was held on Tuesday, June 11th.

Presented by Michael Evans of BDforIP

When: Tuesday, June 11

Schedule:

• 8:00am – 12:00pm: IP Business Development Workshop; no cost for MIPLA members*
• 1:00pm – 5:30pm: one-on-one business development coaching sessions (20-minute time slots); $50 for MIPLA members

Where: Briggs and Morgan 2200 IDS Center, 80 South 8th Street, Minneapolis

The 2019 MIPLA Cup was held on March 6 and hosted by Mitchell Hamline School of Law.  The Cup is an annual moot court competition among  Minnesota law schools who have also entered teams in the AIPLA’s National Giles Rich Moot Court Competition.  This year, two-person teams from the Univ. of St . Thomas, the Univ. of Minnesota, and Mitchell Hamline competed in a  round-robin format.  Judging was provided by volunteer MIPLA members wo are seasoned IP trial attorneys.  The  scoring was very close, and the team of Matthew Mirabella and William “J.J.” Pristanski from  the Univ. of Minnesota Law School took the top prize. Second place went to Lee Bennin and Kiersten Idzorek from the Univ of St. Thomas.

The MIPLA Board says “Thanks” to Prof. Sharon Sandeen and to Deanna Jackson from Mitchell Hamline for their organizing prowess and generous hospitality. We wish all the local schools the best of luck as they head into the Regional round of the Giles Rich competition!

The schedule can be found by clicking here.

The 2019 MIPLA Stampede Faculty list can be found by clicking here.

Presentations:

• Pitfalls and Privilege in a Post Halo World
• The Revolutionary Emergence and Intersection between AI and IP
• Pre-Launch Brand Selection and Planning
• Building and Protecting Your Brand Post-Launch
• NASA Presentation

Be sure to save the date for our annual Stampede!

This year’s event will be on Tuesday, April 23, 2019.

We will again be at the Radisson Blu hotel

More information will be coming soon, including registration!

A great time was had by all at the 2018 MIPLA Holiday Happy Hour.

We’re pleased to report that $1,375 (including a donation from MIPLA) was raised on behalf of the Volunteer Lawyers Network.