Penn State to open Intellectual Property Clinic

Penn State Law is tentatively scheduled to open the Intellectual Property Clinic in the fall.

The clinic, which is still in a developmental phase, will provide counseling with respect to whether certain inventions are eligible for patent protection, the protection of trade secrets and the registration of trademarks and copyrights.

Catherine Kurtz Gowen, a patent attorney with 25 years of experience, recently joined the Penn State Law faculty to direct the IPC. She served 22 years as patent counsel at Johnson & Johnson, providing IP counseling to affiliate companies in the pharmaceutical, diagnostic and biotechnology businesses.

Gowen will guide law students who will provide legal counsel to clients on intellectual property issues.

Students in the clinic will work with those in the Penn State Law Entrepreneur Assistance Clinic, which launched in the fall of 2015 under the direction of Tom Sharbaugh. The clinics, according to the university, are expected to play a large role in Invent Penn State, a $30 million economic development initiative aimed at turning ideas at Penn State into business ventures. The university sees clinics like the IPC as a key component of the initiative.

Reading partners

Schlow Centre Region Library installed a remote book return in Ferguson Township.

The book return is at Clearfield Bank and Trust, located at 511 Pine Grove Road. The library installed the remote book return to enable quicker, more accessible drop-offs of books and other materials like DVDs and magazines.

There are six other remote book returns, located in Brother’s Pizza in Stormstown, Giant on North Atherton, in Nittany Mall near Holiday Hair, Uni-Mart at Carson’s Corner and the Weis on South Atherton.

Each remote book return is accessible 24 hours a day except for the Nittany Mall and Weis locations.

The location of the newest book return was selected after an analysis of input from residents and mapping library card holders in the region.

“Clearfield Bank and Trust is very happy to partner with the Schlow Centre Region Library by installing a book drop box at our Pine Grove Mills office,” CBT manager James Kane said. “It is our hope that this new drop off location will help improve the ease and convenience of using the library for the residents of Ferguson Township.”

Mortgage lender settles

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane’s Bureau of Consumer Protection recently announced a $470 million joint state and federal settlement with mortgage lender and servicer HSBC North America.

“The settlement resolves potential violations of civil law based on HSBC’s deficient mortgage loan origination and servicing activities as well as its alleged foreclosure abuses,” a release said.

The settlement provides payment to Pennsylvania borrowers for foreclosure abuses by HSBC.

About 2,400 Pennsylvanians will be eligible for direct payments. They will be contacted about how to qualify for payments.

HSBC is required by the settlement to provide certain Pennsylvania borrowers with loan modifications, including principal reductions and refinancing for underwater mortgages.

The company must also change its mortgage loan servicing and foreclosure handling practices as a means to prevent abuses like robo-signing, improper documentation and lost paperwork.

This story was originally published February 13, 2016 at 12:50 AM with the headline "Penn State to open Intellectual Property Clinic."