Welcome
Dear Innovations and Copyright/Content class members: Welcome! These classes use lawyer role-playing and student-designed scenarios to provide simulated practice opportunities that tie together IP law, theory, skills, and professionalism. They also tie together many of the courses you are studying now or later, such as contracts, torts, pro rep, business orgs, and more. These are in many ways collaborative courses, and we will come to rely upon and help one another in many ways that I’ll discuss as the course proceeds.
Also, as students in IP skills courses, you may be eligible to receive the Excellence in IP award, which provides an award of up to $1000 for the best project. I’ll tell you more about the course and the EIIP award later when we meet.
Below is information regarding the first week of class.
Class times, rooms
- Innovations — Tues. & Thurs., 10-11:30AM, room 202
- Copyright & Content — Tues. & Thurs., 3:15-4:45PM, room 219
Books
Copyright books:
- Joyce et al, Copyright Law, 10th edition (Carolina Academic Press) – available in the bookstore. They should have enough copies for everyone. They will also price match Amazon, Chegg, etc. Get the hard copy not the digital; laptops are not normally used in class.
- Free supplement to the casebook, download here
- I’ll provide access to statutes and other materials (such as the first day’s assignment) for free online.
Innovations books:
- James Boyle and Jennifer Jenkins, Intellectual Property: Law & the Information Society—Cases and Materials (4th ed. 2018), available online for free at this link
- Lydia Pallas Loren and Joseph Scott Miller, Intellectual Property Law: Cases and Materials (Semaphore Press v.6.0 2018), available online at requested $30 cost, but available for free riding if needed.
First week assignments:
Tuesday, January 8 — there will be no class. This date will be made up, most likely sometime in February, when STU alum Bryan Sinclair joins us (likely on a Monday) for a special joint IP session focusing on patents, copyrights, and IP litigation. Mr. Sinclair is an STU alum, the director of IP litigation at Cisco, and the generous donor behind the Excellence in IP award.
Thursday, January 10: Joint assignment for both classes (Innovations and Copyright/Content)
The assignment for both classes will overlap, although the focus will vary. Be sure to print out all assigned materials and prepare them for discussion. Print them out because laptops are not normally permitted for in-class use. For copyright students, we’ll be using some free online materials. For Copyright, we’ll switch to the Joyce casebook next week.
- Much of today’s class will be focused on the mechanics of the class, which relies exclusively on class participation and experiential copyright projects. We will also select discussion leaders for the next several classes.
- Read Loren & Miller pp. 1-16 (online, do NOT print out entire document)
- Read Boyle & Jenkins pp. ix-xiii (introduction), pp. 1-10 (chapter 1; skip problems 1-1 and 1-2) (again online, do NOT print out the entire document)
- Nathenson handout: Comparison of copyright, trademark, and patent
- Nathenson handout: Guidance on serving as a discussion leader
- Innovations students only: In addition to the readings, let’s play “Show and Tell.” Bring an item to class that you believe to be “innovative.” Be prepared to explain: 1) what “innovation” might mean; 2) why your chosen item is innovative; and 3) why the creation of your chosen item might (or might not) depend on intellectual property rights.
- Copyright students only: Bring to class two things:
- ONE – an example of something you don’t think anybody should be allowed to copy. Be prepared to explain why.
- TWO – an example of something you think you should be allowed to copy Be prepared to explain why
Any questions, please do not hesitate to email me via STU email.