Dear Students – If you are interested in practicing patent law, and you don’t have a job lined up for the summer, you might want to consider attending Santa Clara’s summer program in Munich. For students with science and engineering degrees, we can arrange internships at German patent firms, working on English-language patent applications filed with the European Patent Office in Munich.
Our summer program in Munich begins with a four-week course in Comparative (European) Intellectual Property Law. I give three introductory lectures in U.S. IP law, so no prior education or experience in IP is required. (1Ls are welcome.) The remaining lectures are given (in English) by German professors and practitioners. About half of the class is about European patent law, and about half is about European copyright, trademark, and design law, plus e-commerce and competition law.
In addition, for those students who have the degree or experience needed to sit for the U.S. patent bar (check the USPTO website at www.uspto.gov), we are able to arrange internships at German patent-prosecution firms, working on English-language files at the European Patent Office. You will get a good practical education in drafting and prosecuting patents in the EPO, which you will find valuable when you later work for U.S. clients that also want to file for patents abroad. (Alternatively, if you are fluent in German, we can get you a non-patent internship at a German law firm.)
Space is still available in the program, but you should apply soon if you want to attend. Visit our website at http://law.scu.edu/international/munich-summer-ip.cfm for more information, or stop by my table in Bannan during Academic Advising Week on Thursday, March 22.
Prof. Tyler T. Ochoa
Director, Munich Summer Program
Santa Clara University School of Law
500 El Camino Real
Santa Clara, CA 95053
(408) 554-2765
(408) 554-4426 (fax)
ttochoa@scu.edu