iPIP Clinic

Georgetown’s Intellectual Property and Information Policy (iPIP) Clinic handles counseling and policy projects for individuals, non-profits, and other organizations who engage with iPIP issues from a public interest perspective.

Founded in 2019, the iPIP Clinic (pronounced eye-pip) gives its student attorneys a meaningful experience as student lawyers leading intellectual property (copyright, Digital Millennium Copyright Act, trademark, patent, trade secret) and information policy (Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Communications Decency Act Section 230, privacy, right of publicity) matters on behalf of real clients. The Clinic seeks to achieve the following objectives:

• Develop knowledge of the core areas of intellectual property law and information policy,

• Understand substantive intellectual property and information policy doctrines,

• Think critically about intellectual property and information policy’s claim to neutrality,

• Interrogate the effects of intellectual property and information policy law on marginalized groups, including people identified by gender, indigeneity, race, sexuality, class, and disability,

• Nurture the skillset necessary to become an effective lawyer, including the abilities to think, speak, and write efficiently, accurately, collaboratively, and creatively,

• Foster a working environment rooted in hard work, trust, humility, respect, and joy.

More information about the structure of the iPIP Clinic is available here. Examples of past matters include:

• Advising a coalition of library stakeholders on creating a federal commemorative day to celebrate the public domain;Counseling an individual artist on copyright, trademark, and trade dress issues related to her “appropriation” art;

• Collaborating with a digital civil liberties nonprofit to draft an Initial Comment defending the right to repair and modify devices in the triennial Section 1201 rulemaking proceedings;

• Developing best practices for using new technologies within the Georgetown clinics;

• Counseling an educational arts collective on developing copyright policies;

• Developing FAQs on faculty copyrights in online course materials for author advocacy nonprofit;

• Drafting a policy paper supporting controlled digital lending for a library nonprofit;

• Drafting a letter to President Biden on behalf of a coalition of thirty-eight civil rights, medical, scientific, technology, patient advocacy, and environmental organizations to address patent subject matter eligibility reform efforts.

• Drafting model legislation to secure fair ebook sales terms to libraries on behalf of a library nonprofit;

• Developing a guide to taking down nonconsensual pornography from the Internet for a coalition of domestic violence service providers;

• Producing a policy paper predicting the future of controlled digital lending for a library nonprofit.

• Counseling a nonprofit newsroom on developing an equitable freelancer contract and copyright guide

• Advocating for the creation of digital reading rooms in private libraries for a library nonprofit

• Advising an open knowledge nonprofit on addressing the appropriation of copyrighted works for face surveillance.

The iPIP Clinic is currently led by Acting Director Nina Srejovic and Senior Teaching Fellow Becky Chambers while I’m on research leave 2022-2023.