The Santa Clara Computer & High Technology Law Journal today announced the winners of its annual comment contest, sponsored by Pillsbury Winthrop LLP. This year’s competition featured a record number of submissions from law students nationwide. A team of 24 attorneys from many of the nation’s leading intellectual property law firms comprised the review panel of judges for the contest. Based on the review panel’s determinations, the winners of the contest are as follows in order of placement:

First Place (awarded prize: $2,000):  
Comment Title: “The Test of Primary Cloning: A New Approach to the Written Description Requirement in Biotechnological Patents.” 
Author: Jennifer L. Davis, Santa Clara University School of Law

Second Place (awarded prize: $1,500):  
Comment Title: “A Parody of Distinction: The Ninth Circuit’s Conflicted Differentiation Between Parody and Satire.” 
Author: Christopher Brown, University of Cincinnati College of Law

Third Place (awarded prize: $1,000):  
Comment Title: “Almost Private: Pen Registers, Packet Sniffers, and Privacy at the Margin.”
Author: David McPhie, Harvard Law School

“As one of the oldest student-published intellectual property law journals, we are proud to be able to hold this writing contest each year,” said Nikki Pope, Senior Comments Editor of the Journal.  “We believe it is important to encourage scholarly writing in future generations of lawyers and Pillsbury Winthrop’s generous support allows us to award what we believe are the highest cash prizes for a law journal writing contest.”

“We are honored to support the Santa Clara Computer & High Technology Law Journal’s annual comment contest,” said Davina Kaile, managing partner of Pillsbury Winthrop’s Silicon Valley office. “Our firm enthusiastically endorses the Journal’s efforts to encourage scholarly research and writing from future attorneys.”

The first place winning comment will be published in the upcoming second issue of Volume 20, scheduled for publication in December 2003. The other winning comments will be considered for publication in future issues of the Journal.

About The Journal:
The Santa Clara Computer & High Technology Law Journal is an independent scholarly legal publication founded and managed by the students of Santa Clara University School of Law. Since its inception in 1984, the Journal has achieved national and international circulation and recognition as a leading forum for multidisciplinary discourse on emerging issues at the juncture of technology, the law and public policy. The Journal’s subscribers include leading law libraries, law firms and corporations worldwide. A significant number of federal courts and state supreme courts are also regular subscribers to the Journal, including the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Additional information about the Journal is available at
www.scu.edu/techlaw.

Contributed by: Santa Clara Computer & High Technology Law Journal