Shannon Bates Joins Judge Panel at USPTO Regional Patent Competition

Harper & Bates LLP is pleased to announce partner Shannon Bates served as a regional judge as part of the virtual United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) 2021 National Patent Application Drafting Competition on March 16.

As part of a three-person panel, Bates reviewed four different teams’ written submissions prior to the virtual competition and then judged each team’s oral presentation. Each panel comprises patent examiners, practitioners and guest judges.

The USPTO’s annual competition introduces law students to issues arising in U.S. patent law and develops their patent application drafting, amending and prosecution skills. Student teams are given hypothetical invention statements and they must search the prior art, prepare a specification, draft claims and present their reasoning for patentability before a panel of judges.

Shannon Bates is a transactional intellectual property attorney with Harper & Bates. You can reach her at Shannon.Bates@HarperBates.com or 214-238-8400.