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Q How will they gain those skills in the Clinic? CD: In short, by working on real cases. Although students will begin by developing their skills in a guided, simulated setting, they will quickly need to put theory into practice for real live clients. Students can only develop business judgment through exposure and practice. A student that has taken the time to really unpack a client’s business and then work alongside the client to make decisions that are best for the company has a much better business savvy the next time he advises a client. Same with identifying innovation. A student can only understand and describe innovation when she begins to know the field and practices distinguishing her client’s invention or original expression. And a student will only feel comfortable being flexible amidst change when the student knows enough substantive IP law to understand the boundaries that are subject to change. The Clinic will present students with a chance to use IP law to solve real-life problems, with a client depending on them. They will then have a chance to reflect on the opportunity and get feedback in a supervised setting. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Q Given all the disciplines with which IP intersects, what kind of interests and careers do you see, or at least hope, the Clinic jump-starts? CD: First and foremost, I hope the Clinic nurtures thoughtful, passionate, ethical practitioners, whatever their calling. But it is
Guitar Company Faces the Music Over Purported Use of Illegal Wood
such a crucial and interesting time to practice IP law that I hope
Henry Juszkiewicz, CEO of Gibson Guitar Corp., has
our talented students join the effort. We need thoughtful judges
three things he’s trying to accomplish. The first is staying out
to embrace complex patent cases and bring clarity to murky
of jail.
jurisprudence. We need tech-savvy legislators to draft bills that
Juszkiewicz took over the helm at Gibson in 1986, turning
balance our competing societal interests and stand the test of
the struggling, nearly bankrupt company into one of the largest
time. We need skilled practitioners that can straddle the bound-
guitar makers in the world.
aries of law and business to draft quality applications and guide
But after two federal raids in the last three years in which
companies as they innovate and compete in the market. And
exotic imported wood used to make guitars was confiscated,
we need innovators, entrepreneurs and artists to keep generat-
Juszkiewicz now has a different focus, he told Penn Law stu-
ing the IP for the rest of us to enjoy. I actually suspect that the
dents at a talk last January organized by the Federalist Society.
Clinic’s students will surpass even my high expectations about
“I want to: One, not go to jail,” he said. “Two, correct this
where they will take their IP interest – there may be careers on
inequity in the recent amendment to the Lacey Act. And three,
the horizon for our graduates that no one has imagined yet.
stop the criminalization of business.”
Fortunately for him, he will not go to jail. In August, Gibson
Guitar reached a settlement with federal prosecutors in which they agreed to pay a $300,000 penalty, forfeit claims to about $262,000 worth of wood seized by federal agents and contribute $50,000 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to promote the conservation of protected tree species.
Gibson purportedly violated the Lacey Act, which was passed
in 1900 to stop trafficking in illegal wildlife. In 2008 Congress P E N N L A W J O U R N A L F a l l 2 0 12 5