The Center for Technology, Innovation & Competition: Courses

Advanced Patent Law

This course is intended to be a vehicle for the advanced study of the U.S. Patent system, as well as an opportunity for students to engage in serious research and writing in this topical area. Subject matter covered in the course will encompass the major doctrinal and policy challenges faced by the patent system, including: trends and analysis of claim construction, the judicial doctrine of non-obviousness, recent supreme court decisions in patent law, current trends at the Federal Circuit, tactical and strategic considerations for patent litigation, the current controversy over patent "trolls," and hot topics in legislative patent reform. The course will make use of a variety of resources, including guest speakers, visits to court (assuming scheduling can be worked out), recent scholarship in patent law, recent caselaw from the Federal Circuit and Supreme Court, and statistical and data-oriented research. While there will be no book assigned for the course, reading will vary, and will be heavy at times. All students are expected to attend and participate in all class discussions and activities. The grading for the course will be based on course participation student performance on a series of three (approximately 10-page) essays during the term of the course. The first essay will be to write a 'bench memo' on a case currently pending at the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The second essay will report the results of the student's individual data-oriented research on some aspect of patent law or patent litigation. And the third essay will be a more theoretical discussion of a student-selected topic related to the future of the US Patent System. To enroll, students must have completed either Patent Law or Introduction to Intellectual Property.

Copyright

This course will focus on the protection of literary, musical and artistic works through copyright and related doctrines. Topics will include the concept and purposes of copyright (including a brief discussion of patents and trademarks), copyrightable subject matter, ownership of copyright, formalities, and rights, limitations, and remedies provided by copyright. There will be an in-class examination. Class participation will be taken into account in grading.

Copyright Theory Seminar (S)

This seminar will examine copyright law's theoretical foundations. Topics to be addressed include economic theories, Lockean theories, personality-based theories, democratic theories, and aesthetic theories of copyright. The historical backdrop of modern copyright law and the impact of constitutional law on copyright will also be explored.

Cybercrime Seminar (S)

This course will explore the legal issues that judges, legislators, and lawyers confront as they respond to the increase in Internet and computer-related crime. We will explore how crimes in cyberspace challenge traditional concepts of crime that developed to deal with crimes committed in physical space. We will also explore how the investigation and prosecution of crime in cyberspace are altered from the physical world models. Topics will include: an exploration whether paradigms of the physical world translate to the cyber world; computer hacking and computer viruses; child exploitation; on-line threats and on-line stalking; online economic espionage and intellectual property theft; the interaction of the laws of privacy (constitutional and other) and law enforcement efforts to gather evidence from computers and on the Internet; issues of federalism and national sovereignty in computer crime; and cyber terrorism.

Entrepreneurship Legal Clinic

This clinical course involves the direct representation of entrepreneurs, businesses, and social entrepreneurs from underserved communities. With the guidance and supervision of full-time faculty with significant transactional experience, students serve as the primary counsel to both for profit and non-profit clients on matters such as business structuring and formation, contract drafting and review, intellectual property, managing employees, negotiating with third parties, asset acquisitions and dispositions, business strategy, and regulatory requirements.

First Amendment in the 21st Century (S)

Discussion of the First Amendment's guarantees of freedom of speech, press and assembly during the second half of the twentieth century occupied a central place in the Supreme Court's practice of judicial review. As the century closed, the "information age" brought new urgency to some elements of the discussion, and threatens to transform others. This seminar will examine the development of the federal doctrines protecting freedom of expression, and the ways in which these doctrines are likely to occupy the courts in the next decade. Discussion will include problems of incitement and threats, conspiracy, compelled speech, anonymity, libel, obscenity, emotionally abusive speech, intellectual property, privacy, access to public fora, the internet and media structure.

Intellectual Property & National Economic Value Creation

This course will explore the legal structure of intellectual property laws in the United States and select foreign countries and the effect of these laws on the countries national economic development. In this process, we will explore the nature of the correlation between different types of intellectual property laws and national economic development. We will also discuss the quantification of the economic value of different types of intellectual property laws. Lastly, we will engage in a discussion as to whether intellectual property laws can be effective tools for social engineering.

Intellectual Property Transactions Seminar (S)

This seminar explores the commercialization of technology and intellectual property rights. Through case studies, class exercises, and a review of common and statutory law, this seminar offers students an overview of the theory and practice of intellectual property law and related transactions.

Intellectual Property: Trademarks

This course examines ways in which the manufacturer can establish and protect his /her identity and the identity of his/her product in the marketplace. Attention is directed to the various devices which can be used for this purpose, particular focus being given to trademarks and trade-names under the Lanham Act, common law and various state laws. Attention is also given to related areas of unfair competition, including such topics as false advertising.

Internet Law

This course will explore the various legal regimes that apply to the Internet. Topics will include FCC regulation of the Internet, network neutrality, voice over Internet protocol, backbone regulation, pornography, municipal broadband and the digital divide, ICANN, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, cybersquatting, the use of trademarks in domain names, file sharing, regulation of search engines, and privacy.

Introduction to Intellectual Property Law and Policy

This course starts from the premise that the law and policy of intellectual property is increasingly becoming an important component of a modern legal education. As such, the course will present a broad overview of the contemporary doctrinal and policy challenges facing intellectual property in an era of rapidly changing technology.

Law and Economics (S)

This seminar will provide students with an opportunity to learn about current research in law and economics through presentations by some of the leading scholars in the field.

Media Law

This will be a survey case law based course. For example, it will consider content regulation of the media (defamation, indecency, privacy), rights of journalists, structural regulation of media.

Media and Sovereignty (S)

This course examines the idea of "models" of media regulation. We look at varying techniques and contexts for shaping media policy. One focus will be on transformations of public service broadcasting. Another will be on media in conflict zones. Another theme will be state responses to the permeability of the Internet (and other new technologies). Depending on various research activities, there may be a focus on media reform in the Arab Middle East.

Patent Law

In our modern technologically-based economy, the creation and enforcement of patent rights can make or break a business. With record numbers of patents being issued every year, the stakes for inventors (and, indeed, their lawyers) continue to increase, even as the patent law and its administration faces growing criticism. This course seeks to equip students with a detailed overview of the law and policy of the United States patent system. In so doing, we will focus on the basics of the statutory requirements for patents, the scope and form of patent rights and a look at the subject matter of patents.

Patent Litigation Seminar (S)

This course examines the basics of litigating patent disputes in a United States District Court and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, including pre-suit investigation, drafting of pleadings, fact and expert discovery, "Markman" claims construction proceedings, dispositive motions, in limine motions, trial, post-trial motions and appeal. Policy implications will also be considered, e.g., the cost of litigation as a tax on innovation (and its effect of understanding this as a tax on the desirability of deciding these cases summarily, in a bench trial, and without extensive discovery); Markman hearings and the allocation of authority between judge and jury; the advisability of jury trials in patent cases; appeals and specialized adjudication; and the allocation of authority between trial and appellate court. A prior course which included patent law is required. The grade will be based on class participation and a paper.

Privacy

The study of privacy law serves several purposes. Most importantly, it introduces students to an important area of legal practice. Not only is privacy law now a recognized area of legal practice in its own right, but knowledge of privacy law is frequently called for in the practice of health, business and intellectual property law. The study of privacy law serves another purpose: developing a better understanding of the concept of privacy and the controversies--some philosophical, some political-- surrounding its application in the law. The course is divided into three sections or "chapters." Our study begins with state common law. State common law is an historic source of privacy protections. Chapter 1 examines the origins of state privacy law in the late 19th century and its subsequent growth until today. The chapter considers the four common law invasion of privacy torts recognized in most states and by the American Law Institute's Restatement of (Second) of Torts. The chapter also examines the closely affiliated state common law of publicity and confidentiality. Chapter 1 samples major statutes enacted by state legislatures both to create privacy rights akin to those recognized in the common law and to supplement them. We move next to the federal constitution, a crucial major source of privacy law. Chapter 2 takes on the voluminous privacy jurisprudence spawned by the Bill of Rights-- most importantly, the First and Fourth Amendments' jurisprudence of associational, physical, and informational privacy. This chapter also features the often-controversial Fourteenth Amendment equal protection and substantive due process decisional privacy jurisprudence. It concludes with a consideration of state constitutions that, state courts have held, significantly expand privacy protection beyond federal limits. The journey ends after an encounter with the federal privacy statutes, a dynamic source of privacy and data protection law. Chapter 3 examines nearly a dozen federal privacy statutes, covering government record management; health, education, and financial data; video rentals; communications; the internet; and surveillance. The chapter touches on some state counterparts to federal legislation and the agency rules that implement them.

Regulatory Policy Analysis (S)

Lawyers play a key role in making public policy, whether in legislative, executive, or judicial settings. This seminar focuses on the role of the lawyer as policy analyst, aiming to develop skills of research, analysis, and exposition suitable for effective policy counseling and decision making. The seminar will emphasize a general framework for analyzing any kind of social or economic problem and assessing different types of alternative legal solutions.

Technological Change, Economic Growth & the Law Seminar (S)

This seminar will explore in depth the cutting edge legal issues in our emerging knowledge-based economy. In so doing, we will engage a number of economic perspectives on innovation law and policy, evaluating the impact of intellectual property laws, antitrust oversight, government support for basic research, and telecommunications regulation.

Telecommunications

This course will explore the manner in which advances in technology, economic/regulatory theory, and First Amendment doctrine are forcing Congress and the FCC to rethink telecommunications regulations. The course will begin with a critical overview of the regulatory scheme governing the traditional communications media: telephony, broadcasting, and cable television. The course will then examine the problems posed by new forms of telecommunications, including digital broadcast satellites, wireless telephony, digital television, and the Internet.

US & EU Telecommunications Law (S)

The US and Europe have historically taken widely divergent approaches to the regulation of communications technologies. In more recent years, the approaches have begun to converge, in part because of the increasing globalization of the telecommunications market and in part because of certain intellectual insights that have transformed the conventional wisdom about economic regulation. This seminar will compare the regulatory approaches taken in the US and Europe, studying both the ways in which they have converged and the key differences in intellectual commitments that tend to keep them distinct. In the process, the seminar will provide an introduction to EU law, covering both the EU's institutions and lawmaking process. The seminar should be of particular interest to students interested in Internet policy, economic regulation, EU law, and the impact of different institutional structures (such as government ownership and federalism) on regulatory policy. The seminar will meet for twelve weeks in the fall semester. It will meet again for two sessions late in the spring semester, when students will present their papers.