The 2026 Fall IP Institute will be held on Thursday, September 17th, starting mid-day, through Saturday, September 19th, ending mid-day, 2026, at the Moody Gardens Hotel. The event is organized and held by both the UH Law Center’s Institute for Intellectual Property & Information Law (IPIL) and the Houston Intellectual Property Law Association (HIPLA). This is a major continuing legal education ("CLE") event attracting several hundred intellectual property professionals from across Texas and the nation.
The current Fall IP Institute conference brochure with details and pricing is forthcoming..
The conference registration page on the HIPLA site is forthcoming.
Please visit our Frequently Asked Questions for the 2026 Fall IP Institute, which is updated as needed.
Many thanks to our Sponsors
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Shira Perlmutter
Register of Copyrights and Director,
U.S. Copyright Office
COMMUNITY IP SPEAKER
Forthcoming.
JUDICIAL PANEL
Forthcoming.
Scott Adams (Davis Wright Tremaine LLP)
TOPIC: Inventorship and AI
Sahana Annadorai (Boulware & Valoir PLLC) and Steve VerSteeg (Patterson + Sheridan LLP)
TOPIC: Interview Practice Update
Holly Barnes (Spencer Fane)
TOPIC: Design Patents and Copyright Intersection
Professor Zachary Catanzaro (Widener University Delaware Law School)
TOPIC: Copyright Update
Carlo Cotrone (Quartal IP LLC)
TOPIC: Patent Prosecution and AI: Navigating the Ethical Thicket
Liz Flannery (Baker Botts L.L.P.)
TOPIC: Trade Secret Update
Natalie Gonzales (Yetter Coleman LLP)
TOPIC: Texas Patent Litigation in 2026: Venue Realignment and PTAB Crosswinds
Rachel Greene (Greene IP PLLC) and Irene Kosturakis (BMC Software, Inc. - formerly)
TOPIC: Ethics, Cybersecurity, and Transactions
Cristina Guerrero (Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani, LLP)
TOPIC: Rule 11 and IP Litigation
Michael Hawes (Baker Botts L.L.P.)
TOPIC: Federal Circuit Patent Law – A Year in Review Part 1
Sharon Israel (Federal Circuit Bar Association)
TOPIC: IP – A view from inside the beltway
Phil Jeffrey (Parabellum IP) and George Schlich (Schlich Ltd)
TOPIC: Prosecution Strategies in view of the UPC and Unitary Patent
Tiffany Lewis (StoneTurn)
TOPIC: Patent and Trade Secrets Damages
Kristopher Reichlen (Greenberg Traurig, LLP)
TOPIC: The Realignment of Subject Matter Eligibility Guidelines
Catherine Rifai (Munck Wilson Mandala)
TOPIC: Trademark Law Update
Steven Spears (Munck Wilson Mandala)
TOPIC: Federal Circuit Patent Law – A Year in Review Part 2
Mauricio Uribe (Davis Wright Tremaine LLP)
TOPIC: Compliance with Export Controls for Patent Prosecution
Tamsen Valoir (Boulware & Valoir PLLC)
TOPIC: The Dilemma of Filing documents at USPTO under Seal or Expunging
George Webb (Rice University)
TOPIC: Supreme Court Update
̶ It will be an in-person event.
̶ The link for the event in the Whova app will be included in a subsequent Whova instructional email. Whova is available for both mobile and desktop/laptop computers.
̶ For assistance, please email IPIL@UH.EDU
̶ For assistance, please email IPIL@UH.EDU
̶ For assistance, please email IPIL@UH.EDU
̶ The cost for lunch will be included in the conference registration. An RSVP during the registration is needed for the conference administration to plan for your attendance.
̶ This course has not yet been approved by the State Bar of Texas.
̶ We do not submit for CLE beyond the State Bar of Texas. However, if you need a certificate of attendance for another state please email IPIL@UH.EDU for assistance.
̶ We expect most of the materials to be made available a week prior to the start of the event. Any material not available one week out will be posted as soon as possible.
̶ No, the speaker sessions will not be recorded. However, if a written paper is provided by the speaker it is accessible in the Whova app.
