Intellectual Property Institute

The mission of the Intellectual Property Institute at the University of Richmond School of Law is to maintain a dynamic and respected center for the study of contemporary intellectual property issues, to increase curricular and other learning opportunities available to law students interested in intellectual property law, and to encourage widespread awareness and understanding of the role that intellectual property plays in fostering a creative and innovative culture.

Founded in 2004 by Professor Jim Gibson and then-Dean Rodney Smolla, the IP Institute now includes four full-time IP professors, a curriculum of more than a dozen courses, and a clinic focusing on the transactional side of IP law. The Institute also offers a certificate in IP, making the Richmond Law one the few law schools that provide such an opportunity to its students.

IP and Transactional Law Clinic
Evil Twin Debate
IP Institute News
  • The IP Institute's Fifth Annual Evil Twin Debate took place on November 18, 2011.  Watch the debate on our YouTube channel.
  • The excellent work of Professor Carroll's IP and Transactional Law Clinic was featured in a story in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
  • Professor Osenga has been selected by the University of Houston's Institute for Intellectual Property & Information Law as a conference fellow for its June 2012 conference, Pondering Patents: First Principles and Fresh Possibilities.
  • Professor Cotropia has two articles to be published in the coming months: What is the “Invention”?, 53 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. (2012), and The Strength of the International Trade Commission as a Patent Venue, 19 Tex. Intell. Prop. L. J. (2011).
  • In September 2011, the Department of State sent Professor Gibson to Bogota, Colombia to discuss copyright law with representatives from government, industry, and public interest groups, as part of the implementation of a free-trade agreement.
  • Professor Gibson presented Consumers, Contracts, and Complexity at the New England Intellectual Property Colloquium in Boston on October 28, 2011.

See more IPI news here.

Contact Us

Intellectual Property Institute
University of Richmond School of Law
28 Westhampton Way
Richmond, Virginia  23173
Phone: (804) 287-6398
E-mail: ipi@richmond.edu