Programs & Awards

AIPLA provides a major award and competition throughout the year.
Both programs - (1) The Robert C. Watson Award; and (2) The Giles Sutherland Rich Moot Court Competition, are designed to give students further experience with the concepts and realities of a career in IP Law.

I. Robert C. Watson Award
The American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) has sponsored this competition for many years to encourage interest in intellectual property issues. We present the award each October at our annual meeting in Washington, DC

RULES:

To be eligible for consideration, articles must be:

  • Written solely by a full-time law student(s)
  • Postmarked or emailed to AIPLA on or before June 30, 2013
  • Approximately 10 law review pages including footnotes (30-40 typed pages)
  • If mailed, submit 20 copies
  • If emailed, please submit 1 copy (pdf format preferred) to
  • Accompanied by the writer’s name, current address, phone number, e-mail address and employment information if appropriate.

2012 Winner- SamantakGhosh, UC Berkley School of Law

Judges will consider the merit of the article as a contribution to the knowledge respecting intellectual property and the extent to which it displays original and creative thought or information not previously written or published by the author prior to July 1, 2012.

Reasonable expenses will be reimbursed to the author of the winning paper to travel to Washington, DC to receive the Watson Award on October 25, 2013.

Send articles to:

or

American Intellectual Property Law Association
Watson Award Competition
241 18th Street South, Suite 700
Arlington, VA 22202
Telephone: 703-415-0780

Click here to download 2013 Robert C. Watson Award Poster(PDF)(update poster)

Click here for a list of previous award recipients(we will need to work on this)

II. The Giles Sutherland Rich Moot Court Competition — Presenting Problems in Intellectual Property Law

The American Intellectual Property Law Association is pleased to announce the 40th Annual Giles Sutherland Rich Memorial Moot Court Competition. The competition is named for a member of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit who was the most distinguished jurist in the field of patent law in the world.

The 2013 Giles Sutherland Rich Memorial Moot Court Competition is divided into four regional competitions followed by a national competition among the top two teams from each region. The regional competitions will be held in Houston, Silicon Valley, Chicago, and Boston on the weekend of March 15-17, 2013. The National Finals will take place in Washington, DC on April 17-19, 2013.

If your school intends to participate in the competition, you must notify one of our regional directors in writing no later than January 25, 2013. You may enter in a region other than that in which your school is located. The regional directors are listed in Appendix A.

The National Director of the competition is Christopher Agrawal; Chad Pannell and Missy Sikorskiare co-chairs of the Young Lawyers Committee.

Click here to download 2013 Moot Court Competition Poster (PDF) (update)
Click here view more information about the Moot Court Competition(link)