Lerner David LLP

Last week Lerner David hosted the 2026 Lerner David Patent Law Externship Program now in its fifth year. It was a great week welcoming Gia Carignan, Devon De Sanctis, Caroline Gu, Matthew Kocun, Owen Markowitz, Jess Malcolm, Jack Skapinetz and Harshini Yanamandra.

This week-long program provided college students—and recent graduates with technical backgrounds—an immersive introduction to intellectual property law. They attended interactive sessions led by firm partners covering key topics such as patent procurement, litigation, post-grant proceedings, licensing, opinions, and trademark law. In addition, they had one-on-one mentoring sessions with attorneys and partners. They enjoyed getting to know our attorneys each day at informal lunches. We hope they gained valuable personal guidance and professional development as well as a more thorough understanding of Intellectual Property Law from this program. We enjoyed having them!

To read more about the Externship program, click the link below:
https://www.lernerdavid.com/news-successes/news/lerner-david-welcomes-students-to-2026-patent-law-externship-program

Look who's talking! Natalie Richer spoke on AI Discovery Related Issues (including the discovery of AI prompts) at the 42nd Annual Joint Patent Practice Seminar: High Tech yesterday at the New York City Bar Association.

On this Design Patent Tuesday, we highlight National Yo-Yo Day which is celebrated on June 6th. June 6 is the birthday of yo-yo king Donald F. Duncan. Volk once worked for Duncan Toy Company as a talented yo-yo demonstrator from 1976-1978, touring the western part of the U.S. We celebrate this day to remember the iconic stringed toy that generations have enjoyed. The yo-yo is an object consisting of an axle connected to two disks and a length of string looped around the axle. You move a yo-yo by holding the free end of the string, allowing gravity or the force of a throw to spin the yo-yo and unwind the string, then allowing the yo-yo to wind itself back again. The activity is known as “yo-yoing.”

In June we celebrate Pride Month. This week we highlight Jack Thomas Andraka. As a high school student, Jack won the Gordon E. Moore Award at the 2012 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair with his method for detecting the early stages of pancreatic and other cancers. His method involves identifying an increase in a specific type of protein in the body using his novel filter-paper and nanotube-based sensor. This breakthrough process has a 90% accuracy rate and has astounded the scientific and pharmaceutical community. In 2018, as a junior majoring in anthropology and electrical engineering at Stanford University, he was awarded the Truman Scholarship for his graduate studies. Jack now holds multiple degrees from Stanford University. He has given more than 11 TEDx talks including the House of Parliament.”