“IIPSJ’s annual conferences played an important role in developing a social justice perspective in intellectual property law and policy. The Institute’s mission is a vital one”- Honorable Raymond T. Chen
For the 22nd Annual IP and Social Justice CLE Program, co-hosted by law firm Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP, key attendee sessions included: (a) our Annual IP Year in Review, (b) Social Justice Luncheon Plenary Sessions: IP Social Justice in Legal Practice: Preparing Practitioners for Contemporary Challenges, and (c) the Annual Donald R. Dunner Judicial Panel, which included insights and reflections from the Honorable Leonard P. Stark, Judge with the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the Honorable Kara F. Stoll, Judge with the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the Honorable Susan G. Braden, Former Chief Judge (retired) of the United States Court of Federal Claims.
The IP and Social Justice CLE Conference benefits from participation from all demographics within the IP legal community: attorneys in private practice, in-house counsel corporate departments, government agencies, and public interest NGOs, as well as members of the judiciary and government officials. The CLE Program was co-chaired by Tashia Bunch, Esther H. Lim, and Idris N. McKelvey.
IP Social Justice Lifetime Achievement Award:
The Institute for Intellectual Property and Social Justice honored Patricia Carter Ives Sluby, L.H.D. with a IP Social Justice Lifetime Achievement Award. Dr. Sluby joined the US Patent and Trademark Office as a patent examiner in the early days of the Equal Employment Opportunity program and later achieved the primary status followed by a special programs Patent Cooperation Treaty examiner. Upon leaving the USPTO she became a registered patent agent.
Dr. Sluby began compiling information on African American inventors, including women inventors and published articles in patent office journals and many other national publications including the 1990 Bicentennial Celebration—United States Patent and Copyright Laws Proceedings, Events and Addresses. She self-published her first book in 1987, Creativity and Inventions: The Genius of Afro-Americans and Women in the United States and their Patents. and after retirement published books in 2004, The Inventive Spirit of African Americans, and 2011, The Entrepreneurial Spirit of African American Inventors. Pat herself holds 22 registered copyrights. She is co-curator of the exhibit, Patented Ingenuity: The Art of African American Inventors, at the Prince George’s African American Museum and Cultural Center.
Dr. Sluby is past president of the National Intellectual Property Law Association, educating the minority community in IP, placement of IP professionals, and legislation, and member of the board of directors of the Museum for Black Innovation and Entrepreneurship. She has appeared widely on radio, TV, and internet programs, once serving as the spokesperson for the USPTO on CNN. She has also served as a contributing editor of the journal of the National Society of Black Engineers.
Her distinguished service includes Department of Commerce Science and Technology Fellow, serving on the subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Banking, Finance, and Urban Affairs where she drafted a bill to place the first woman bank president in the US on a coin and special director in the Office of Cultural Resources of the National Park Service.
The 2025 CLE Sessions were:
• Key Highlights of 2024: Patent, Trademark, and Copyright
• Donald R. Dunner Judicial Panel
• IP Social Justice in Legal Practice: Preparing Practitioners for Contemporary Challenges
• Trademark, Entertainment, and NIL
• Perspectives on The Rise of Trade Secrets
• Al and Impacts on Patent System Inclusion
• Ethics
View the session video for IP Social Justice in Legal Practice: Preparing Practitioners for Contemporary Challenges here.
Thank you to our sponsors!
