Present programs in bioag, infotech, social justice & developing nations
Present Programs, Initiatives and Activities
For two years Pierce Law worked on the patent landscape surrounding technologies for the enhancement of sweet potatoes for the people of Africa.
Global IP Outreach and Initiatives
The tradition of linking intellectual property to public interest continues at Pierce Law. For example, Pierce Law has participated in activities with Public Interest Intellectual Property Advisors (PIIPA). Adjunct Professor Michael Gollin, PIIPA founder and chair, has noted that, despite the ongoing policy and academic discussions about the complex global role of intellectual property, little has been done to address the practical needs of developing countries and public interest organizations for access to intellectual property expertise on a case-by-case basis. In developing countries, there is an exponentially growing need for properly trained intellectual property professionals. And this is precisely where Pierce Law fills a critical need. As the role of intellectual property in global development increases, so too has Pierce Law's commitment to provide educational opportunities for professionals from around the world.
Professor William Hennessey '86, a visionary leader in building intellectual property educational programs for professionals from developing countries, has a unique perspective on the interaction between intellectual property and public interest. "My view has been that IP and PI have always been connected. Tom [Field] and I for many years counseled individual walk-in inventors about their options. Many times, these inventors were driven by the idea that they could improve life for ordinary people. They weren't just in it for the money." Hennessey's vision, however, is much broader, truly global in perspective. "A second theme is the empowerment of local communities ... particularly in developing countries. Innovative people exist in all societies. They need a voice, because the usual situation is that the ‘powers that be' favor the status quo. This is particularly true for wealthy elites in static societies who don't want new ideas taking away their meal tickets. So how do you light a fire under policy-makers to encourage them to support innovation and the new kid on the block? Intellectual property protection takes it as a given that creative, inventive, entrepreneurial people have rights to their creations, inventions and entrepreneurial endeavors."
Professor Hennessey:
- has participated in the clinics that assisted small inventors
- was instrumental in the founding of the Master of Intellectual Property Program
- established the China Intellectual Property Summer Institute (CHIPSI) in Beijing, and
- has participated in major initiatives with organizations, such as the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), that foster intellectual property in the public interest for sustainable development, global access to health and medicine, as well as issues relating to traditional/indigenous knowledge.
Intellectual Property Clinics Handling Patent, Trademark and Copyright Transactional and Policy Matters
Intellectual Property and Transaction Clinic
Under the direction of Professor Ashlyn Lembree,, is a live-client clinic where students conduct interviews, research and draft documents and advise clients in a variety of intellectual property and transactional matters. The Clinic regularly accepts referrals from the New Hampshire Chapter of Lawyers for the Arts. Clients include authors, artists, musicians and publishers, with issues pertaining to copyright and trademark registration and protection, licensing, small business transactions, as well as assistance forming and managing nonprofit corporations. It serves a critical public interest role for New Hampshire.
Pierce Law Intellectual Property Amicus Clinic
Under the direction of Distinguished Visiting Professor of Patent Law J. Jeffrey Hawley, this Clinic was created to provide students with hands-on training in analytical and persuasive writing as well as immersion in the practical, legal and policy foundations of a the United States intellectual property system. The Clinic also gives Pierce Law a public voice in supporting a strong intellectual property system. Students work with the instructors in preparing friend-of-the-court briefs in matters before the U. S. Supreme Court, various U. S. Courts of Appeals and state supreme courts. Students may also assist in drafting commentary on proposed legislative or administrative action affecting intellectual property law.
The International Technology Transfer Institute Clinic (ITTI Clinic)
The ITTI Clinic provides instruction in professional skills related to the various responsibilities patent lawyers encounter when building technology transfer offices; and when preparing patent landscape analysis search reports in biotechnological fields.
Research results generated during the semester culminate in a graded work product that help client organizations make informed decisions and explore options and strategies for effective management, protection and/or licensing, in order to facilitate the mission, goals and objectives of these organizations.
Social Justice Institute
SJI sponsors IP related social justice events such as the screening of Black Gold a shocking expose on exploitation of the Ethiopian coffee resources
Pierce Law's Social Justice Institute (SJI), under the leadership of Professor Megan De Vorsey, advances the cause of social justice through legal training and project development. The goals of the Institute are to train lawyers to:
- provide affordable, high-quality legal services accessible to all
- advocate for social justice
- creatively explore and develop successful, innovative practice models for delivery of legal services in our constantly changing society.
This includes education and support to developing nations, e.g., building intellectual property capacity, as a means of reaching out for the betterment of all, the very essence of what it means to be a lawyer.
Intellectual Property and Civil Rights
Intellectual property and civil rights-how many people would make this connection? The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has dealt with a number of intellectual property issues over the years. Recently, Professor Albert "Buzz" Scherr agreed to serve as chair of the Patents and Civil Liberties Committee of the national ACLU when the Supreme Court LabCorp v. Metabolite case caught the attention of ACLU staff attorneys. The ACLU argues the Court's deliberations should specifically include First Amendment aspects of the case. LabCorp's infringement conviction was based on its publication of articles telling doctors how to interpret the results of a blood test LabCorp did for them.
Open Source Issues
As access to and reliance on Internet resources increases worldwide, concerns about fair and equal access to these resources are also increasing. Current concerns include building a global public domain of open source materials, copyright law and privacy. The focus of these efforts has naturally followed the growth pattern of the Internet, with the primary historical focus being on the United States, Europe and parts of Asia. Attempts to analogize Internet issues to locally relevant statutes or norms can lead to complicated and unpredictable legal scenarios where the law of the Internet is still nascent, or when international treaties or laws of foreign nations regarding open source materials, access, privacy and censorship are involved.
Professor Mary Wong has been most involved in this area of law:
- classes on copyright and emerging technologies demonstrate her interest in copyright issues in the public interest.
- member of Freedom Task Force, an initiative of the Free Software Foundation Europe
- member of Scientific Education and Learning in Freedom (SELF) Legal Experts Group, a group of lawyers who create legal policies for a European Union-based project tha providing educational and learning materials.
- works with an informal group that was created at the inaugural Internet Governance Forum in 2006, "dynamic coalition" working toward free expression and greater access to knowledge on the Internet.
Recent Exciting New Activities
Over the past several years, Pierce Law has contributed to projects organized by an IP public interest organization created by the Rockefeller Foundation in response to the changing environment on intellectual property in health and agriculture. Public Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture (PIPRA) is an organization that seeks to facilitate access to intellectual property in order to foster the development and distribution of improved crops, for use in developing countries.
With PIPRA, Pierce Law has provided assistance in evaluation of patent landscapes associated with agricultural biotechnological applications having specific potential for distribution and use in developing countries. These studies have been conducted as part of an upper-level Intellectual Property Research Tools course taught by Professor Jon Cavicchi, with a patent literature survey produced by the students serving as both a graded report and also an informational document delivered to PIPRA.
In April, 2006, several members of the greater Pierce Law community including Professor Stanley Kowalski participated in a meeting held at WIPO, "Intellectual Property Management Strategies to Facilitate Early Access and Global Health Benefits: Case Studies in Pandemic Influenza and Malaria". The objective was to explore and discuss intellectual property and licensing issues that impact the distribution of vaccines to developing countries, a topic of heightened worldwide importance given the looming threat of a global influenza pandemic.
Pierce Law also made significant contributions to the recently published IP Management in Health and Agricultural Innovation: A Handbook of Best Practices. The Handbook, a joint PIPRA/MIHR project, is directed towards a wide audience ... policy makers, leaders of public sector research establishments, technology transfer professionals, licensing executives, scientists, the legal profession and the philanthropic community. A resource that is as comprehensive as possible on current intellectual property management issues and approaches, the Handbook offers information and strategies for utilizing the power of intellectual property while remaining aware of how it relates to the public domain. Pierce Law is a Distribution Sponsor, having distributed copies of the Handbook around the globe. Also, Pierce Law contributing authors include:
- Professor Ann McCrackin, A Guide to International Patent Protection
- Professor Karl Jorda, Licensing Know-How and Trade Secrets
- Professor Karen Hersey, Building Professional Networks: National and International Experiences of AUTM; and
- Dr. Stanley Kowalski, Freedom to Operate: The Preparations (also main Editor of the Handbook)
New Initiatives: ITTI and Beyond
In July 2008, Pierce Law officially launched the International Technology Transfer Institute (ITTI), a capacity building resource with a principled mission of advancing intellectual property management, technology transfer, and related capabilities for the express purpose of improving the economic, health and nutritional status in developing countries. The ITTI's mission is fundamentally humanitarian, and its mandate is global.
The resources of Pierce Law form the platform from which ITTI advances its global mandate. ITTI, professionally staffed by IP faculty, IP research experts, and law students, is connected to an international network of experienced alumni. Pierce Law has a long history of working with professionals from developing countries, providing IP training for lawyers, IP professionals, technology transfer officers, government officials and public sector institution administrators. Under the direction and leadership of Professor Jon Cavicchi, Pierce Law has established one of the finest IP libraries in the world, with extensive print and electronic resources.
ITTI will implement its mission via three distinct, yet related, approaches:
- Patent landscape analyses of technologies that are critical for public health and nutrition in developing countries
- Assisting public sector institutions in developing countries to build technology transfer offices.
- Provide educational and training materials, in the form of reports, publications, modules and short courses that advance the ITTI global mandate.
ITTI Patent Landscapes
Patent landscape analyses identify patent literature (both patents and patent applications) that might be relevant to a particular biotechnological application, whether in agriculture or in health, and whether single component or complex construct. ITTI, as a pioneer in patent landscape analyses for developing countries, explores and maps patent landscapes in related to innovative advances in health and agriculture, in order to facilitate the acceleration of these innovations to those who most need them.
ITTI individualizes its activities to meet the needs of its clients, providing patent landscape analysis and patent explorations for:
- public sector institutions
- universities
- funding organizations
- philanthropic foundations
- international development institutions
- non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
- government and other organizations seeking to encourage advances in health and agriculture for developing countries
ITTI, under the guidance of Professor Jon Cavicchi, has developed an innovative, iterative approach to patent landscape analysis and patent explorations that was specifically designed to address the difficulties of conducting such tasks in developing countries. Patent landscape analyses can be used:
- to assess the value of pursuing a particular project before
- investing significant resources
- to assess where a product can be deployed
- to provide background information to support grant
- applications
- as guidance for research and development strategic
- planning efforts
- as a foundation for future freedom-to-operate analyses
Representative patent landscape projects include work with the Public Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture (PIPRA), identifying and exploring patent landscapes relevant to the needs of Sub Saharan Africa, such as improved sweet potato cultivars for use by resource-poor farmers, and the development of an efficacious vaccine for Human Immunodeficiency Virus-1 (HIV-1).
The HIV Vaccine Patent Landscape Report Series illustrates the critical nexus of intellectual property management, the public interest and social justice, and in this way represents an ITTI model project for advancing its global mandate. HIV has been responsible for more than 25 million deaths worldwide since its emergence in 1981. Of the approximately 11,000 new cases identified each day an estimated 60% are diagnosed in the developing countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. The immense morbidity and mortality rates, and the public health expense to governments caused by HIV-1, places an enormous social and economic toll on countries. Despite significant global investment in research and development, a preventative vaccine against HIV-1 remains elusive due to HIV-1's ability to evade the immune system.
ITTI, in collaboration with PIPRA, is conducting patent landscape analyses of technologies related to HIV vaccines, with the goal of building a publicly available, user-friendly online HIV-1 vaccine patent database. The database will be composed of both issued patents and published applications that are pertinent to the global patent landscape for HIV vaccine-related technologies, i.e., any that might impact the worldwide research, development, commercialization or deployment of a vaccine. Due to the nefarious nature of the HIV virus (its capacity to evade the body's defenses, attack the immune system, invade human DNA and rapidly evolve), an effective vaccine presents a complex technological challenge; therefore the scope of required methodologies and inputs will likely be extensive and hence difficult to predict. For example, it will be necessary to consider various vaccine types (DNA, peptide, inactivated virus, etc.), vaccination strategies (booster regimens, immune enhancers, etc.) and vaccination delivery procedures (injection, gene gun, patches, oral administration, etc.). Many of these technologies are proprietary and are either patented or subject matter in patent applications.
By providing information that will help minimize the risk of global intellectual property constraints, yet maximize sustainable global impact, this database will assist scientists and policy-makers in making informed decisions regarding the research, development, commercialization and global deployment of efficacious HIV-1 vaccines, and ultimately accelerate the delivery of an efficacious vaccine to Sub Saharan Africa.
This work, conducted as part of the ITTI Clinic, will generate a series of patent literature educational resources (produced by the students) that serve as both a graded report and a document delivered to PIPRA, containing the essential information for building the database. They will be published as an ITTI Patent Landscape Series, available for review in the Pierce Law Intellectual Property Library.
ITTI's Global Mandate: Building Technology Transfer Capacities
ITTI also is committed to providing support for the establishment of technology transfer offices in developing countries. This will be implemented via a series of projects, many of which will be conducted by Pierce Law students within the ITTI Clinic. The projects will be both academic and practice-based, working with professional counterparts in developing countries towards sustainable building of capacity in intellectual property management and technology transfer.
The need for this part of the ITTI program is becoming urgent. Nations looking to increase their capacity to participate in the technology marketplace often find the concept of "technology transfer" perplexing. Assembling complex systems for encouraging and managing the commercialization of innovation from academic and governmental research laboratories requires professional and organizational skills that may not readily be available.
Essential to becoming a technology player is the establishment of knowledgeable technology intermediaries (technology transfer offices). Intellectual property rights have become a widely used tool in many countries to promote university-industry partnerships as they can provide the necessary incentives to facilitate an effective transfer of technology. Technology transfer activities within universities are generally best served through the establishment of a dedicated office that enables centralization and professionalization of technology transfer activities. Managing technology transfer activities from universities to the private sector requires skilled human resources and interdisciplinary teams with legal, business, and scientific and licensing expertise. Lack of qualified human resources for such tasks is one of the greatest bottlenecks identified in a number of countries. The ITTI's mission, implemented through innovative programs and educational resources, will extend its global mandate to educate, build capacity and thereby serve the pubic interest and advance social justice.
