Special topics courses explore emerging developments in the law or take advantage of special expertise provided by visitors and guest faculty. Courses offered under this title are approved by the Associate Dean and may be designated to meet skills or advanced writing requirements. Special topics classes may only satisfy elective credit and are available only to law students after their first year of study and graduate students by permission.

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. Hybrid Juris Doctor students cannot take this course for an S/U grade.

Cannabis (marijuana) is listed on Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, and the possession, sale, and use of marijuana remains unlawful at the federal level. Meanwhile, cannabis legalization is sweeping the nation on a state-by-state basis. This federal and state divide presents unique challenges to businesses serving patients and consumers in the cannabis industry and the lawyers who advise them. This one-unit course will provide an overview of the current state of the cannabis industry, identify key legal and business challenges, and explore how lawyers are helping their clients address these challenges. The course will lay the groundwork for the type of issue spotting and creative thinking required to navigate the legal and business landscape of this emerging legal field.

Intellectual Property (IP) Management is intended for third year law students as a "capstone" course building on IP courses taken in the second and third years of law school. It is a practical, hands-on course designed to bridge academia and real-life private or corporate practice and is meant to provide the IP professional with a solid foundation in proactive counseling in the area of intellectual property. Exemplary topics include invention harvesting or extracting; invention records and disclosures; inventorship and ownership issues; laboratory notebook practice; patent searching; criteria and procedures for determining type of IP protection, particularly whether to file for patent protection or maintain as trade secret; trade secret policies and protection; IP education; IP audits and due diligence investigations; outside submissions; trademark practice (searching and clearance); international filing considerations, agreement practice, and other aspects of corporate IP management including understanding, developing, executing and/or managing IP strategies, IP committees, and IP budgets consistent with overall business objectives. Eligibility: Open to all except 1Ls. Course format: lecture. Grading: other (see syllabus), 100%. This course may be taken for an S/U grade.