Moot Court Competition
About the Competition
The Giles Sutherland Rich Memorial Moot Court competition is named for the late Honorable Giles Sutherland Rich, Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The competition is an annual inter-law school event sponsored by the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA). There is no entry fee for the competition. The competition is made possible through the volunteer service of attorneys, judges, and AIPLA professionals.
2022-2023 Competition
Welcome to the AIPLA 2022-2023 Giles S. Rich Memorial Intellectual Property Moot Court Competition! As always, our writing team has prepared a great problem for you this year. Please read these competition rules thoroughly. If you have any questions about the rules for this competition, please contact the National Operations Directors, Erik Halverson and Christopher Jeu.
AIPLA plans to conduct the competition in person. The Regional and National Directors will provide more guidance at the appropriate time should anything change.
For your convenience, we provide the below highlights of major rules changes:
- We have added Rule 31 which addresses Supplemental Authority, changes to briefs, and the treatment of intervening decisions at oral argument.
- We have rectified the use of participants names in briefs. In Rules 17, 26, 27. The intent is to allow participants names in signature blocks and on the cover of briefs to allow them to use the written work product as a writing sample. However, names should not appear elsewhere in the briefs nor should any school identifying information appear in any brief.
- We have removed the requirement for service of hard copy briefs in Rules 15 and 17; and we have tried to streamline the service of briefs on other teams with some changes to Rules 8 and 10.
Important Dates to Note:
• Priority deadline for submission of Notices of Intent to Compete: Friday, December 9, 2022 (11:00 pm local time).
• All Notices of Intent to Compete must be submitted by the final deadline: Friday, January 13, 2023 (11:00 pm local time).
• Briefs for Regional Rounds must be served by: Monday, January 30, 2023 (11:00 pm local time).
• All Regional Rounds will be held over three days from Friday, March 17 to Sunday, March 19, 2023.
• Briefs for teams advancing to the National Rounds must be served by: Friday, March 24, 2023 (11:00 pm local time).
• The National Rounds will be held over three days from Wednesday, April 12 to Friday, April 14, 2023.
2021-2022 Competition Recap
The 2021-2022 Giles S. Rich Memorial Moot Court Competition marked the third year of virtual competition. Teams competed across the five regions of the competition, with the top two teams advancing to the national competition. The problem challenged teams with issues related to claim construction and the marking requirement of 35 U.S.C. § 315(e)(2).
We are pleased to congratulate this year’s winners— Janelle Barbier and Matthew Lem, from Santa Clara University's School of Law.
In a wonderful demonstration of oral presentation and mastery of the law and facts, Team 6 of Santa Clara University’s School of Law, comprising Janelle Barbier and Matthew Lem, narrowly edged out Team 3 of Columbia Law, comprising Penina Cohen and Hafsah Hanif. And taking the best brief score for this year’s competition is Team 9 of Temple University’s Beasley School of Law, comprising Jessica Blau and Joseph Campbell.
The finals of the competition were graciously presided over by a panel of three Federal Circuit Judges—Judge Bryson, Judge Dyk, and Judge Taranto. The panel gave the competitors a tough, realistic experience and was impressed with all of the competitors.
Thank you to all of the competitors, judges, organizers, and other volunteers who made this competition such a success!