On March 6, 2023, Minnesota Intellectual Property Law Association (MIPLA) hosted its annual MIPLA Cup Moot Court Competition.  The MIPLA Cup is an Intellectual Property Moot Court Competition among teams from area law schools: University of Minnesota, University of St. Thomas, and Mitchell Hamline School of Law. It serves as a preview to the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) Giles Rich Moot Court Competition.  Using the same problems set and issues as the Giles Rich competition, the MIPLA Cup challenges the students and serves as a warm-up competition before they head off to regionals in the Giles Rich National Moot Court.

This year, hosted at the University of St. Thomas Law School's ceremonial courtroom, four teams (two from St. Thomas and one each from the University of Minnesota and Mitchell Hamline) squared off in a round-robin competition. The team were well prepared and faced difficult questions from the volunteer judges, all being seasoned IP litigators from Twin Cities firms that were elevated to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals (if only for one day).

The scoring was very close, but Team 1 (Kate Mares and Scott Meehan from the University of Minnesota) took first place.  Second place went to Team 4 (Morgen Dempsey and Erika Clyma from the University of St. Thomas Law School).  MIPLA will be awarding cash scholarships to these first and second place teams.

Special thanks go to the volunteer judges who put the students through their paces and gave helpful feedback as well: Peter Forrest, Jessica Gutierrez, Elvis Kim, Sharon Roberg-Perez, and Tony Zeuli.  Thanks also to the volunteer coaches for each team who have spent their time and energy to get the teams ready to compete.

We wish all of our local Moot Court teams success as they head off to the regional round of the Giles Rich Moot Court Competition!

Submitted by Kevin Conneely, MIPLA President