Top Thirty Patent Law Programs (Ranked by Patently-O Hits!)

This post is silly, but still interesting. Below, I have listed a ranking of the top thirty law school patent programs based solely on the number of Patently-O* visits received from the associated university in the calendar year 2007. In theory, the number of hits has some correlation with the intensity of interest in patent law issues at the particular school. Of course, university computers represent only a small portion of the 2.8 million total hits received in 2007.

Rank	School	Relative Score
1	The George Washington University	100%
2	University of Texas at Austin	75%
3	DePaul University	74%
4	Columbia University	72%
5	University of Virginia	72%
6	University of California at Berkeley	61%
7	Harvard University	59%
8	University of Tennessee	54%
9	Cornell University	54%
10	Boston University	52%
11	Georgetown University	49%
12	New York University	47%
13	University of Houston	46%
14	Stanford University	45%
15	University of Missouri-Columbia	44%
16	Washington University	42%
17	University of Chicago	41%
18	University of Iowa	41%
19	Indiana University-Purdue University at Indy	39%
20	Suffolk University	38%
21	George Mason University	38%
22	University of Richmond	35%
23	University of Washington	33%
24	Northwestern University	29%
25	American University	29%
26	Indiana University	29%
27	University of Michigan	28%
28	Santa Clara University	25%
29	Ohio State University	24%
30	University of Minnesota	23%

There are many issues with this study. Here are a few: First, law school rankings are generally quite silly. Second, some schools may not use their name in their IP address — making them lose their ranking. This appears to be true of Franklin Pierce Law Center. Schools where students (and professors) primarily study away from campus building may also rank relatively lower.  Fourth, many of these hits come from the Technology Transfer office rather than the law school.

Up next… Top Thirty Procrastinating IP Law Firms based on number of Patently-O hits…