Scott Sisun Brought Alt Legal to Students at New York Law School’s USPTO Trademark Clinic

Scott Sisun is the founder of Sisun Law, a full-service IP law firm in New York City, and a former USPTO trademark examining attorney. Scott is also an adjunct professor of trademarks with New York Law School’s USPTO Trademark Clinic where he and his co-adjunct professor Annmary Ittan teach trademark fundamentals and trademark prosecution. The NYLS USPTO Trademark Clinic is part lecture and part hands-on representation of pro bono trademark clients seeking registration of trademarks before the USPTO.

NYLS trademark clinic students are taught the fundamentals of trademark law in a participatory classroom environment where questions are highly encouraged. In addition to the weekly classes, Scott and Annmary conduct weekly breakout calls with each “team” of students. The students are provided instruction on organizing and managing portfolios, handling proper communications with clients, preparing and filing USPTO responses, and many other facets of the trademark prosecution process.

When Scott began as a co-adjunct professor at NYLS in the fall of 2022, one of his first orders of business was to adopt a trademark docketing system for the clinic. Previously, students were using spreadsheets and other documents to track deadlines. Scott was already familiar with Alt Legal IP Docketing Software, having used it since setting up his practice in 2016. He knew that it was a high-quality, reliable IP docketing system, and he was even more convinced that it was the right choice for the clinic when he heard about Alt Legal’s free access program for law school clinics. Scott reached out to Alt Legal’s team and was able to quickly and seamlessly migrate all of NYLS’ USPTO Trademark Clinic’s existing trademark portfolio.

For Scott and thousands of our other customers, they know that a trademark docketing system is essential to running an effective and growing trademark practice. This was one of the reasons that Scott believed that it was essential for the clinic to have a docketing system as well: “If students do not understand docketing software, they are missing out on a key part of the trademark practitioner process. IP docketing software helps them to properly manage trademark applications and understand when deadlines are coming up.”

Additionally, Scott noted that trademark docketing software can help students learn key terminology and meaning surrounding the USPTO process.  Scott reports that student usage and feedback with Alt Legal has been positive.  Next year, the NYLS USPTO Trademark Clinic will continue to use Alt Legal for docketing and Scott is confident they will have the same positive experience that this year’s students had.

We asked Scott for some advice for the next generation of law students seeking a career in trademark law:

“For students interested in trademark law, it’s important not to get discouraged if some of your early jobs are only 10% trademark-oriented because eventually you can build up that experience to where you are hopefully primarily working on trademarks as part of your practice.”

If you are a law student and looking to pursue a career in trademark law, be sure to check out our article about how to shape your law school career to achieve this goal. Also, here are a few other articles from the Alt Legal Blog that will help you get started in IP law:

• Starting a Solo IP Practice
• Trademark Docketing Software Tools for Managing Your Law Firm
• Tips for Building Your Law Firm Technology Stack

Get Free Access to Alt Legal at Your Law School Trademark Clinic

Alt Legal is pleased to introduce law students and educators to Alt Legal IP Docketing Software at no-cost. We’ll provide complimentary training at any time and we are happy to introduce law students to the Alt Legal Community so that they can build their networks. If you are interested in learning more about Alt Legal for your law school clinic and would like to sign up click here.