Intro to Intellectual Property Law (Wagner)
Meeting Times/Location
MW 3:00PM - 4:20PM
Gittis Hall 214
Category
First-Year
Credits
3.0
Can you trademark red shoe soles? Can you really get a patent on a rectangular cell phone shape? Do artists and musicians need over a century of copyright protection for their works? These are questions that Congress and the courts have addressed in recent years and we will, too.
Touching on most areas of commercial and artistic activity, Intellectual Property Law and Policy is increasingly becoming an essential component of a modern legal education. In the course students will be introduced to a broad overview of copyright, patent, trademark and trade secret law. The focus is on learning some of the seminal cases in each area, while also considering the policy implications of the law as it stands.
This is a course both for those who know they want to do IP and those who know they don’t: It provides the essential background for those who want to take some of the large number of upper level courses the law school offers in IP. But it’s also a brief (1 course) and fun way to learn about a lot of very dynamic areas of the law, even if you never take another course in the subject. While it is a 1L elective, students from all years are strongly encouraged to enroll.
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.
Textbooks
"Intellectual Property & the New Technological Age: Volume I" by Merges, Menell, Lemley, Balganesh |