STRATEGIES IN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW
"Strategies in Intellectual Property Law was much
better than a doctrinal course! I thought it
was a great experience and very helpful.
It was nice to apply some doctrinal skills."
- Kara Szpondowski '04
Niro, Scavone, Haller & Niro Ltd.
This course is one of the three ways in which students participating in the Intellectual Property certificate Program can satisfy the requirement of a Capstone Experience. (The Capstone Experience requirement may also be satisfied by participation in the Intellectual Property Law – Patent Clinic, or the completion of an IP Externship). The course may be taken only by JD students enrolled in the Intellectual Property Certificate Program. It is intended to be taken in the last year of legal studies.
This is a problem-solving course that brings together learning from different intellectual property courses and from non-intellectual property courses, bringing home the inter-relationships between different bodies of law and asking students to apply that knowledge to a concrete problem faced by a fictional client.
The course is taught by several faculty members. During some class meetings, the class will meet as a group. Between these "team" meetings, the class will break into smaller groups (of approximately 8-12 students). These smaller groups will work with teams of two faculty in researching and discussing particular parts of the overall problem, will make oral reports to other members of the small group, and after the small group decides on the appropriate strategy will make oral and brief written reports to the entire class. The entire class will then discuss how best to advise the client to proceed and how best to effectuate the social and commercial objectives of the client.
The course is intended to allow students to develop an appreciation of the contexts in which intellectual property problems arise, how to apply knowledge developed in intellectual property and other courses to a concrete problem, the considerations (legal and non-legal) that guide how lawyers approach those problems, and the real-life dynamics that affect the practice of intellectual property law.
Strategies in 2004 - Students experienced life as law firm associates working with eight faculty members (leading lawyers and a prominent economist acting as law firm partners and expert advisers) in developing the legal strategy, both in the litigation and transactional context, that the Gillette Company would use in a fight with the makers of rival Schick products over control of the market for razors. With other faculty members acting as counsel for Schick, this simulated, role-playing problem-based in part upon an actual dispute-culminated in the negotiation of a settlement and cross-license.
The class will be graded Pass/Fail based upon performance in class (both when the entire class is present and in small groups) and based upon oral and written presentations.
Three Credits.
