Michael Fricklas (’84) and his wife, orthopedist Donna Astion (SAR’82), pledged $1 million to BU to endow scholarship and research funds at the School of Law as well as the College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences: Sargent College. Annually, prizes totaling $2,500 are awarded by the dean to one or more deserving students with a research interest in intellectual property and/or entertainment law.

Past Prize Recipients

• 2024: Jamiee Francis, “Re-Picturing Copyright Management Information Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act”
• 2023: Philip Dutko, “Bolstering THE Blockbuster: How AbbVie’s Humira Strategy Demonstrates Need for a Sea Change in Biosimilar Regulation”
• 2022: Erin Beaton, “Preempting Preemption: A New Approach to Subject Matter Eligibility Analysis” and Valene Mezmin, “Making the Right of Publicity More Accessible for Women, Minorities, and Non-Celebrities”
• 2021: Tamsin Kantor, “Is De Minimis Sampling of Recorded Music a Copyright Violation?”
• 2020: Rachael Walker, “Trademark: Promoting Competition or Protecting Goodwill”
• 2019: Sebastian Derian, “§ 285 Fee Shifting Post-Octane Fitness in the Right Kind of Cases”
• 2017: Deborah Hinck, “Judges, Juries, and Opinion Letters: The Halo Standard For Enhanced Damanges” and James Rickard, “Going Live: The Role of Automation in the Expeditious Removal of Online Content”