Legislation and Innovation – San Francisco & San Jose
ChIPs launched the Shadow Program pilot in June 2016 in the San Francisco Bay Area in collaboration with the United States District Court for the Northern District of California and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
This program program combined two front-line perspectives on the law: the local civil courtroom, and the field office of the USPTO. Nineteen high school and junior high school girls began the program with a crash course in legal procedure from Professor Shashi Deb of UC Hastings College of the Law and ChIPs’ own Mallun Yen. Then, the girls visited and observed the courtroom proceedings of Judge Lucy Koh of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Judge Koh and an array of women courtroom professionals—prosecutor, public defender, probation officer, and marshalls—shared their expert individual perspectives on the civil system and on opportunities for women throughout the legal profession.
Then, the girls visited the USPTO’s brand-new Silicon Valley Headquarters, part of the impressive City Hall complex in San Jose. They learned how inventors protect innovations, and encourage participants to be future inventors. The PTO’s Regional Outreach Officer Ken Takeda, Administrative Patent Judge Crista Zado, and Patent Examiner Susan Su, generously offered the girls a full perspective on the importance of IP in daily life.