Center for Intellectual Property Law and Innovation
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Artist: Rob Day
IP Center Executive Director
John R. Schaibley, III
jrschaib@iupui.edu (317) 278-4736
IP Center Coordinator
Kyle Galster
kgalster@iupui.edu
(317) 274-1916
IP Center Associates
Pervin Taleyarkhan
ptaleyar@indiana.edu
Spardha Saroha
ssaroha@iupui.edu
Center for Intellectual Property Law and Innovation
"Your interests may lie in copyright and creativity, trademarks and branding, or patents and technology. Whatever your niche, you can pursue it at the IU McKinney School of Law. Our students benefit from a strong team of IP faculty, challenging IP courses, and extracurricular competitions. Completing our IP concentration or certificate also demonstrates your preparation and commitment to future employers." - Professor Lea Shaver
IP Center Mission, Goals, Objectives
The Center for Intellectual Property Law and Innovation is active in all areas of intellectual property law, including patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, and right of publicity. The primary mission of the IP Center is to promote student education and scholarship in intellectual property and to increase the number of our graduates with a strong foundation in intellectual property law. By developing new curriculum and providing eclectic instruction in various areas of intellectual property law, the IP Center contributes to the growth, development, and protection of innovation. 
The IP Center's broader goals and objectives include advancing the law of intellectual property, advocating and stimulating reform through scholarship and programs, and providing meaningful, non-redundant assistance and support to the numerous constituencies in various areas of intellectual property law, including inventors, authors, artists, corporate IP departments, IP owners, IP litigators, judges, legal academics, university research departments, consultants, experts, and others.
Located in the heart of the Midwest in Indiana's capital city of Indianapolis, and part of the largest law school in the State of Indiana, the IP Center is especially well-positioned to have profound influence in areas of intellectual property law of particular salience to the life sciences. The Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law is also the home of the nationally renowned Hall Center for Law and Health, which for decades has conducted cutting edge legal and empirical research on health law issues.
The law school is situated on the campus of a major research university, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, which includes one of the nation’s premier medical schools, the Indiana University School of Medicine.
"We often marvel at how increasingly globalized our economy has become, a change in large part attributable to the increasingly virtual nature of our economy. This is why intellectual property rights – and the laws protecting those rights – have come into play in a way never before seen. Patents, copyrights, and other types of intellectual property are critical to maintaining a place in the global economy, and we seek to keep our students and our community at the forefront." - Professor Emily Morris
The School of Medicine is at the forefront of basic, translational, and clinical research to improve health and prevent disease and provides the foundation for Indiana's life sciences economy. Indiana's active, engaged, corporate life sciences sector encompasses every major industry including pharmaceuticals, hospitals, laboratories, medical devices, agricultural and organic chemicals, research, and testing. Government agencies and educational institutions in Indianapolis work together with the corporate sector to advance the life sciences. Indianapolis is also home to law firms and businesses that are among the nation's leaders in intellectual property development and management.
The IP Center serves as a dynamic resource for students, attorneys, business leaders, inventors, and scholars, and as a nucleus for IP development and protection by:
- acting as an agent of evolution for IP doctrine,
- transferring IP information among various IP constituencies,
- creating programs to act as enzymes for innovation, and
- generating interest in and support for meaningful legal protection of IP.
The activities of the IP Center are a mix of the academic and the practical, coupling history and theory with concrete applications of doctrine to real world issues relating to IP rights. While many areas of IP law are particularly fascinating on a doctrinal level, IP law is ultimately a means to broader societal objectives, such as innovation and creativity. Given the increasing importance of intellectual property to society, IP issues are ubiquitous throughout the legal world. Knowledge of this area is therefore beneficial to non-specialists as well, including future executives, litigators, business lawyers, judges, in-house counsel, government attorneys, and others.
There are numerous constituencies in each area of IP law. The actors in the world of patent law, for example, include individual inventors, corporate research departments, Fortune 500 companies (e.g. research based pharmaceutical companies), start-up companies, government/university research centers, generic pharmaceutical companies, non-practicing entities (which buy up inventions of others, but do not practice the inventions), in-house counsel, patent prosecution attorneys/opinion counsel, patent litigators, jurors, judges (district court, magistrate judge, appellate), law clerks, government agencies (PTO, ITC, DOJ, FTC, FDA), Congress (patent reform), mediators and arbitrators, and academia. While some IP initiatives can benefit multiple actors, the IP Center can perform specialized functions for different actors. The IP Center cultivates symbiotic relationships with numerous constituencies.
Three IP related student associations, the Intellectual Property Student Association, the Fashion, Art, and Design Law Society, and the Sports and Entertainment Law Society, are active at the Law School. The IP Center works closely with the IP student organizations, which are growing and enthusiastic. The IP Center refers speakers to the students. The IP Center's new facility on the Canal, just a short walk from the both the Law School and the heart of downtown Indianapolis, is proving to be a valuable resource for the Law School's IP students.
Alumni of the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law are at the forefront of protecting and advancing intellectual property rights. Our IP graduates include award winning private practitioners of patent, trademark, and copyright law, chief patent counsel of Fortune 500 companies, and IP litigators and counselors throughout Indiana and the nation. These IP counsel enable the creation of new enterprises, represent major established corporations, and even advance the law of intellectual property into new areas.
