Womble Bond Dickinson HBCU Succeed Event at Prairie View A&M Addresses IP & Entrepreneurship Issues

PRAIRIE VIEW, TEXAS—Womble Bond Dickinson’s latest HBCU Succeed event took place Feb. 10 in conjunction with Prairie View A&M University.

The focus of the successful event was an intellectual property clinic for Prairie View faculty members, particularly discussing issues related to technology transfers, commercialization of IP, and entrepreneurship. 

Womble Bond Dickinson attorney Karthika Perumal, Ph.D., WBD Director of Development & Diversity Victoria Taylor, former firm attorney Kurt McWilliams, and former firm patent agent Brandon Hudder led the session.  

Prairie View Vice President for Research & Innovation Dr. Magesh Rajan, ICEED (Innovation Commercialization Entrepreneurship and Economic Development) Center Executive Director Bobby Melvin and ICEED Program Specialist Stephanie Garner worked with the WBD team in developing the program.

Perumal said, “We were excited to host this inaugural IP pro bono clinic in collaboration with Bobby and Stephanie at PVAMU’s ICEED Center. During our time there, we were able to address a variety of IP questions, ranging from patenting of chemicals, assignment of rights to a LLC, and copyrights to certain blues music.”

This ICEED Center is focused on innovation and commercialization of PVAMU technologies, along with supporting entrepreneurship at the student, faculty, and staff levels.

HBCU Succeed, a program initiated by Womble Bond Dickinson, is designed to provide students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities with high quality professional development programming, meaningful networking platforms and robust mentorship and sponsorship opportunities to help them succeed in their career goals. The program began in 2021 with a virtual event for North Carolina Central University students.