Foreword

• Author: Joseph M. Potenza - Christopher J. Renk - Thomas K. Pratt - Erik S. Maurer
• Pages: iii-iii

As trials become less common today, the need for teaching and enhancing trial skills increases. These course

materials are the result of the authors’ nearly twenty years of teaching an advanced course in trial practice

geared specifically to a patent infringement trial. They had their genesis in a project for the American Bar

Association and National Institute for Trial Advocacy as a program for practing lawyers; they were refined

specifically for undergraduate students at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C. and later at

Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago, Illinois. The authors have now taught the course to more

than a hundred law students in small, NITA-style classes. Every aspect of these materials is focused on improving

students’ proficiency in one event: the trial of a patent case.

The authors are grateful for the contributions made over the years by the students themselves, who have

shown remarkable ingenuity and creativity in finding new dimensions to the problems presented here. As

patent law has evolved, most particularly through the introduction of the Markman practice, so have the problems,

lectures, and course materials.

Each year we experience the joy of watching our students’ skills in trial presentation improve, week by

week. We now not only see students during the course of the semester, but we also see them practice their skills

as opposing counsel in real-world litigation. Watching this development is what makes the course fun for the

teachers, if not always for the students.

We are grateful for the opportunity to teach this course year after year, to present these revised materials

for publication, and most of all to meet and work with the many young professionals who make this labor of

love so rewarding.

We are indebted to our partner, Christopher Roth, for his thoughtful comments and assistance with this

edition.

This Patent Trial Advocacy Casebook, as with the previous edition, is dedicated to Mark T. Banner—our

deceased partner, friend, and fellow-teacher. Mark was an inspirational and extraordinary individual: attorney,

educator, astute tactician, and patent litigator.

Joseph M. Potenza

Christopher J. Renk

Thomas K. Pratt

Erik S. Maurer

Foreword

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