The Patent & Trademark Clinic

The Thomas Jefferson School of Law Patent & Trademark clinic provides legal assistance to lower-income individuals, businesses, and organizations in San Diego County with prosecuting a patent application or registering a trademark with the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO). Thomas Jefferson School of Law was the first law school in California with both a Patent and Trademark clinic affiliated with the USPTO’s Law School Clinic Certification Program.

The clinic’s goal is to enable inventors and entrepreneurs who would otherwise be unable to afford intellectual property legal services to obtain the benefits that would otherwise be available only to those with significant financing.  

To seek clinic services a potential client should have an existing invention, an existing business, or a well-developed business plan. Because the clinic serves as a training ground for law students, clients must be willing to work with law students and accept the delays inherent in an academic calendar. 

Because clinic clients must pay all filing fees, potential clients are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the USPTO administrative fee structure for Patents or Trademarks, as appropriate, to ensure that they can afford these fees before engaging with the clinic.

The clinic is transactional and thus does not represent clients in court and represents clients only on a limited basis with appeals before the Patent & Trademark Office. The clinic provides services only to clients who have not yet filed a patent application or trademark registration.  

In order to qualify for representation, a potential client will be required to make financial disclosures on a Request for Services Form. It you have questions about eligibility or services offered please contact the clinic administrator at 619.961.4382 or mardagna@tjsl.edu

The Patent & Trademark Clinic provides patent legal assistance in the following areas:

• Patent & Trademark initial consultations to determine eligibility
• Patent searches to determine prior art in the field
• Trademark searches to determine availability
• Patent & Trademark applications (clients must cover all filing fees)
• Shepherding Patent & Trademark applications through the process of issuance