Strategies in Intellectual Property Law LAW 309

Description

This course is one of the three ways in which students participating in the Intellectual Property certificate Program can satisfy the requirement of a Capstone Experience. (The Capstone Experience requirement may also be satisfied by participation in the Intellectual Property Law - Patent Clinic, or the completion of an Intellectual Property Externship). The course may be taken only by J.D. students enrolled in the Intellectual Property Certificate Program. It is intended to be taken in the last year of legal studies. This is a problem-solving course that will bring together learning from different intellectual property courses and from non-intellectual property courses, bringing home the inter-relationships between different bodies of law and asking students to apply that knowledge to a concrete problem faced by a fictional client. The course will be taught by several faculty members. During some class meetings, the class will meet as a group. Between these "team" meetings, the class will break into smaller groups (of approximately 8-12 students). These smaller groups will work with teams of two faculty in researching and discussing particular parts of the overall problem, will make oral reports to other members of the small group, and after the small group decides on the appropriate strategy will make oral and brief written reports to the entire class. The entire class will then discuss how best to advise the client to proceed and how best to effectuate the social and commercial objectives of the client. The course is intended to allow students to develop an appreciation of the contexts in which intellectual property problems arise, how to apply knowledge developed in intellectual property and other courses to a concrete problem, the considerations (legal and non-legal) that guide how lawyers approach those problems, and the real-life dynamics that affect the practice of intellectual property law. The class will be graded on a pass/fail basis, based upon performance in class (both when the entire class is present and in small groups) and based upon oral and written presentations. (added 11/03)

Schedule