top Intellectual Property schools

[Burning Sands, Esq.]

USNews lists more than 3 schools in their subscription version.

Here's a reproduction (does anyone know if this is a copyright violation? i guess i'll find out after i take the class, eh?):

1.  University of California–Berkeley 
2.  George Washington University (DC)
3.  Stanford University (CA)
4.  Duke University (NC)
5.  New York University 
6.  Cardozo-Yeshiva University (NY)
7.  Franklin Pierce Law Center (NH)
8.  Columbia University (NY)
9.  DePaul University (IL)
   University of Houston 
11.  Boston University 
12.  John Marshall Law School (IL)
13.  Santa Clara University (CA)
14.  Georgetown University (DC)
15.  Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago-Kent) 
16.  University of Washington 
17.  Harvard University (MA)
18.  University of Minnesota–Twin Cities 
19.  Case Western Reserve University (OH)
   University of California–Los Angeles 
21.  Fordham University (NY)
22.  Boston College 
   George Mason University (VA)
   University of Texas–Austin 
   Washington University in St. Louis 
   Yale University (CT)
27.  American University (Washington College of Law) (DC)
   University of Pennsylvania 

Is there another site where they list more than three schools?

That's about what I thoughtit would be.  I didn't know Berkley was that good in IP though.

[Ginatio]

yea... berkeley stanford and yale don't make much sense to me, since all 3 try to approach the law too academically to have a strong ip program... and they also all tend to focus on social issues

That's about what I thoughtit would be.  I didn't know Berkley was that good in IP though.

[calvin]

someone cited this before, which i thought was really helpful:

Picking a law school. Yes, there are a number of law schools that are repeatedly mentioned as being good places to study patent law. My advice is to pay no attention to that. Go to the highest reputation school you can get admitted to, regardless of whether or not it is known for patent law. There are several reasons I say this.

First, the law school you attend will make an enormous difference as you look for that first job out of law school (and as you look for those summer jobs during law school). Students at the half-dozen or so law schools with the highest reputations have no trouble getting summer jobs, and get to pick and choose among job offers when graduation approaches. People at lots of other schools don't get to be choosy, or don't get jobs at all. There are law schools where, a year after graduation, half the graduates still have not found work.

Second, most potential employers give little or no weight to a school's supposed reputation for intellectual property. I am a partner of a patent law firm, and over the years I have screened thousands of resumes. The sorting criteria are fairly simple. People with no technical background are flushed. People with weak technical background are flushed. From what's left, one hopes to winnow out some of the bright ones. If the person is from one of the highest-reputation law schools, for example, it is likely they are bright. If the person is from law review elsewhere, it is likely they are bright. Other things in resumes may also come into play.

Third, even if you are absolutely sure, right now, that you plan to do patent law for a living after graduating, you might turn out to be completely wrong about what you'll want to do when you graduate from law school. By the time you graduate, you might decide you really like some other area of law, in which case it would have been a mistake to turn down some high-reputation law school in favor of a law school that is said to be good for patent law.

It is of less than no interest to me if the person went to one of the law schools that is said to be particularly good for patent law. I don't even notice that on resumes.

The fact is, even at one of the law schools that is said to be particularly good for patent law, you are (one hopes) learning mostly non-IP things -- contracts, civil procedure, torts, property ... and for those things you want to learn the most you can. You are not going to learn, say, contracts better because you are at a school with what is said to be a good patent course.

The fact also is, very little of what is taught in IP courses helps one to become a practitioner in the field. An enormous portion of what you need to know to be a good patent lawyer is learnable only on the job, from an experienced practitioner. To learn that, it matters little which law school you attended, nor does it matter whether or not you took a patent law course, or a copyright law course.

So the basic advice is, go to a law school with an excellent overall reputation ... Harvard, or Yale, or Chicago, or NYU, or Boalt, or Stanford, or Columbia ... and on down through the first and second and third tiers of law schools.

So it doesn't matter, if my view is correct, for your resume to list patent courses, or to list that you are attending a school known for patents.

           
http://www.patents.com/opportun.htm#law-school

[rcjackson]

USNews lists more than 3 schools in their subscription version.

Here's a reproduction (does anyone know if this is a copyright violation? i guess i'll find out after i take the class, eh?):

1.  University of California–Berkeley 
2.  George Washington University (DC)
3.  Stanford University (CA)
4.  Duke University (NC)
5.  New York University 
6.  Cardozo-Yeshiva University (NY)
7.  Franklin Pierce Law Center (NH)
8.  Columbia University (NY)
9.  DePaul University (IL)
   University of Houston 
11.  Boston University 
12.  John Marshall Law School (IL)
13.  Santa Clara University (CA)
14.  Georgetown University (DC)
15.  Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago-Kent) 
16.  University of Washington 
17.  Harvard University (MA)
18.  University of Minnesota–Twin Cities 
19.  Case Western Reserve University (OH)
   University of California–Los Angeles 
21.  Fordham University (NY)
22.  Boston College 
   George Mason University (VA)
   University of Texas–Austin 
   Washington University in St. Louis 
   Yale University (CT)
27.  American University (Washington College of Law) (DC)
   University of Pennsylvania 

Anyone care to post the complete international law rankings?  I had no idea they went past 10. 

[nonobvious]

Ginatio, three words-- Bay Area Biotech. Of course that doesn't apply to Yale (but it makes sense that the school with the best rep overall will attract some of the strongest profs in every area). Stanford and Boalt may have a more "academic" approach to most things, but they do realize that most grads will go into private sector work, and that they are in a hot spot area for IP. And take a look at Boalt's IP course list--
the majority are business-related (eg. "strategic patents") rather than theoretical in the academic sense (though of course with their association to EFF they do have a socially conscious side as well).

Boalt's list:
http://www.law.berkeley.edu/cenpro/programs/tech.html

And obviously, Stanford having just stolen Lemley, they will be USNEWS' #1 in IP next year, while the loss will make Boalt sink down at least a few notches.

Anyhoo... back to procrastination...

[newy]

someone cited this before, which i thought was really helpful:

Picking a law school. Yes, there are a number of law schools that are repeatedly mentioned as being good places to study patent law..

.

Took the words right out of my mouth.

[dgatl]

I talked to a few IP and patent attorneys working in both law firms and in corporations.  They advised me to "become a lawyer first" and then think about the patent bar.  Plans and preferences change, so don't limit yourself.  I chose to attend Emory over UIUC and Houston (the latter is AIPLA suggested) despite the fact that its not on a list of schools that is IP-heavy.

[ghostpirate]

I'm planning on taking the patent bar in the spring before law school after I graduate.  I think it does make sense to worry about the patent bar if it means you will be able to make a ton of cash in the summers to help pay for school.  And hey, realistically, what else are you going to study for in the winter and spring?

[RaiderHeisman]

Ginatio, three words-- Bay Area Biotech.

  Since when did the bay area become assoicated with biotech? Most people out here agree that San Diego is to biotech what Silicon Valley is to IT...

And obviously, Stanford having just stolen Lemley, they will be USNEWS' #1 in IP next year, while the loss will make Boalt sink down at least a few notches.

I had no idea US News' IP rankings were completely based on one professor. 

[nonobvious]

  Since when? I suppose that answer could be 1976, with the startup of Genentech, the self-described "founder of the biotechnology industry," and still one of the top leaders in the industry. [I'm sure numbers can be found to back that up, but if it's any indication, they snagged DNA on the NYSE and gene.com as their domain name. And currently they are doubling their research labs in South San Francisco].

FYI: Other major companies in the area:   http://www.bayareabioscience.org/mlinks.html

  The proximity of major research institutions like Stanford, Berkeley and UCSF doesn't exactly leave the industry there hurting for talent or partnerships either..


 And, no, of course rankings aren't based *solely* on one professor, but especially in the case of specialty rankings, which deal with departments having relatively few professors, a loss or a gain of one person does have a significant impact on the quality and reputation of that department, *especially* when the person in question has become the 5th most cited in his field before he's even turned 40.     
 --> See Leiter's most-cited rankings:
http://www.utexas.edu/law/faculty/bleiter/rankings02/top10_most_cited.html
 
 ...As of the current USNews, Boalt is ranked #1 and Stanford #3 for IP (with GWU at #2).  I don't know all the factors that USNews takes into account for its specialty rankings, so Lemley's switch may not guarantee Stanford a #1 slot next year, but I certainly wouldn't bet against it. 

   But hey, if you want to, go ahead and name your terms