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 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. This course cannot be taken for an S/U grade.

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.

Beyond the basics, the course explores underlying policy goals and conflicts among types of intellectual property, for example, the tension between patent and copyright protection or the tension between federal and state protection. It also considers goals and conflicts with other laws such as free speech. It also considers matters such as the extent to which various types of IP are "property," available remedies, sources of law, and responsibilities of the two main IP agencies as well as those of various courts. This course cannot be taken for an S/U grade.