Transnational IP Program

I just went to a very interesting lunchtime talk about CASRIP's Transnational Intellectual Property Program held in Rome last month. It was a one-week class attended by students from the University of Washington (JD and LL.M.) and law schools in Italy, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom and taught by professors from here and Europe.

In teams composed of students from all the jurisdictions represented, students prepared and conducted a patent license negotiation and a mock trial of a patent dispute. The three mock trials had three different judges, from Italy, Germany, and the U.S. This gave the students exposure to different trial practice, since the Italian judge said she wanted the presentations to follow the procedure used in Italy. (The students before the German judge had a mock trial that was mostly U.S.-style with a little German procedure.)

The lunchtime presentation included two of the faculty members (Toshiko Takenaka and Signe Brunstad) and three UW students who led student teams (Chris Kuyper, Dario Machleidt, and David Ray). It sounds like an amazing week -- lots of substantive material, lots of hard work on the simulations, and great exposure to other legal systems and cultures -- not to mention new friendships with law students from all over.

In 2007 there was a similar program at Waseda University in Japan. Next year, they'll run the program in Strasbourg, France.