I am very sad to report that Sarah Tran, a professor at SMU’s Dedman School of Law, passed away on February 28th from complications from leukemia. She was 34 years old.
Sarah was an important patent scholar, as detailed here in a recent Patently-O blog post and was a very dedicated teacher, even while battling her illness.
Significantly for readers of this blog, Sarah was among the first (and few) patent scholars to analyze and critique the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Green Technology Pilot Program, calling for the program to be made either long-term or permanent (see her article, Expediting Innovation, here and my post on an early draft here).
In addition, with Peter Menell, Sarah co-edited a compilation on the interplay of intellectual property, innovation and environmental protection entitled Intellectual Property, Innovation, and the Environment, which comes out later this month in the United States.
On a personal note, I had the pleasure of meeting Sarah and her family when I was in Dallas for a conference a couple of years ago. Â As I branched out to academic writing and publishing, Sarah was very encouraging and provided valuable advice.
I was glad to have had the opportunity to help her a little bit by recording a guest lecture for one of her classes when she was in the hospital last year.
This is a huge loss for everyone who knew her both personally and professionally; she will be deeply missed (see more on her life here).
Sarah’s family has asked that you consider making a contribution to the fund created to support her two young children, the Tran Children Development Fund.
