Washburn Law recently launched a new Intellectual Property and Technology Law Center, with the goal of bringing together alumni, practitioners, local businesses and students for conversations about intellectual property and technology law. We hope to use the Center as a platform to make Washburn a focal point for the intellectual property and technology communities in eastern Kansas.
During the 2024-26 academic years, we would like for the Center to host a series of speakers on intellectual property and technology law. The speaker series would feature alumni, other practitioners and academics doing interesting work in the field. Potential invitees include high-ranking United States government officials (including officials from the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the United States Copyright Office), partners at major intellectual property and technology-focused law firms and attorneys serving as in-house counsel at major companies. We would host these speakers for student talks and office hours, guest lectures in classes, faculty-focused events and continuing legal education programs.
The series would serve a few different purposes:
- Provide opportunities for students to engage and interact with intellectual property and tech-focused attorneys, building networks and learning from those attorneys how to break into a field that sometimes feels daunting and intimidating
- Increase the profile of Washburn University in the eyes of alumni, practitioners, academics and the broader community by bringing in speakers of note and providing programming in the intellectual property and technology fields
- Strengthen ties between Washburn Law and the broader university community by providing programming in a “hot topic” area of interest, to which the law school could invite undergraduate and other graduate students, as well as faculty and staff
The events would be open to all Washburn University faculty, staff and students. Certain events would be open to interested practitioners and community members.
We would use the Day of Giving funds to support travel for the speakers contributing to the series, any honoraria that may be required and incidentals surrounding the programs.
