This required one credit course introduces graduate students to the basic research tools and strategies a beginning intellectual property or commerce and technology professional needs to work in their practice area and engage in lifelong learning to keep their education current. The course focuses on: primary and secondary legal authority with lesser coverage on fact research, current awareness and practice tools and strategies; mandatory and persuasive authority; accessing, evaluating and updating secondary legal sources, court decisions, statutes and administrative rulemaking; developing a coherent research strategy including cost effective research; and appropriate choice of electronic formats. Students will be exposed to LEXIS, Westlaw and free web sites. At the end of the first semester students should be able to take a legal issue and determine the extent of legal information needed; access the needed legal information effectively and efficiently; evaluate legal information and its sources critically; incorporate the selected legal information into their understanding of the issue; understand the economic, legal and social issues surrounding the use of legal information; access and use information ethically and legally. Classes involve a mix of lecture, discussion and the opportunity to work directly with relevant print and electronic resources through assigned problems. In additional to a graded research midterm and final, students must successfully complete weekly research assignments. Eligibility: Graduate Students - required course. Prerequisites: none. Course format: skills training. Grading: final exam, 60%; class prep. and participation, 05%; regular submissions/quizzes, 35%.

This course will introduce students to fundamental principles of U.S. copyright law. The legal protection of "creative" content as an intangible property right has been statutorily recognized in the U.S. for over 200 years. While legal rights in such works are often seen as rooted in economic rationale, the law has changed over time, in response to technological challenges and international developments. The course will therefore also provide students with an understanding of how U.S. copyright law functions and adapts in this changing environment. Students with an interest in any branch of modern intellectual property law and how it responds to modern challenges will benefit from this course. Eligibility: Open to all except 1Ls. Course format: lecture. Grading: final exam, 100%.

This course examines legal issues in interscholastic and intercollegiate sports. Topics include: Title IX gender discrimination; antitrust (including combinations of competing schools/conferences); constitutional law (including freedom of speech/association/religion); contract law, land use and environmental law issues for recreational sports; the regulatory authority of high school athletic associations; regulation of private educational institutions and sports associations; torts and insurance-related issues of schools for injuries suffered by athletes and spectators; the evolving conception of college athletes as professionals; athletic participation in taxpayer funded youth sports by home-schooled students; drug testing; legal responsibilities of coaches to safeguard amateur players (including from concussions and unsafe practice conditions); and participation in sports by disabled athletes. Pursuit of careers in sports law, especially compliance positions at universities and colleges, is also covered. Eligibility: Open to all except 1Ls. This course may be taken for an S/U grade.

The focus of this course will be on understanding the nature and impact of trade secrets law in the US on domestic and global business practices. The course will examine: (a) the theory behind trade secret protection; (b) comparisons with approaches to the protection of valuable commercial information in other jurisdictions; (c) the definition of a ?trade secret? in the US; (d) elements of the misappropriation of trade secrets tort at the state level; (e) the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 and the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 at the federal level; (f) scope of civil and criminal liability for trade secret misappropriation; (g) duties of confidentiality in relation to trade secrecy; (h) loss of status of a trade secret; (i) trade secrets as a(n) (intellectual) property right; (j) defenses to trade secret actions; (k) remedies for misappropriation of a trade secret. Eligibility: Open to 1Ls. Prerequisites: None. Grading 90% final exam, 10% class participation.