Skip to Content
I am a …
Search
Wake Forest Law
Planning Your Course of Study
Menu

Entertainment Law

Entertainment law specifically includes film, television, theater, music, radio, visual arts, publishing, and sports gaming. Particularly since the advent of the pandemic, this area has changed even more rapidly since entertainment delivery includes more digital technologies, streaming services, and distribution platforms. Entertainment law necessarily overlaps with sports law as sporting competitions represent a lucrative component of television and other digital rights.

Courses

Courses designated as "primary" are foundational, while those listed as "secondary" contain relevant and related content. "Co-curricular" courses are credit-bearing extra-curricular activities, while "experiential" courses are practice-based offerings. Please keep in mind that the focus of any course will vary depending on the instructor.

Primary Courses

130: Contracts 4 credits PRIMARY

A study of the formation, essentials, interpretation, and operation of contracts as well as the discharge of contractual duties and remedies for breach.

264: Entertainment Law Drafting 2 credits PRIMARY

This course is intended to provide students with a general understanding of some of the skills required in transactional law (with a focus on entertainment), including how to analyze, edit, and draft purchase agreements, employment agreements, cease and desist letters, sweepstakes rules, guest releases, and media licenses. This course cannot be taken if you have taken LAW 257 Business Drafting.

412: NCAA Rules Compliance & Enforcement 2 credits PRIMARY

This course offers students a comprehensive overview of current NCAA rules, policies, enforcement procedures, and the manner in which they are applied at the Division I intercollegiate level. Students study NCAA rules and policies and NCAA infractions and judicial decisions that interpret these rules. Students also examine materials that offer differing perspectives on the NCAA regulatory system. Student performance is assessed on the basis of written memos and in-class presentations that evaluate case studies. Students are given a short final exam.

521: Mass Media Law 2 credits PRIMARY

The subject matter includes a variety of communications industries - print media, film, broadcasting, and the Internet - and a variety of legal topics - copyright infringement, defamation, censorship, and privacy. The course focuses on the impact of new technologies on the topic.

573: Sports Law 2 credits PRIMARY

This course examines the legal issues arising in high school, college, and professional sports. It addresses legal issues traversing multiple substantive areas of law, including rules governing contractual relationships in sports, defining tort liability in sports, embodying antitrust and labor law issues in sports, governing gender equity issues in sports, and governing agency relationships in sports. It provides an opportunity for students to develop their statutory and analytical skills by interpreting sports-related cases, statutes, collective bargaining agreements, and player association regulations.

599: Entertainment Law 2 credits PRIMARY

This course is designed to introduce law students to the legal, business, and creative aspects of entertainment law, with a particular emphasis on the film and television industries. It also provides a survey of some of the other areas touched by entertainment law, including intellectual property, rights of privacy and publicity, food libel, parody, fair use, libel and slander, music, obscenity, and contracts. Whether you intend to practice it or are just interested in the subject matter, students will gain an understanding of how entertainment law can be used to protect and empower creative people.

Secondary Courses

415: Intellectual Property Innovation and Commercialization 2 credits SECONDARY

This course reinforces and expands on the student's understanding of many of the fundamental principles of intellectual property law and focuses specifically on its development and commercialization. Considerations include licensing strategy and alternatives, confidentiality, joint venture and other types of collaborative agreements, technology transfer, and related contracting and documentation. A pre-requisite or co-requisite of either Intellectual Property (Survey), Patent Law, Copyrights, or Trademarks is strongly suggested, but not required.

526: Employment Law 3 or 4 credits SECONDARY

A survey of common, state, and federal laws applicable to non-union employees, including at-will employment and its exceptions; workers compensation; the Fair Labor Standards Act; the Occupational Safety and Health Act; civil rights laws; and employer liability for employee screening, testing, and referrals.

534: Intellectual Property 3 credits SECONDARY

A survey course designed to provide the prospective general practitioner with knowledge of the basic principles of intellectual property and unfair competition law.

586: Copyrights 2 or 3 credits SECONDARY

This course focuses on the basics of copyright law, including the subject matter of copyright; how copyright is secured and maintained; the scope of protection; and the duration, renewal, and transfer of rights. It also explores the enforcement of copyright, the impact of new technologies, and issues relating to access and use of copyrightable subject matter.

587: Trademarks 2 credits SECONDARY

This course focuses on the basics of trademark law, including: how trademark rights are acquired at common law and under the Lanham Act; the distinctiveness spectrum and the problems of "genericness;" and how to protect product packaging and design as source identifiers. It also explores issues relating to traditional trademark infringement as well as dilution and anti-cybersquatting.

Experiential Courses

345: Semester in Practice 10 or 11 credits EXPERIENTIAL

This is the field placement component of a full term externship program and is paired with the Externship Lecture course. Total credits between Semester in Practice and Externship Lecture will total 13. The number of credit hours awarded to an individual student will determine the hours of work required at the field placement and meet or exceed the ABA standards. In accordance with ABA guidelines, students work at a placement under a supervising attorney. C-LAW 300.

353: Intellectual Property Practicum 1 or 2 credits EXPERIENTIAL

356: Intellectual Property Law Clinic I 4 credits EXPERIENTIAL

This course provides students with hands-on opportunities to assist clients with transactional intellectual property matters. Student services include advising clients on basic intellectual property principles, drafting contracts (or contract provisions) that affect intellectual property rights, prosecuting copyright and/or trademark applications, and preparing policy documents and guidelines. In addition to direct client representation, students will attend a two-hour seminar, and meet with the clinic faculty supervisor to discuss fieldwork each week. Intellectual Property is a prerequisite.

676: Summer Externship 4 credits EXPERIENTIAL

This course is currently available only in the summer. The director of the externship designates one or more cities in North and South Carolina, usually including Charlotte, NC, and offers the students externships in a designated practice area. The practice areas vary from summer to summer. Students meet weekly with the director to integrate and apply the doctrinal insights received elsewhere in the law school curriculum and in the subject matter of the field placements.

Co-Curricular Activities

522: Journal of Business and Intellectual Property Law 0 or 2 credits ACTIVITY

The Law School publishes the Journal of Business and Intellectual Property Law. This publication features articles, notes, and comments from intellectual property practitioners, students, and faculty. The JBIPL encourages students to submit articles focusing on topics such as trademarks, copyrights, patent, trade secrets, unfair competition, cyberlaw, Internet business law, or any other subject of intellectual property. These items can be papers already completed for coursework or articles specifically written for the journal.

549: Moot Court Competition 1 credit ACTIVITY

Seminar in advanced appellate advocacy involving research and drafting of briefs and presentation of oral arguments as a member of an interscholastic moot court team. Students may repeat this course for a maximum of two hours of credit.

Faculty

The following faculty are knowledgeable about the topic and may be a useful resource for you.

Timothy Davis

Timothy Davis

Bess and Walter Williams Professor of Law

Heather Gram

Heather Gram

Teaching Professor