Steven Williams Wins In Regional Intellectual Property Law Competition

2016 Nov 8

The Georgia State Law Intellectual Property (IP) moot court team won the award for best team at the Eastern Regional IP LawMeet competition on Oct. 21, and competed in the national rounds of the competition Nov. 4, garnering the "best draft" award.

As part of the competition, Steven Williams (J.D. '17), Seth Meyerson (J.D. '17) and Mitchell Foley (J.D. '17) drafted and negotiated a software development, license and hosting agreement between an education technology company and a company providing training solutions for home health aides.

A total of 24 teams competed in three regional competitions. For the national competition, the Georgia State Law team competed against teams from Charlotte Law School, University of Pennsylvania Law School, University of Mississippi School of Law, University of Colorado Law School and Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law.

Elizabeth Lester (J.D. '05) and David Pierce (J.D. '16) coached the teams. Faculty adviser Anne Tucker and professors Yaniv Heled, Jack Williams, Michael Landau and Robert Weber consulted with the team to help them prepare. Lester traveled with the group to the competition in New York City.

"We had lots of help and our success was largely due to hard work and getting feedback and ideas from experts," Meyerson said. "In addition to our coaches, our professors helped us craft creative approaches that allowed a win for our client and our negotiating partners."

Williams said it felt satisfying earning top recognition in regionals, and the team focused on delivering a strong performance at the national competition.

"After working so hard on the competition, it is nice to bring home to Georgia State Law top honors," Williams said. "The team has developed solid negotiation skills and knows the agreement backward and forward. We received feedback from judges and exchanged ideas with other participants that will be helpful in drafting our strongest agreement going into the competition."

Drexel University law professor Karl Okamoto founded LawMeets in 2010 as a way to deliver practical skills exercises to students interested in transactional law. LawMeets organized the first IP competition in 2011.