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41st Annual Fall Institute on Intellectual Property Law
September 25 – 27, 2025
Moody Gardens Hotel (Galveston, Texas)

The 2025 Fall IP Institute will be held on Thursday, September 25th, starting mid-day, through Saturday, September 27th, ending mid-day, 2025, 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.

Please visit our Frequently Asked Questions for the 2025 Fall IP Institute, which is updated as needed.

Many thanks to our Sponsors

The current Fall IP Institute conference brochure can be found at this link: forthcoming

The registration page on the HIPLA site is forthcoming.

Check back here for more information and updates.

2025 Fall IP Institute speakers and topics

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Shira Perlmutter
U.S. Copyright Office
Shira Perlmutter
U.S. Copyright Office

JUDICIAL PANEL

The Hon. Jeffrey V. Brown
U.S. District Court
Southern District of Texas 

The Hon. Sean D. Jordan
U.S. District Court
Eastern District of Texas 

Moderated by
Natalie Alfaro Gonzales
Yetter Coleman LLP

Jeffrey Andrews (Yetter Coleman LLP)
TOPIC: Antitrust Issues in IP Litigation

Justen Barks (Barks PLLC) and Jammy Kiggundu (Douglass & Kiggundu, P.L.L.C.)
TOPIC: NIL + V: Athlete and Influencers

Bailey Benedict (Fish & Richardson P.C.)
TOPIC: IP Cases in the Texas Business Courts

Meg Boulware (Boulware & Valoir)
TOPIC: How to Address AI in Contracts

Jennifer Carnahan (The Dow Chemical Company), Thomas Rooney (Halliburton), and Joseph Cleveland, Jr., Moderator (Brackett & Ellis, P.C.)
TOPIC: Trade Secret Protection

Michelle Eber (West U Capital)
TOPIC: Litigation Funding

Sparkle Ellison (LyondellBasell) and Valerie Moore (Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP)
TOPIC: How to Prosecute under the New PTO Guidelines

Kyle Friesen (Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P.)
TOPIC: PTAB Update

Michael Hawes (Baker Botts L.L.P.)
TOPIC: Patent Law Update – Part 1

Phil Jeffrey (Michael Buck IP)
TOPIC: How to Draft Patents across Borders

Peter J. Karol (Suffolk University Law School)
TOPIC: Copyright Update

Tiffany Lewis (StoneTurn)
TOPIC: IP Damages

Leisa Talbert Peschel (Jackson Walker LLP)
TOPIC: Sanctions and Attorneys Fee in IP Cases

Catherine Rifai (Munck Wilson Mandala)
TOPIC: Trademark Law Update

Steven Spears (Munck Wilson Mandala)
TOPIC: Patent Law Update – Part 2

Matt Todd (Polsinelli PC)
TOPIC: Copyright and Ethical Issues in AI Litigation

George Webb (Rice University)
TOPIC: Ethics Pentathlon

2025 FALL IP INSTITUTE
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

     ̶   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.

SPONSORS

Last updated on March 18, 2025