Professor Sarah Tran

Patent Powers will be published in Harvard Journal of Law and Technology; Expediting Innovation accepted by Harvard Environmental Law Review; Policy Tailors and the Patent Office set for publication in U.C. Davis Law Review; Administrative Law, Patents, and Distorted Rules will appear in George Washington Law Review

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Assistant Professor Sarah Tran focuses her research on regulatory structures that promote innovation and sustainable development. She is a frequent speaker on environmental/energy, patent, administrative, and property law issues.
 
Recent scholarship by Professor Tran includes:
 

• Patent Powers provides the first comprehensive analysis of how recent patent reforms transform the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s authority as well as the power dynamic between the courts and the Agency.

• Expediting Innovation analyzes the role of the Patent Office in promoting the innovation and commercialization of high-priority technologies, and concludes that the agency’s recent implementation of a program that purports to fast track the review of applications pertaining to environmentally-beneficial technologies provides a useful, albeit imperfect, model for future regulatory efforts.

• Policy Tailors and the Patent Office addresses the theoretical and normative challenges of creating tailored regulatory policies in the U.S. patent system and suggests ways through which the Patent Office can become an effective policy tailor.

• Administrative Law, Patents, and Distorted Rules critiques the traditional relationship between the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Law students assist Professor Tran with online publishing

Professor Sarah Tran has also published over twenty entries on The Written Description blog, a nationally-respected blog featuring reviews of recent scholarship on patent law, IP theory, and innovation. Two second-year evening students, Bryan Parrish and Derik Sanders, have assisted her in drafting posts on a regular basis. Former SMU law students who helped with the blog include Brandi Doyle, Craig Carpenter, and Randall Beane.