Copyright professor Rita Reusch recently announced her selection of two winning entries in the 2008 Nathan Burkan Memorial Competition for the S.J. Quinney College of Law.  The winning entries are:

First Prize: “Has the Engine of Free Expression Stalled? An Examination of Fair Use in Copyright Law,” by Andrea Keysar; and

Second Prize: “Free and Open Source Software: How Free are the Nonliteral Elements?” by Scott Hilton.

Entries in the competition could focus on any aspect of copyright law.  The annual competition is sponsored by the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP).  The two winning papers will now be entered into ASCAP's national Nathan Burkan Memorial Competition.  Congratulations to local winners Andrea Keyser and Scott Hilton, and good luck in the upcoming national competition.  Visit http://www.ascap.com/musicbiz/burkan/ for more information on the competition.

We are proud to announce the members of the 2008-2009 S.J. Quinney College of Law SIPLA Board:

President: Kirk Coombs
Vice President: David Call
Secretary: David Johnson
Treasurer: Ruke Wang
Webmaster: Brady Curtis

Congratulations and good luck to the new Board!

A group of our SIPLA members recently competed in the local Giles Sutherland Rich Memorial Moot Court Competition. The University of Utah fielded four teams, which is twice as many teams as last year. The teams were as follows:

1. Li Feng and Jennifer Bogart
2. Greg Baker and Scott Hilton
3. Tim Nichols and Jeremy Blain
4. Alex Stein and Abe Bates

All four teams performed exceptionally well in their written and oral analysis of the legal and factual issues. According to several attorneys, they were the most prepared group of teams fielded by the U for some time. Thus, all eight students should be congratulated in their efforts, for which they all received many high regards from the local legal community involved with the competition.

As for awards, Scott Hilton received the best oralist award overall, and of course, the best oralist award for the U. Abe Bates and Alex Stein tied for best Appellant Brief overall, and were awarded best Appellant and Appellee Briefs for the U.

At the end of a close competition, the teams of (1) Alex Stein and Abe Bates, and (2) Tim Nichols and Jeremy Blain were awarded first and second positions respectively. Thus, Alex and Abe will aptly represent the U in the upcoming IP Summit against the top ranked Y team.

We are hopeful that both of the top two teams will be able to represent the U in the Western Regional Giles Rich Moot Court Competition in Santa Clara, CA.

All of SIPLA, especially those of us that participated in the competition, would also like to thank our couch Dave Jones of Workman Nydeger, and the many other local attorneys who supported us and made this competition possible.

Holland & Hart is located downtown at 60 E. South Temple, Suite 2000.  Please RSVP by emailing bakerg@law.utah.edu if
you plan on attending by no later than Friday, March 7th.  Holland & Hart need a count for lunch preparations.

A panel on clerking for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is being held on Tuesday, March 4, 2008 in Room 107 from 12:15 to 1:10. Please RSVP by emailing Josh Rupp at ruppj@law.utah.edu. There will also be FOOD.