The USPTO runs a program to allow law school clinics to engage in practice before the Office. It provides law students great practice experience while they are still in law school, and is generally acclaimed as a great success. The Office most recently expanded the roster of IP clinics in 2016-2017, adding twenty law schools in mid-2008. The program also provides for expedited examination, so students can both file and handle and prosecution issues in a single academic semester or quarter.

The Office prepared a 2016 report on clinic activity from 2009-2016. Over those seven years, 2,000 trademark applications were filed by clinics as counsel, and 2,700 students were involved in clinics (both trademark and patent work). The

At TM TKO, we have been getting our set of law clinic users (it’s free for clinical / academic use!) ready for the semester, and the clinic program has been on our mind. So, we ran some updated numbers. These numbers are not going to match the USPTO’s figures from the clinics’ biannual reporting requirements. We do not have access to that data. Instead, our estimates based on the use of email addresses listed in the USPTO’s clinic list. Some clinics will use other emails for their USPTO communications, and our search methodology will not pull in those results. So, don’t get too hung up on specific numbers — this data only shows general trends.

The number of clinic-based filings per year have continued to rise, from the 400-500 range to over 650 last year. Much of that rise appears to be due to the expanded roster of active clinics. There is also a pretty wide range of trademarks being handled, from just a couple per year for some clinics to fifty or more for a couple of very ambitious (and busy) clinics. We don’t have student numbers for each clinic, so it’s impossible to say whether these are just more heavily attended or doing more filings per student.

IP Clinics are providing students valuable opportunities to understand the nuts and bolts of trademark practice and to build client relationship management skills. Both are crucial in running an active IP practice, and the USPTO’s clinical programs are giving today’s law students a great head start on practice that was not available ten years ago.

Participating Law Schools	2019	2018	2017
American University, Washington College of Law	9	5	4
Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Conner College of Law	61	46	42
Baylor Law School	5	12	8
Boston College Law School	7	4	8
California Western School of Law	17	16	17
Fordham University School of Law	3	4	0
Howard Universtity	0	0	0
Indiana University Maurer School of Law	21	24	12
Indiana University McKinney School of Law	0	0	1
Lewis & Clark Law School	13	17	14
Liberty University School of Law	1	0	0
Lincoln Law School of San Jose	0	0	0
New York Law School	6	10	0
North Carolina Central University School of Law	12	6	8
Northeastern University School of Law	10	3	4
Northwestern Pritzker School of Law	31	21	22
Roger Williams University School of Law	2	0	1
Rutgers Law School	3	2	3
Seattle University School of Law	12	2	8
South Texas College of Law Houston	26	29	23
Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law	15	3	10
Southern University Law Center	3	1	0
Suffolk University Law School	2	10	15
Syracuse University College of Law	7	10	13
Texas A&M University School of Law	9	5	4
The George Washington University School of Law	8	9	4
Thomas Jefferson School of Law	7	16	13
Tulane University Law School	5	2	2
UIC John Marshall Law School	8	13	14
UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law	20	13	13
University of Akron School of Law	0	0	0
University of Arizona, James E. Rogers College of Law	21	10	8
University of California, Irvine School of Law	5	0	0
University of Connecticut School of Law	17	15	21
University of Detroit Mercy School of Law	0	0	0
University of Idaho College of Law	5	1	4
University of Maryland School of Law	54	40	25
University of Miami School of Law	19	7	2
University of Nebraska College of Law	19	7	8
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law	16	10	5
University of Notre Dame Law School	13	13	6
University of Pennsylvania Law School	20	5	0
University of Puerto Rico School of Law	0	0	1
University of Richmond School of Law	19	27	16
University of San Diego School of Law	17	15	16
University of San Francisco School of Law	33	56	26
University of St. Thomas School of Law	28	10	1
University of Tennesee College of Law	14	10	16
University of Washington School of Law	6	2	15
Vanderbilt Law School	20	14	12
Western New England University School of Law	3	3	4
Total	652	528	449