CORAL GABLES, Fla. (January 17, 2018) – The United States Patent and Trademark Office recently granted the University of Miami School of Law’s Startup Practicum formal certification so that its students can appear directly before the USPTO on behalf of their clients in trademark and patent applications. Miami Law is one of only twenty-six law schools in the nation, and the only one in the state of Florida, to receive this certification for both trademarks and patents from the USPTO.
Miami Law Professor Dan Ravicher, a registered patent attorney who has prosecuted and litigated patents and trademarks, directs the Startup Practicum and will co-supervise Miami Law students appearing before the USPTO along with local intellectual property attorneys, and Miami Law adjunct professors, Jaime Vining, Amy Foust, and Dan Barsky.
Vining, a partner at Friedland Vining, primarily focuses her practice on trademark, copyright, entertainment, and internet law. Foust, of counsel in the Miami office of Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP, is a board-certified specialist in intellectual property law and a registered patent attorney with the USPTO. Barsky, a partner in the Miami office of Shutts & Bowen LLP, is also a board-certified intellectual property law specialist and registered patent attorney.
In addition to providing Miami Law students with experience practicing directly before the USPTO, clients of the Startup Practicum will also receive benefits from its certification. For example, the Startup Practicum can ask that two patent applications per year be given priority review by the USPTO, meaning they will be acted on months, if not years, earlier than they would otherwise.
“By being certified by the USPTO, Miami Law students in the Startup Practicum will now be able to gain direct experience drafting and filing patent and trademark applications, answering formal office actions made by the USPTO, and communicating with patent examiners and trademark examining attorneys,” said Ravicher. “This is an unparalleled opportunity that will provide our students at Miami Law practical legal experience they can’t otherwise get while also helping our clients seek and secure the intellectual property rights that are critical to their businesses and organizations.”
