IIT Chicago-Kent to participate in the 39th annual Giles Sutherland Rich Memorial Moot Court Competition
John Lawlis and Kyle Wallenberg, second-year IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law students, will represent the law school in the 39th annual Giles Sutherland Rich Memorial Moot Court Competition's Midwest regional tournament March 16 to 18 in Chicago. Sponsored by the American Intellectual Property Law Association, the competition focuses on patent and intellectual property law issues. Winners from four regional competitions will advance to compete in the national tournament April 18 to 20 in Washington, D.C.
The competition is named for the late Giles Sutherland Rich, who served as judge of the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals from 1956 to 1982. Judge Rich was named to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in 1982 and remained on the bench until his death in 1999 at age 95. Judge Rich's judicial opinions include some of the most groundbreaking, influential and controversial in modern U.S. patent law.
IIT Chicago-Kent team member John Lawlis is a second-year student who received a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Lafayette College in Easton, Penn. Teammate Kyle Wallenberg, also a second-year student, earned both his bachelor's and master's degrees in materials science and engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The team is coached by IIT Chicago-Kent professor Mickie A. Piatt, deputy director of the Program in Intellectual Property Law.
IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law is the law school of Illinois Institute of Technology, a private, Ph.D.-granting institution with programs in engineering, psychology, architecture, business, design and law. IIT Chicago-Kent currently offers a J.D. certificate program in intellectual property law and in 2002 became the first American law school to offer a one-year LL.M degree in International Intellectual Property Law.
