Fundamentals of Intellectual Property Syllabus
Fall 2009
No pre-law background confers any particular advantage. Because the course is designed for students with little or no IP background, students who have completed any course covering the substance of U.S. copyright, patent or trademark law, however, may receive only S-U grades.
I. Objectives
A. To compare means for preventing others from copying.
B. To explore trademark and related laws as means for preventing source and other misrepresentations.
C. To help students learn to use key cases, statutes and Restatements.
II. Materials
A. Field, Fundamentals of Intellectual Property (Pierce Law).The book is also online, but it is a very large file.
B. Selected IP & Unfair Competitions Statutes... (West). You need to have the statutes at hand in most classes.
III. Grades - Quizzes count 30%, final exam, 70%.
Quizzes and final are open book. Laptops may be used for quizzes but not for the final.
Quizzes, conducted in the last ten minutes of odd-numbered classes, cover all material since the previous quiz. People who can leave quietly may leave when finished. Only the ten highest (of 13) quiz scores count, no make-ups.
Samples quizzes are online. A brief discussion of the use of quizzes in teaching is also online.
Old finals are linked from the right-hand navigation panel.
IV. Attendance, Methodology, Preparation
Prompt attendance is expected. Anyone who misses more than two quizzes or three classes without medical documentation can be "disenrolled" without further warning.
Students are asked to brief cases and open discussion is encouraged.
Assignments are short; thoughtful preparation is therefore expected.
V. Assignments (classes with quizzes indicated as X<)
1 -- Preface, Overview; Start patents: pp. iii, xxiii-iv, 1.1-13
2 -- 1.13-24; 2.1-3
3< -- 2.4-19. Also see the two online folding bed patents
4 -- 2.20-41
5< -- 2.42-46; 3.1-12
6 -- 3.12-27. See also the online Eibel patent.
7< -- 3.27-42
8 -- Begin consideration of limits on patent rights (and preemption): 4.1-16
9< -- 4.16-30
10 -- Start copyrights: 5.1-18
11< -- 5.18-31
12 -- 5.32-42; 6.1-5
13< -- 6.5-20
14 -- 6.21-32; 7.1-4
15< -- 7.5-23
16 -- 7.23-36. Begin trade secrets: 8.1-6
17< -- 8.6-24
18 -- 8.24-32. Reconsider federal preemption: 9.1-8
19< -- 9.9-25
20 -- 9.25-29. Start trademarks: 10.1-11
21< -- 10.11-29
22 -- 10.29-40; 11.1-3. Also see two online service mark registrations.
23< -- 11.4-19
24 -- 11.20-38
25< -- 11.38-45. Begin consideration of free speech issues: 12.1-9
26 -- 12.10-27
27< -- 12.27-46; 17 U.S.C. § 120(a). Begin review
28 -- Review and overflow
