Our Work

Since 2020, the iPIP Clinic has represented emerging and established justice-minded artists, nonprofits, and coalitions. Student attorneys collaborate closely with those clients to develop transferrable skills, like managing matters, gathering facts, interviewing clients and experts, conducting legal and sociotechnical research, writing for lawyers and laypeople, developing professional ethics and identities, engaging in creative problem-solving, and cultivating cura personalis, the Jesuit value of “care for the whole person.” These skills prepare students produce work product across non-litigation matters—counseling, policy, legislation, transactional, amicus briefing, and strategic pre-litigation advising—that break the mold of traditional lawyering. Past teams have presented at local and international conferences, to clients’ advisory boards, and with partner coalitions. Our work always involves technology, but no technical degree or course prerequisites are required—even for our patent work.

Every iPIP Clinic experience is unique, but the Clinic seeks to create SPACE for students to grow as practitioners and people through every matter. Because our work often transcends doctrinal boundaries, SPACE is also an acronym for key areas in which we practice: surveillance, power, accessibility, creativity, and ethics. We find that this thematic approach, which intentionally differs from the one used in seminar, creates deeper connections between otherwise disparate doctrines, which is a recurring theme of both casework and seminar.

Below are select Clinic matters that illustrate how our work creates SPACE for student attorneys to blossom into creative, competent, committed, and conscientious lawyers:

Surveillance (Privacy, Copyright, Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Right of Publicity, FOIA)

Drafting strategic pre-litigation guide and zine for abolitionist nonprofit about resisting mail and face surveillance with copyright;
Counseling open knowledge nonprofit on addressing the appropriation of copyrighted works for face surveillance;
Counseling intimate partner violence coalition on combating nonconsensual intimate imagery (NCII) using copyright, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and platform policies;
Counseling technology policy nonprofit on countering NCII and deepfakes using civil state laws, privacy torts, and right of publicity;
Counseling product review nonprofit on developing technology security guidance for targets of intimate partner violence;
Drafting FOIA requests for library nonprofit about ebook surveillance technologies identified in patent and trademark applications.

Power (Copyright, Trademark, Trade Dress, Privacy, Free Speech, CDA Section 230)

Counseling artist on copyright, trademark, and trade dress issues from parody art critiquing luxury fashion;
Counseling artist on how recent Supreme Court copyright and trademark decisions affect parody art critiquing luxury fashion.
Drafting strategic pre-litigation guide for open knowledge nonprofit on relevant speech, privacy, intellectual property, and Communications Decency Act Section 230 issues;
Drafting a fair freelancer contract for a nonprofit newsroom;

Accessibility (Patent, Copyright)

Drafting letter on behalf of a coalition of thirty-eight civil rights, medical, scientific, technology, patient advocacy, and environmental organizations to President Joe Biden addressing patentable subject matter eligibility reform efforts that would undermine research;
Drafting policy paper for access to medicines coalition to encourage fair patent licensing provisions with university technology transfer offices;
Drafting model legislation for access to medicines coalition to expand affordability and availability of patented life-saving medications;
Drafting model freedom of information requests for access to medicines coalition requesting information from public universities about patent licensing for federally funded inventions;
Drafting amicus brief for union advocating open access to technical standards incorporated into legislation;
Drafting model legislation and executive orders for a library nonprofit to secure fair ebook pricing to libraries;
Drafting policy paper for a library nonprofit highlighting benefits of libraries’ digital lending without infringing copyright;
Drafting zine for library nonprofit identifying strategies for libraries’ digital lending without infringing copyright.

Creativity (Copyright, Digital Millennium Copyright Act)

Counseling coalition of library stakeholders on creating a federal commemorative day to celebrate the public domain;
Counseling educational arts collective on copyright policy for digital curricula;
Counseling public interest technology nonprofit on strategies for securing ownership in digital media, including film, music, and books;
Drafting FAQs on faculty copyrights in digital course materials for author nonprofit;
Drafting zine and blog post for author nonprofit about how authors’ copyrighted works can mitigate implicit bias in artificial intelligence tools;
Drafting Initial Comment in Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1201 rulemaking for digital civil liberties nonprofit empowering technology owners to repair and modify their devices.

Ethics (Professional Responsibility, Privacy, Copyright)

Developing best practices for ethically using new technologies within the Georgetown clinics;
Developing best practices for ethically using artificial intelligence tools within the Georgetown clinics;
Drafting comic and blog post for author nonprofit about ethical and environmental impacts of artificial intelligence tools for authors.

Our Classroom Work:

Coursework compliments casework by exposing students to doctrines and skills that will equip them to be justice-ready lawyers. The biweekly seminar is 4 credits. Seminar centers a series of iPIP x Social Justice sessions developed just for the Clinic, which explore how five IP doctrines (copyright, Digital Millennium Copyright Act, trademark, patent, trade secrets) and five central information policy doctrines (privacy, right of publicity, Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Communications Decency Act Section 230, Freedom of Information Act) affect people marginalized by gender, indigeneity, race, sexuality, class, and disability. Small teams of students, different from casework teams, also design and lead their own iPIP x Social Justice sessions called Deep Dives. Past examples of Deep Dive topics include patent waivers and COVID-19 vaccines in the Global South, copyright and racist musical appropriation, decolonizing the modern museum with 3D printing (or not), combatting dis/misinformation with legal and sociotechnical interventions, genetic privacy and criminal investigations, IP and indigenous knowledge, and whether sharenting is a deceptive trade practice, and criminalizing or underprotecting Latinx art forms, among many others. Professor Levendowski Tepski has written about her approach to iPIP x Social Justice and Deep Dives here.

iPIP x Social Justice and Deep Dives are supplemented by skills sessions. During Orientation, students are (re)introduced to critical theory, which encourages students to think critically (in both senses of the word) when approaching casework, coursework, and conversations with colleagues. To help students practice their critical thinking skills, students lead and participate in collaborative workshops about their casework and case rounds, both of which also engage active listening skills and the abilities to give and share compassionate critique. Students also learn how to edit Wikipedia, an exercise that has received national acclaim. As part of that exercise, students improve an iPIP-related article in collaboration with colleagues and supervisors as a means of fulfilling their professional ethics duties as lawyers and freely, publicly providing legal research with fewer ethical concerns than traditional databases. Professor Levendowski Tepski has written about the Clinic’s Wikipedia editing here. The Clinic also emphasizes the skill of cura personalis, or the Jesuit value of “care for the whole person.” Students reflect on small and systemic changes that would improve their well-being throughout the semester, and a focused session saves space for supervisors and students to share strategies for self-care, both personally and professionally.