I’m delighted to share our latest updates highlighting the vibrant IP community here at Maurer.
It has been an exciting time for the Center! We have hosted events and student activities that give us reasons to be both thoughtful of the past and looking to the days ahead.
With this edition, I also bring exciting news of changes. Jeff Abraham, formerly a Vice Chief Administrative Patent Judge at the PTAB, joins us as clinical associate professor leading our IP Clinic. Read more about Professor Abraham here.
Professor Abraham’s arrival coincides with the retirement of Professor Norm Hedges, the founding director of the IP Clinic. A tribute to Norm can be found here on page 42.
Long-serving adjunct professor, Don Knebel, also retired this spring, passing his innovative Patent Trial Practice class to newly-appointed adjunct professor Todd Vare, a Barnes & Thornburg litigation partner.
We’re thrilled to welcome our new colleagues and excited to build on the legacy that Norm and Don have established.
Lastly, we are moving our Maurer IP Virtual Networking Event from January to October! Look for your email invitation coming in early September.
As always, we are grateful for the alumni and partners who support and sustain the Center and help us continue to provide opportunities for our students.
Mark D. Janis
Robert A. Lucas Chair of Law
Director, Center for Intellectual Property Research
Here are just a few highlights! For full listing of our semester events, follow us on Instagram & Facebook @ciprmaurer
Clerkship Panel
In partnership with ChIPs, CIPR hosted a panel featuring four panelists with clerkship experience. Panelists Adrienne Dellinger, Mo Jamal '22, Anneli Kawaoka '24, and Karen Kukla '24 spoke on their current and previous clerkship experiences and discussed how these roles shaped their professional paths. The panel was moderated by 2L students Sofia MakePeace and Tamara (Tammy) Shu.
This event capped off Maurer's weekly series on the steps necessary to prepare for the clerkship application process and was open to the broader Maurer student body.
IP Practitioner in Residence: Dan Amin '06, Assistant Chief Counsel at Lucasfilm
Amin joined students for a lunchtime discussion to share his career journey and current role at Lucasfilm. Students enjoyed hearing how an undergraduate degree in economics led him from software development to law school, his early legal work at PBS, and ultimately to an in-house legal career at Lucasfilm. Along the way, he offered valuable insights into navigating a nontraditional career path, while his engaging stories from the entertainment industry made for a memorable and entertaining conversation.
This lunch talk, moderated by 1L student Emily Abramczyk, kicked off Dan's participation in Maurer and Indiana University Jacob School of Music's annual AlgoRhythm symposium. Dan participated as a panelist in the following talks:
End-of-Year & Retirement Party for Professors Hedges and Knebel
We were delighted to bring together students, faculty, alumni, and friends of the Center at Heartwork Brewing to celebrate the end of the academic year. The evening not only recognized our graduating students but also honored Professors Norm Hedges and Don Knebel for their many years of dedicated service to CIPR and to the Maurer School of Law. What a fitting and memorable close to a great year!
Wishing both Norm and Don all the best in their retirement and we hope to see them around as often as possible!
Volume 15 Issue 2
On the Air! Fire of Genius Podcast
This spring, IP Theory released 10 new episodes of Fire of Genius, diving into pressing issues across intellectual property, technology, and law. Here are a few notable highlights from this semester:
Oh Boy! Mickey Mouse Enters the Public Domain — Public domain milestones, copyright history and trademark strategies are discussed.
The Surveillance State at your Door — Associates analyze Amazon Ring's balance between security, biometric data concerns and collective privacy.
AI, Art, and "Wait That's Mine" — Associates explore AI copyright concerns, LLM training, and creative industry impacts.
Catch up on the full season: Stream all spring episodes of Fire of Genius on Spotify
IP Law Clinic
The clinic wrapped up a strong semester, the final with Professor Norm Hedges, at the helm!
Six students were enrolled in the IP Clinic during the Spring 2026 semester. Over the course of the thirteen-week semester, they completed the following:
IP Law Clinic also hosted students from the Ivy Tech Bloomington School of Entrepreneurship and the Garatoni School of Entrepreneurship and Innovation on two occasions this semester. With oversight from Professor Hedges, three clinic students, Gavin Vice, Allison Koontz and Kaitlyn Ross, presented on the various types of intellectual property and how they play a critical role in protecting and growing small businesses and entrepreneurial ventures.
PatentConnect
The PatentConnect program continues to support to inventors and innovators in Indiana and Kentucky through our partnership with the USPTO. During the first half of 2026, the program received more than 80 applications to the program, which are in various stages of being process.
This summer, rising 2L student Robin Shang and two incoming 1L students Karl Gaisser and Sam Greenaway, completed prior art search training with the program and are working to review inventor prior art for validity as a part of the Volunteers in Intellectual Property (VIP) program. Combined, this group has completed more than 25 prior art searches over the summer with review by our PatentConnect staff including rising 2L Alyssa Green and Program Coordinator Steven Lesher.
PatentConnect is looking for volunteer patent attorneys willing to be matched with an inventor in need of pro bono patent support. If you would like to learn more about how PatentConnect works, please reach out to cipr@iu.edu.
Here are just a few highlights of all the amazing things our students have been doing! For a full listing of student activities this semester, follow on Insta: @ipamaurer • @sels.at.iu.maurer • @chipsmaurer • @maurerhealthlaw
IP Association Highlights
Under the leadership of President Reece Fleck (2L) and the Executive Board, the IP Association (IPA) partnered with CIPR on several spring events and virtual networking, alongside these highlights:
In-House Counsel Panel: Collaborated with the Business Law Society for a panel featuring alumni Tim Flowers '11, Daniel Bradley '10, and Jamie Davis '15 on pursuing in-house legal careers.
Earth Day Plant Patents: 1L Student Ambassadors Chase Young, Mackenzie Misterka, Kathleen McCoy, and Jackson Fair hosted an event where students learned about plant patents while painting planters.
Law & Tech Trivia: Hosted a competitive trivia night at Heartwork Brewing Company. (See photos below!)
Faculty Spotlights: Highlighted Professors Asaf Lubin and Susan deMaine in a social media series featuring their teaching approaches and IP courses.
Thanks to Reece, and the rest of the 2025-2026 Executive Board for an excellent year of leadership and engagement with Maurer IP!
Congratulations to incoming IP Association President Jackson Fair and a new Executive Board. Event planning for Fall 2026 is underway!
Student Recognition
CIPR is proud to celebrate these outstanding students on their accomplishments!
IP-Related Moot Court Highlights
Two teams participated in the 2025-26 Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition, first preparing a brief, then exercising their oral advocacy skills in a mock courtroom exercise in Chicago, IL in early February.
3L Team: Zohra Saeedi, Pravalika Surakanti, and Ruth Zhang
2L Team: Delaney Lynch, and Tamara (Tammy) Shu
Great work to both teams!
Students Chloe Neal and Jacob Talbert participated in this year's Tulane Professional Basketball Negotiation Competition as a part of Maurer's External Moot Court Competition program. Run by members of the Tulane Sports Law Society, it is a simulated contract negotiation using real-life scenarios and upcoming NBA free agents. Chloe and Jacob earned 2nd-place honors at this year's competition. Congratulations, team! :)
CIPR thanks the many professors and practitioners who shared their time and expertise to support the teams this year!
Space Policy and Purdue Collaboration
4L Zachary Smith presented at the Space Policy, Science, & Technology Symposium at Purdue University. Zachary and his team of Purdue aerospace students presented their research on the evolving international law governing the use of resources on the Moon. The presentation was a panel discussion in front of the Symposium’s attendees, who represented aerospace business owners, representatives of other governments, members of the U.S. Air and Space Forces, and aerospace professors.
The panel focused on discussing the current gaps in international space law and the technical challenges of utilizing lunar resources. The group presented their solutions on how the U.S. can remain competitive in space, and that an international space resource adjudication system will be necessary to facilitate these emerging challenges on the Moon. This project started in the 2025 Fall semester, where three Maurer students—Josh Everetts, Zach Smith, and Morgan Wood—along with several Purdue Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering students, were researching lunar resource utilization legal developments for the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Space Affairs. Zach and the students from Purdue are currently drafting a law review article on their research.
Center faculty have presented their research to many audiences and published scholarly works in intellectual property law and adjacent areas.
Adjunct Professor Greg Castanias filed an amicus brief on behalf of former Chief Judge Paul Michel and several patent law scholars in the Supreme Court case Hikma Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. v. Amarin Pharma, Inc., which was decided on June 4. He also participated in a panel hosted by American University Washington College of Law’s IP @ SCOTUS series discussing the case. The panel featured counsel of record and counsel for selected amici, including Professor Castanias, who represented former Federal Circuit Chief Judge Paul Michel and several patent law scholars in an amicus brief supporting the respondent.
Professor Mark Janis participated in the Patent Scholars’ Roundtable hosted by Stanford Law School in Palo Alto, California, in January 2026. The Roundtable brings together leading patent scholars from across the country to discuss current research and emerging issues in patent law. He also virtually presented both "Design Patent Infringement as Unfair Competition" and "Design Patent’s Three Little Words" as part of the IP Colloquium at Penn State Dickinson Law School in March 2026. Finally, Janis supervised a joint Indiana University Maurer School of Law and Purdue University research team as part of the Lunar Legalities and Resource Realities Project. The interdisciplinary initiative brought together law and engineering students to explore the legal and policy challenges surrounding lunar resource development.
Professor Jennifer Oliva maintained an active national and international speaking calendar during the first half of 2026, presenting her scholarship on health law, technology, and regulation across 12 conferences and universities.
Featured Lectures:Delivered invited talks at Harvard University (Psychedelic Intersections) and Georgetown University (The 'New' Drug War).
Conference Leadership: Organized panels and presented on healthcare expertise, vaccine skepticism, and health algorithms at the AALS Annual Conference and Washington University School of Law.
International Reach: Presented on wellness regulation at the International Academy of Law and Mental Health in Montreal, Canada.
View the full list of Professor Oliva's presentations on her faculty profile here.
Pink Crime: Fighting Against the Criminalization of Motherhood, Pregnancy, and Queer Identity (The New Press 2026).
Patent Claim Primacy, Am. U. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2027) (Federal Circuit issue) (with Holbrook).
Trademarks & Unfair Competition: Law & Policy (7th ed. 2026) (with Dinwoodie and McKenna).
Design Patent Law’s Three Little Words, 100 Ind. L.J. 1831 (2025) (selected for reprinting in Intellectual Property Review (2027)).
Fair Use, Transformative Use and the First Amendment, in Intellectual Property Law and Human Rights (Paul L.C. Torremans ed., Wolters Kluwer 5th ed. 2026).
The Strange Journey of the Manufacturing Clause: From Its Origins to the 1976 Copyright Act, 73 J. Copyright Soc'y (forthcoming 2026).
Understanding International Intellectual Property (forthcoming 2026) (with Mary LaFrance & Marketa Trimble).
Complexity Creep, 112 Iowa L. Rev. (forthcoming).
Scientific Evidence (7th ed. 2026) (with Giannelli, Imwinkelried, Moriarty & Beety).
Institutional Design, Drug Policy, and the Limits of Abstraction, 139 Harv. L. Rev. F. 237 (2026) (with Gillespie).
Government Goes Goop, 75 Emory L.J. Online 32 (2026).
Veteran Disability Hierarchies, 73 UCLA L. Rev. Discourse (forthcoming 2026) (selected for publication in the 2026 UCLA Law Review collection: Gender, Ableism, and Reproductive "Crimes") (with Dorfman)
Regulating Psychological Wellness Grifters, 41 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 1119 (2026) (selected for publication in the Georgia State University Law Review 2026 symposium volume, Health, Well-Being, and the Law).
Wellness Influencer Scienceploitation: An American Medicine Show Revival, 94 UMKC L. Rev. 931 (2026) (selected for publication in the UMKC Law Review 2026 symposium volume, Defining Wellness Law).
The Systemic Regulatory Vectors in the Opioid Epidemic Etiology: A Policy Analysis and Reform Proposal, Pepperdine L. Rev. (forthcoming 2026) (with Elliot & Haddock).
Beyond the Binary: Expert Evidence and the Civil-Criminal Divide, in Critical Evidence (Capers, Harris & Simon-Kerr eds., Cambridge University Press forthcoming 2026) (with Beety).
Professional Licensure After Chiles, Health Aff. Forefront (forthcoming 2026) (with Gillespie & Walter-McCabe).
From Kentucky to Kampala: The U.S. Government’s Global Push for Your Medical Data, The Conversation (forthcoming 2026).
CIPR Affiliated Faculty and Professor of Law at National Chengchi University (NCCU).
Trustbusters' Crackdown on Big Tech: An Analysis of Competition Policy and Antitrust Enforcement Efficacy as Reflected in the Securities Market, 60 Comput. L. & Sec. Rev. 106276 (2026).
