Sterne Kessler’s pro bono practice aims to help empower disenfranchised and impoverished communities to promote and protect their intellectual property assets.
Just over a decade ago, under the vision and leadership of Director Jorge A. Goldstein, Ph.D., Sterne Kessler launched the intellectual property and human rights pro bono practice to focus on the interplay of intellectual property principles and human rights.
The core work of our pro bono practice aims to help empower disenfranchised and impoverished communities seeking to promote and protect their intellectual property assets by integrating legal concepts from the areas of IP law with economic, social and cultural human rights. To protect these rights, our practice:
- Improves fair access to patent rights for technological developments in impoverished areas of the world
- Patents and then leverages indigenous knowledge, such as in the use of rainforest plants or creative agricultural techniques
- Uses other IP rights, such as trademarks or licenses, to assist disenfranchised groups in developing viable income streams
- In developing IP based natural genetic resources, works closely under the guidelines of the Convention for Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit sharing for indigenous communities
Leadership
Related Professionals
- Jaume M. Canaves, Ph.D. Counsel
- Brian M. Dudley, Ph.D. Counsel
- Ivy Clarice Estoesta Director
- Jorge A. Goldstein, Ph.D. Director
- Joshua G. McCoy Counsel
The D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center transforms lives by providing free legal assistance to individuals, nonprofit organizations and small businesses through volunteer lawyers.
The Cardozo Patent Diversity Project at Cardozo Law aims to increase the number of U.S. patents issued to women and inventors of color.
The Legal Aid Justice Center partners with communities and clients to fight for racial, social, and economic justice by dismantling systems that create and perpetuate poverty.
Through Sterne Kessler’s pro bono program, the firm has assisted many deserving organizations and underserved communities — both locally and internationally.
The follow is a list of representative matters our team has supported:
- Legal Aid Justice Center– succeeded in a pro bono petition for habeas corpus to free our detained client, an unaccompanied minor from Guatemala, and reunite him with his uncle in another state.
- Union for Ethical BioTrade– helped develop IP policy for our client UEBT, an organization that promotes the conservation of biodiversity through ethical sourcing practices
- A member of the Monacan Tribe of Virginia– prepared and filed patent applications on novel feeding and growing techniques useful in the hydroponic industry
- Ecoflora Cares– prepared and prosecuted several applications on the use of a blue colored rainforest fruit from Colombia as a source of edible colorants for the food industry
- Independent Inventors Conference – provided volunteer inventor assistance through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) sponsored program
- Discovery Creek Children’s Museum of Washington – secured trademark protection
- Operation Second Chance– secured trademark protection
- National Working Group on Maca – protecting indigenous Peruvians from biopiracy
The clients served by our pro bono practice are impoverished and disenfranchised individuals and organizations that have extremely limited or no access to legal counsel and do not have the financial means to hire an attorney.
The majority of our pro bono clients come to the firm via referral from one of our organization partners. We strongly encourage individuals interested in securing pro bono counsel to contact our partners for assistance with the application process. However, those who meet the criteria above may submit information to our pro bono team specifically for potential intellectual property support by completing this brief form.