About the New Jersey Intellectual Property Law Association

The protection of intellectual property including patents, trade secrets, trademarks, and copyrights is essential to the progress and promotion of the useful arts. The New Jersey Intellectual Property Law Association (NJIPLA) is devoted to educating its members and the public about intellectual property and its protection under the law. NJIPLA includes hundreds of practicing intellectual property attorneys, patent agents, law students, and interested individuals primarily from New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.

As an accredited CLE provider, NJIPLA presents and co-sponsors several events each year with nationally-recognized guest speakers, including breakfast/dinner meetings as well as half-day seminars. Our popular half-day programs include the Patent Litigation Seminar, typically held in March; the Pharmaceutical / Chemical Patent Practice Update, usually held in late fall; the Electronics, Telecom and Software Patent Practice Update Seminar, also held in the fall; and a biennial live Ethics seminar usually held in December. In April, we co-sponsor the full-day Joint Patent Practice Seminar with CIPLA, NYIPLA and PIPLA. We also co-sponsor CLE events with other associations, such as the 2016 joint NJIPLA-NYIPLA Ethics in IP seminar. We also sponsor IP events at New Jersey law schools. Our events are valuable not only for their educational opportunities, but also for fostering a sense of community among our membership, as we often include lunch and/or networking with our CLE programs.

In addition to presenting CLE events, each year NJIPLA honors a person for exceptional contributions to the field of intellectual property law at the Jefferson Medal Dinner, which is held in early June. The Jefferson Medal, awarded by NJIPLA since 1951, is named after Thomas Jefferson, who was an original member of the United States Patent Board, which was founded in 1790 and was the predecessor to today’s United States Patent and Trademark Office. A list of NJIPLA Jefferson Medalists may be found here.

We invite new members to join NJIPLA here and to participate in the numerous and rewarding activities of NJIPLA. If you have a question about NJIPLA or any NJIPLA event please contact one of our current officers listed here.