From protecting artists to supporting emerging technologies, second- and third-year students working in Penn Carey Law’s Detkin Intellectual Property and Technology Legal Clinic provide free legal work to individuals and nonprofit and for-profit ventures in science, technology, business, and the arts.
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Penn Carey Law’s Detkin Intellectual Property and Technology Legal Clinic (DIPTC) provides an opportunity for second- and third-year law students to be immersed in a transactional interdisciplinary intellectual property law practice.
Sydney Robinson was first exposed to the importance of intellectual property as a founder of Vessl Prosthetics, a med-tech startup focused on improving the fit of prosthetic sockets for amputees. Shadowing a doctor at a diabetes clinic, Robinson Vessl co-founder Oleksiy Zaika observed that patients with limb amputations often struggle with poor socket fit—when an amputee’s leg changes size inside of their prosthetic leg—which can lead to pain, discomfort, and medical complications. Robinson and Zaika started Vessl Prosthetics to create artificial limbs that could adapt to the body in real time, increasing comfort and quality of life.
But Vessl quickly found they had questions about protecting their innovative design and brand while defending their fledgling company as they entered a new market with powerful competitors.
“There’s a ton of competition in the [medical innovation] space, so having a market that you can carve out for yourself is extremely important,” says Robinson.
Vessl hired Penn Carey Law’s DIPTC to help flesh out their go-to-market IP strategy. In the clinic, second- and third-year law students provide free legal work to individuals and non-profit and for-profit ventures in science, technology, business, and the arts.
“The cases belong to the students,” says Cynthia Dahl, DIPTC director and supervising attorney for the student counselors. “Even though I ultimately supervise the teams, students are the lead counsel, and together with the client, they decide what work has to be done and how to do it.”
Depending on the client and their specific needs, legal subject matter might include patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, data, or privacy issues.
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