Honorable William Conner Writing Competition

The Honorable William Conner Writing Competition was established to recognize exceptionally written papers that are submitted by law students and is presented each year at the Annual Meeting and Awards Dinner.

For the Conner Writing Competition submission requirements, see below. The Winner will receive a cash award of $2,500.00 and the Runner-up will receive a cash award of $1,500.00. The deadline is March 3, 2024.

The New York Intellectual Property Law Association created a writing competition for law students and appropriately named it “The William C. Conner Intellectual Property Law Writing Competition”, after the Honorable William C. Conner, who was a former president of the NYIPLA. In recognition of his significant contributions to the field of Intellectual Property, in 1992 the Association established this competition in his name.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS AND RULES FOR THE HONORABLE WILLIAM C. CONNER INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW WRITING COMPETITION

All entrants must be law school students currently enrolled in a J.D. or LL.M. program (day or evening) in an accredited law school in the United States with an expected graduation date after March 3, 2024.

An entry must be directed to any of the following subject areas of intellectual property, i.e., patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and unfair trade practices, as well as antitrust and data security/privacy issues to the extent they relate to intellectual property.

All entries must be submitted by March 3, 2024, to: NYIPLA Executive Office, Tel: (201) 461-6603,  admin@nyipla.org

Entries must be submitted by email. They must be in “PDF” format, formatted as double-spaced text (except for headings, text in footnotes, or block quotes, which may be single-spaced) on 8 ½ x 11-inch paper (paper orientation: portrait) with at least one-inch margins on all sides, in  12-point or larger font, with all citations in footnotes. Footnotes must be in 10-point or larger font. Please include a cover page with the title of the paper and the entrant’s name and school. Please do not include the entrant’s name and school on any other page of the submission. There is a twenty (20) page maximum limit for all entries, including footnotes, but excluding the cover page or table of contents. Entries that exceed this limit, or otherwise do not conform with these specifications, will not be considered.

Entries must be the original creation of the author and must not include content generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI) or created by any third party.

Entries will be judged on interest and suitability of topic for publication by NYIPLA, organization, legal analysis, writing, and professionalism of the work product. A grading rubric is available upon request. The top papers will be submitted to the Board of the NYIPLA for evaluation and determination of a winner and runner-up.

The winner will receive a cash award of $2,500.00 and a plaque at the NYIPLA Annual Meeting and Dinner to be held in New York City on May 8, 2024 at the Union League Club in New York City. The runner-up will receive a cash award of $1,500.00 and a plaque at the Annual Meeting and Dinner. The winning paper will be considered for publication by the NYIPLA. The winner and runner-up are invited and encouraged to attend the Annual Meeting and Dinner.

Entries previously submitted for consideration for publication or published in scholarly journals will be accepted, but publication by NYIPLA must be permitted.

All contestants who provide entries that meet the requirements and rules above and which exceed 15 pages (excluding any cover page and table of contents) will be provided a complimentary one-year student membership to the NYIPLA, commencing on May 1, 2024