“Rachel Geiger is part of the Tech Edge JD program at SCU Law and will be working as a patent examiner at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO),” Victoria Espinel, ChIPs board member and President and CEO of BSA | The Software Alliance, said. “As a ChIPs student chapter leader, she has shown a strong commitment to the advancement of women in intellectual property.”

Rachel Geiger is starting a new position at the United States Patent and Trademark Office as a patent examiner in the Biomedical Engineering Art unit. Rachael began her career as an engineer in the medical device industry, but quickly discovered that she had a passion for patent prosecution. During the end of her master’s degree program, Rachael decided to go to law school and accepted a position as a technical advisor at a law firm. During her second year of law school, Geiger took and passed the patent bar. 

 Geiger is currently attending Santa Clara University in the Tech Edge Program. During her first year, she joined the ChIPs board as a 1L Representative. Rachael has a passion for encouraging and equipping women and girls to enter STEM career fields and aims to advocate for equal treatment in the workplace.

 Geiger and her husband welcomed their first baby, a baby girl, on October 19, 2021. Rachael’s passion for mentoring young women to enter STEM fields has only grown as she strives to promote an industry that her daughter would be welcomed into. 

“I am honored and humbled to receive this scholarship and grateful to ChIPs for lessening the financial burden placed on my family,” Geiger said. “This scholarship will not only enable me to finish my law degree but will also allow me to be present in my daughter’s life, a privilege that not many mothers have.”

“Rachael exemplifies the saying often attributed to Ben Franklin, ‘If you want something done, ask a busy person.’ She was one of the first part-time students we admitted into Santa Clara Law’s Tech Edge JD program, a skills-based certificate program that prepares law students for careers in technology law. The Tech Edge JD requires students to obtain skill milestones, often in extracurriculars and work experience beyond the law school curriculum. She is successfully navigating those extra requirements on top of her coursework, a job as a patent agent, and new motherhood, all with kindness and grace,” Laura Lee Norris, Associate Clinical Professor, Incoming Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Director, Entrepreneurs’ Law Clinic and Tech Edge J.D. Program at Santa Clara University School of Law said.

ChIPs board member Stephanie Burns, SVP and General Counsel at Sony Interactive Entertainment, said “as a leader and founder of multiple intellectual property associations, the entire selection committee agreed Niki Camateros-Mann demonstrated a unique commitment to diversity in the field of IP law. During the next academic year, she will be the managing editor and member of the first all-women editorial board on  IDEA: The Law Review of the Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectual Property. She also demonstrated a strong IP interest, having worked in multiple IP positions while in law school.”

Niki Camateros-Mann earned a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences with a minor in Science, Engineering, and Law from Virginia Tech in 2015 and is now entering her third year of law school at the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law. Camateros-Mann discovered patent law during her undergraduate research on micro-therapeutics and sustainable biomaterials. This summer, Camateros-Mann will be working in patent prosecution and patent litigation at Lerner David in the New York City area. 

 Hoping to inspire the student body to celebrate diversity, Camateros-Mann organized a series of diversity events for the intellectual property (IP) community at her law school. Along with two other women, she started an annual Women in IP Celebration, which begins with a panel from female leaders in the IP field and concludes with a networking session to connect students with IP professionals. In her role as the president of the Student Intellectual Property Law Association, she additionally co-hosted a panel on the intersection between race and IP titled Black Voices in IP and a fireside chat with a professor on her research on the lack of gender and race equity in publications and invention disclosures.

 “I am incredibly honored to receive this award,” Camateros-Mann said. “It will help me build a community for women in the patent field as I continue to learn from the empowering leaders in the field, including from the ChIPs membership.”

“Niki Camateros-Mann is an exemplary student and leader at UNH Law. Her passion for intellectual property and her keen legal intelligence set her apart as a law student and future attorney. We are so proud that she has won this award, which also aligns with her record of advocacy and community building. Congratulations, Niki!” Tiffany C. Li, technology attorney, legal scholar, and Assistant Professor of Law at University of New Hampshire School of Law said.