The University of St. Thomas School of Law’s intellectual property (IP) competition teams were in the national spotlight this year, earning top honors against schools from across the country and continuing a history of team successes.
“We are extremely proud of our IP moot court teams,” said Dan Kelly, dean and Mengler Chair in Law. “Not only for their accomplishments this year, but because of the practical skills and knowledge they have gained that they will take with them into their legal careers. Congratulations to all of the students and their coaches.”
Patent Drafting Team
St. Thomas Law students earned second place this spring in the 2025 United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) National Patent Application Drafting Competition. The competition gives law students an opportunity to develop skills by conducting patent searches and drafting claims for a hypothetical invention scenario. During the competition, students present their search strategy along with proposed claims before a panel of judges for evaluation.
This year’s team included 3L Eric Osborn, 2L Sabrina Estes-Possia and 2L Alec Singer. They were coached by Darnell Cage, an associate at Faegre Drinker, and Jessica Gutierrez, a partner at Robins Kaplan LLP. Both have coached the team since it was launched in 2020.
After placing first at the southwest regional competition in March, the team was one of just five to advance to the national competition, which was held at the USPTO headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, this past April.
"The judges and USPTO reviewers commended the team’s strong thought process, technical drafting skills and professionalism," said Cage and Gutierrez.
Giles Sutherland Rich IP Moot Court Team
Through intellectual property moot court competitions, participants research a problem, write at least one appellate brief and present an oral argument before panels of judges. The season consists of state, regional and national competitions.
At the annual Minnesota IP Law Association (MIPLA) moot court competition in March, the team of 3L Prashant Godishala and 2L Matthew Siegler took second place, while the team of 2L Nate Iliff and 3L Eva Stromgren took first place – claiming the MIPLA Cup trophy for St. Thomas for the second year in a row. St. Thomas also won in 2021 and 2022.
The MIPLA competition is an event for students at Minnesota's three law schools who are registered to compete in the American IP Law Association's (AIPLA) Giles Sutherland Rich Memorial Moot Court Midwest competition.
Both St. Thomas teams competed at the regional event, which was held in Chicago, Illinois. Iliff and Stromgren had the second-highest scoring brief at the competition and advanced as far as the semifinal round. Godishala and Siegler placed second at the competition and had the highest scoring brief, which earned them the opportunity to move on to nationals.
At the national competition in Washington, D.C., Godishala and Siegler made it to the semifinal round, finishing among the top four teams. Just 10 teams from across the country advance to the national competition. St. Thomas Law has had an IP moot court team advance in seven of the last eight years.
The IP moot court team was coached by alumnae Kiersten Idzorek ’20 J.D., an attorney at Pauly, DeVries Smith & Deffner, LLC, and Natalie Thomas ’22 J.D., an attorney at Bassford Remele.
“We are incredibly proud of our moot court team’s exceptional performance,” said Idzorek. “Their success reflects not only their hard work and talent, but also the tremendous support from our legal community and the University of St. Thomas School of Law. Every year it takes a village, and we are grateful to be part of such a strong and supportive one.”
