Law Students Win First Place at International Patent Drafting Competition

The School of Law trio of Matthew Ndonwi, Nicole Goldkamp and Darnell Cage placed first at the 2017 International Patent Drafting Competition. The competition was held Feb. 10 and 11 at the Elijah J. McCoy United States Patent and Trademark Office in Detroit, Michigan. 

York University (Canada) was runner up while Western Michigan University finished third.

The SLU LAW team was coached by Ben Sodey, J.D. All three team members are part-time evening students in their fourth year of law school and hold full-time day jobs. Ndonwi is a scientist with Washington University in St. Louis, Goldkamp is an accountant with the School District of Clayton and Cage is a paralegal with The Boeing Company. All three students will graduate in May with concentrations in intellectual property law.

Twelve schools from across the United States and Canada entered the competition. A hypothetical problem was released to the teams, on which each team drafted and submitted a patent application along with a legal brief. The teams then presented their research and patent applications in front of a panel of judges comprising patent examiners, practitioners, Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) judges, and several high profile guest judges from local firms and Fortune 10 companies. Students were judged on the quality of their written submissions as well as oral presentations. Prizes were awarded to the top three teams.

The competition was hosted by the International Intellectual Property Law Clinic, a joint clinic of the University of Windsor Faculty of Law and the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). This is the second year of the competition which also organizes networking receptions and tours of the USPTO for participants. Last year’s inaugural edition was won by Indiana University School of Law.