Patent Law

Introduction to basic concepts and principles of Anglo-American law as they relate to personal and real property.

Federal income tax is life. This class lives in a statute, the Internal Revenue Code. It focuses on reading, interpreting, and applying the rules of the Code. It is primarily a statutory interpretation class. Students will calculate the federal income tax liabilities of taxpayers by determining each taxpayer's gross income, determining and subtracting above the line deductions, noting adjusted gross income, subtracting either itemized deductions or the standard deduction, applying tax rates, and then calculating and subtracting any available tax credits. We will do calculations using only the +, -, multiply, and divide functions on a $5ish calculator.

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.

A study of Articles 9 and 6 of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), which apply to transactions in which a debtor borrows money from a creditor and grants to the creditor a security interest in the personal property of the debtor to secure the debtor's promise to repay the loan.

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

This course examines the law and legal theories related to identifying and protecting competitive business interests and confidential business information — one of the fastest-growing areas of intellectual property law outside of traditional patent, copyright, and trademark concerns. In general, the course covers trade secret identification, protection, and misappropriation; covenants not to compete and other forms of restrictive covenants, including noncompetition, non-solicitation, confidentiality and assignment of invention agreements; applicable state and federal statutes, case law, and common law duties; litigation strategies and the many practical issues regarding the protection of confidential information, customers and other legitimate business interests given today’s highly mobile and computerized workplace. Litigation and client counseling strategies are also explored, with a practical focus on applying legal theories to typical situations confronted in this rapidly developing area of law.