Tulane, Southern law clinics offer entrepreneurs intellectual property help

""We get questions all the time about, 'Can you help me with my patent?' But we couldn't until we got certification," said Elizabeth Townsend Gard, a Tulane Law School faculty member and co-director of the Tulane Center for IP, Media & Culture.

Townsend Gard said in each of the past three years, her intellectual property class has done about 100 trademark searches for people.

"We really recognize that there is a need in the city, that there aren't a lot of places for people to turn to get pro bono patent and trademark help …. That's why we wanted to do both," she said."