CLN: Detkin IP & Technology Clinic (Dahl)
Faculty
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| Cynthia Laury Dahl Practice Professor of Law, Detkin IP and Technology Legal Clinic dahl@law.upenn.edu |
Additional Information
Experiential CourseYes
Skills Training
Oral Presentations
Team Projects
Drafting Legal Documents
Other Professional Skills:
Grading
100% Other (There is no exam for this course, but students should expect to work through the end of exam period on their client work. Students are graded based upon criteria listed in the clinic manual, which measure the quality and effectiveness of client work (50%) and participation, quality and timeliness of seminar work (50%). )
No
Class meets in person.
Course Continuity
Students are encouraged to stay home if you are ill or experience flu-like symptoms. If you miss a class for any reason, it is still your responsibility to make up the work missed.
I offer the following to students who miss class due to illness:
- Class sessions are regularly recorded. If you are absent due to illness or some other unavoidable circumstance, email me and I can send you an email with instructions for accessing the recording for the class session(s) you missed.
- I will make PowerPoint slides or other class materials routinely available on the course site to everyone in the class.
Meeting Times/Location
MW 1:30PM - 2:50PM
Silverman Hall M28
Category
Clinics/Externships
Credits
7.0
This clinical course challenges students to practice law within the fields of business, science, technology and the arts as they take primary responsibility for live-client transactional IP cases. Working out of the Gittis Center, Penn Carey Law’s teaching law firm, students represent clients with a broad range of transactional patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, AI, data protection, and privacy issues. Recent clients include: an Hispanic arts center recording and streaming performances over the internet; a nonprofit developing educational TV programming for children in Haiti; a glass artisan specializing in upcycling; a university lab developing a sports drink to prevent TBI; a company finalizing its business model and market for a gene therapy reversing blindness; a company with VR technology starting to manufacture in China; an AI company disrupting care for seniors; a children's book author seeking to protect characters and develop branding; a Northern Ireland company with an app for neurodivergent children doing a deal with a US-based health platform; and a nonprofit supporting new immigrants to Philadelphia. The clients are specifically chosen to deepen student understanding of different IP law career topics. Clients vary by size, focus and industry to provide a rich experience for the class, and may include scientists, entrepreneurs, artists, and large and small for-profit and non-profit entities. A central client for the Clinic is the Penn Center for Innovation.
A simultaneous seminar provides a supportive and dynamic learning environment for students to develop and practice essential skills -- including interviewing, drafting, negotiating, and client counseling -- through simulations and exercises. The DIPTC also provides opportunities to interact with students from other professional schools and members of the Pennsylvania Bar formally and informally to deepen students’ professional understanding of how to be an effective counselor in business, technical and arts-oriented settings. Case rounds and weekly supervisory sessions with an experienced faculty-practitioner reinforce and expand concepts presented in cases and allow students to reflect upon and deepen their understanding of ethical, practical, and substantive issues.
Students need not have a scientific or technical interest or background to apply. However, because some of the clients may expose students to scientific or technical subject matter, registration to the DIPTC is by application to ensure a certain percentage of students with relevant expertise to handle those cases. This course assumes some familiarity with the legal subject matter, so students should have taken either Introduction to Intellectual Property or one or more of Patent Law, Copyright Law or Trademark Law. Students enrolled in joint or dual degrees or certificates in business or the sciences are especially encouraged to apply. The Clinic application is found at https://upenn.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bgxx7F6Ghqa17MO The deadline to apply is July 7, 2025 (you will receive either an invitation to join the DIPTC or information about your place on the wait list by July 9, 2025, well before course registration preferences are due). Because clients are chosen in part to match the interests of the students enrolled, once you accept a spot in the DIPTC, you may not drop the course. Enrolling in the DIPTC will meet a student's entire six credit experiential education requirement. Students may also apply their enrollment in the DIPTC toward their Penn Carey Law pro bono requirement, but they will receive one fewer credit for the DIPTC.
For any questions, contact Professor Cynthia Dahl at dahl@law.upenn.edu.
Business and Corporate Law Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of business and corporate law; Perform legal analysis in the context of business and corporate law; Communicate effectively on topics related to business and corporate law; Demonstrate an understanding of the interconnection between the world of business and finance and that of business and corporate law, and how they affect other areas of law and society.
Skills Learning outcomes: Demonstrate an understanding of the individual course skill; Demonstrate the ability to receive and implement feedback; Demonstrate an understanding of how and when the individual course skill is employed in practice.
Intellectual Property and Technology Law Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of intellectual property law; Perform legal analysis in the context of intellectual property law; Communicate effectively on topics related to intellectual property; Demonstrate an understanding of the interconnection between technology and intellectual property, and how they affect other areas of law and society.
Professional Responsibility and Ethics Learning outcomes: Demonstrate an understanding of how the law affects, and is affected by, the individual course topic; Perform legal analysis in the context of the individual course topic; Communicate effectively on the legal and other aspects of the individual course topic; Demonstrate the ability to use other disciplines to analyze legal issues relevant to the individual course topic, including economics, philosophy, and sociology, as appropriate.
Textbooks
"Essential Lawyering Skills: Interviewing, Counseling, Negotiation, and Persuasive Fact Analysis" by Stefan H. Krieger, Neumann Jr. |