The first round of the Giles Rich IP Moot Court competition sponsored nationally by the American IP Law Association took place March 18 at the IP law firm Workman Nydegger in Salt Lake City with teams from BYU Law winning awards. This year’s competition involved an appeal to the Federal Circuit of a case involving design patent and contract issues related to “Tokemon Go” a smartphone app used to identify cannabis plants. Practicing IP attorneys from several Utah law firms served as panels of appellate judges.
Four teams from BYU and seven teams from University of Utah participated. Adjunct BYU Law Professors Matt Barlow and David Todd, both IP attorneys, were at the competition. Barlow noted this year’s competition was one of the best he has seen. Todd said, “Intellectual property is an important area of the law because it plays a role in many significant business decisions. The Giles Rich IP Moot Court competition gives students an opportunity to learn more about intellectual property and to improve their brief writing and oral argument skills in the context of a hypothetical intellectual property dispute. Even students who are not likely to focus on intellectual property as a career have benefitted from the opportunity to hone their brief writing and oral argument skills while gaining greater exposure to this area of the law.”
Peter Shiozawa (2L) won “Best BYU Oralist” and “Best Overall Oralist.”
Peter Shiozawa and Michael Wunderli (2L) won “Best BYU Oral Team.”
Rachel Perry and Tom Briscoe (both 2Ls) won “Best BYU Brief,” “Best Overall Brief” (tied with a University of Utah team), and “Best BYU Team Overall.”
The Best Overall Team from each law school will advance to a three-day regional competition in Silicon Valley to be held March 17.