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.

This course examines the legal and business issues that have arisen in the media and entertainment industries ?film, television, music, sports, and video games ? arising from rapid improvements in technology that have, in turn, led to significant shifts in the way entertainment and media is produced, distributed, and consumed. Students will be exposed to the business and legal implications of the transition from traditional intermediary - driven distribution models to direct-to-consumer streaming offerings, strategic considerations surrounding expansions into ancillary businesses such as sports and video games, and the importance (and challenges of) protecting intellectual property in an era of content ubiquity.

Patent systems and patent laws exist to promote investment in and development of technology. The recently-enacted America Invents Act (AIA) and certain U.S. Supreme Court decisions over the last 5 years have brought the most dramatic changes to U.S. patent law in more than 50 years. This course focuses on the fundamentals of U.S. patent law including patentability, infringement, inventorship, and ownership. The course will also explore some of the underlying themes in patent law as well as the purpose of and justifications for a patent system. The course reading includes the patent statute (Title 35 of the United States Code) both pre-AIA and post-AIA and selected case law primarily from the U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The course will generally address both the procurement and enforcement of U.S. patents. Although this course will cover the legal principles underlying patent claim drafting and patentability, this course will not focus on patent practice and procedure. Hybrid Juris Doctor students cannot take this course for an S/U grade.

Students will build on their basic claim drafting skills by learning the rules, regulations, customs, and practices for dealing with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) when filing and prosecuting patent applications. Students will draft one complete patent specification and claims as well as responses to two USPTO Office Actions. Students may also prepare additional documents for filing with the USPTO. The course format is 2 hours per week of traditional lecture and discussion to cover theory and general principles plus regularly scheduled small group section meetings with a local practicing attorney. During the small group section meetings, the practicing attorney will discuss and provide feedback on the patent application and responses prepared for the course. This course cannot be taken for an S/U grade.