USPTO announces winners of the National Patent Drafting Competition

Top teams determined during the national competition

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), with the support of several collegiate law school programs, hosted five regional rounds of the National Patent Drafting Competition in March. The Rocky Mountain Regional Office of the USPTO held its competition on March 7 at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. The Midwest, Silicon Valley, East Coast, and Texas regional offices of the USPTO held their competitions on March 14 via videoconference. The five regional finalists moved on to compete in the national competition via videoconference on April 20.

Congratulations to all of the student teams who qualified for the national competition. We appreciate the coaches for their time and effort.

  • First place: University of St. Thomas School of Law – Kiersten Idzorek, Mark Landauer, Mary Susan Gerber, Jessica Alm (coach), Darnell Cage (coach)
  • Second place: Southern University Law Center – Taylor Krone, Trezell Ragas, W. David Kiesel (coach), Marina A. Biragova (coach)
  • Third place: Creighton University School of Law – Elizabeth Foley, Ashley Holland, Jack Pasternak, Larry Teply (coach)
  • Eastern Regional Champion: University of New Hampshire School of Law –Theodore Rand, Kurt Hoppmann, David Perry, Keith Kevelson, Stephen Finch (coach)
  • Rocky Mountain Regional Champion: University of Baltimore School of Law – Ella Giovinazzo, Emily DiBenedetto, Matthew Haghiri, Will Hubbard (coach)

The National Patent Drafting Competition introduces law students to issues arising in United States patent law and seeks to develop student teams’ patent application drafting, amending, and prosecuting skills. Each team was presented a hypothetical invention statement to research.

During the regional rounds, each student team member took part in describing their strategy and contribution to a patent application. They searched the invention, identified classes, identified relevant references, determined patentable subject matter, constructed claims, created drawings, and described the invention, all according to USPTO regulations.

More information regarding the National Patent Drafting Competition can be found on the USPTO website.