The North Carolina Central University School of Law in Durham has announced the establishment of the Intellectual Property Law Institute. Institute enrollees will gain practical legal experience by helping review suspect patents at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The new Institute will work initially with industries in North Carolina, later expanding across the country to help to improve patent quality and protect organizations’ intellectual property. The institute is being established with financial support from SAS Inc., a corporate leader in business analytics, business intelligence, and data management software and services.
Charles E. Smith, a professor at the law school, will serve as the inaugural director of the Intellectual Property Law Institute. Before joining the faculty at North Carolina Central University in 1979, he was a patent attorney for Xerox Corporation. Professor Smith is a graduate of California Polytechnic University and holds law degrees from Duke University and the Georgetown University Law Center.
