Virginia’s courses cover not just the basic forms of intellectual property — patent, copyright and trademark — and common issues of unfair competition, but also the challenges posed by international law and the Internet. Advanced colloquia in property rights offer students a chance to explore theoretical and practical issues. Recent seminars include Intellectual Property Law Policy, Privacy and Surveillance, and Cultural Property.
COURSEs and seminars
Advanced Issues in Intellectual Property Policy
Art Law
Bioethics and the Law
Communications Law
Computer Law
Cultural Property
Current Issues in Patent Law
Cybercrime
Emerging Growth Companies and Venture Capital Financing
Entertainment Law
Intellectual Property: Copyright
Intellectual Property: International Patent Law and Policy
Intellectual Property Law Policy
Intellectual Property: Patent
Intellectual Property: A Survey of Patent, Copyright and Trademark
Intellectual Property: Trademark and Unfair Competition
Law and Technology Policy
Privacy and Surveillance
Property Theory
Trade Secrets: History, Theory and Practice
clinics
Patent and Licensing Clinic I
Patent and Licensing Clinic II
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
All are three credits except where
noted.
ADVANCED ISSUES IN INTELLECTUAL
PROPERTY POLICY Mr.
Oliar (1) This course reviews foundational topics
in intellectual property policy, namely intellectual property’s
desirable duration and scope, fostering innovation, and the merit
of alternatives to the intellectual property system. Students
assess the law and current policy suggestions in light of the
theory and available evidence.
ANTITRUST aND
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY Mr. Sprigman This
course deals with the doctrinal and practical tension between
antitrust and intellectual property law, and the degree to
which antitrust law may sometimes constrain the exercise of
patents, copyrights, and trademarks.
Art Law Ms. Adler This interdisciplinary course explores how the law shapes and constrains visual expression. The focus is on the censorship of contemporary art. The reading draws extensively on non-legal texts as well as on an array of first amendment materials. The class considers recent art controversies and the special problems presented by the interpretation of visual images to explore a series of First Amendment topics including: obscenity law, child pornography law, the feminist anti-pornography movement, the critique of racist hate speech, public art and government funding of the arts. Ultimately we use the problems presented by visual art as a means to probe the meaning of "speech" for purposes of the First Amendment.
Bioethics and the Law Mr. Hafemeister This course explores the intersection among medicine, technology, and the law. Topics include human reproduction and birth (including actions for wrongful birth, wrongful life, and wrongful conception), human genetics and the privacy and ownership of genetic information, death and dying, research involving human subjects, organ transplantation, and public health and bioterrorism.
CULTURAL PROPERTY Ms.
Mahoney This
seminar will examine the legal regimes that regulate interests
in cultural property. Topics include the repatriation of antiquities,
the rights of artists to control or profit from their works,
and the enforcement of limitations on access to documents of
significant public interest.
Current Issues in Patent Seminar Ms. Bagley The U.S. patent system is under attack, with reform efforts underway in all three branches of the government. This course examines a variety of these reform efforts, including proposed legislation to, among other things, change the United States from a first-to-invent to a first-inventor-to file country and create a post-grant opposition system; recently decided and pending U.S. Supreme Court cases dealing with the standards for granting injunctions and determining the non-obviousness of patent-eligible inventions; and proposed U.S Patent & Trademark Office rule changes that promise to significantly affect important aspects of patent prosecution practice.
Cybercrime Mr. Rusch This seminar examines key legal and policy issues associated with cybercrime, which can be defined to include any crimes in which computers and the Internet serve as targets, as storage devices, or as instruments of crime. Because cybercrime can be committed in and from any corner of the world, the seminar focuses principally on U.S. laws and legal materials, but will include relevant legal materials from countries in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. It will also address pertinent international legal issues, in the context of the Council of Europe’s Cybercrime Convention. The seminar first addresses definitions of cybercrime and other background issues, then turns to some of the most prominent issues in the substantive law of cybercrime (e.g., unauthorized access to computers and files, malicious code such as viruses and worms, intellectual property offenses such as software piracy and economic espionage, fraud, "hate speech," and pornography and child exploitation). The remainder of the seminar addresses major legal and policy concerns in the procedural law of cybercrime (e.g., surveillance techniques and technologies, and legal standards for obtaining electronic communications and evidence-gathering).
EMERGING GROWTH
COMPANIES AND VENTURE CAPITAL FINANCING: PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE Mr.
Lincoln This seminar deals
with legal and business issues that arise in the context of representing
emerging growth technology companies, with a particular emphasis
on corporate formation, governance and capital structure, key
employee contracts, venture capital transactions and intellectual
property. The course includes several practice exercises designed
to introduce students, working in practice teams, to the process
of structuring and executing transactions in this area.
ENTERTAINMENT LAW Mr.
Wideman This course introduces legal, business, and creative issues in
film, television, and music production and distribution, and
the role of the entertainment lawyer. The class provides an overview
of standard contract clauses in film, television, and music contracts
and some of the leading cases and legal issues related to those
businesses, including celebrity and publicity rights, idea submission
and protection, credit and control, budgets and financing, compensation
(net vs. gross and profits in films, profits and residuals),
licenses and royalties, and limitations on enforcement of personal
service contracts.
FIRST AMENDMENT
AND THE ARTS Mr. O’Neil This seminar focuses on
the complex interaction between constitutional protection for
freedoms of expression and the creative and performing arts.
Topics covered include the impact of obscenity laws on the
arts and of civil suits seeking damages for the consequences
of creative activity; special problems in the display and performance
of controversial works; constitutional issues raised by restrictions
on government funding of the arts; and current policy issues
such as regulating violence in entertainment and on television.
FREE EXPRESSION
IN CYBERSPACE Mr. O’Neil This seminar focuses on the rapidly evolving body
of law that defines freedom of expression on the Internet. The
course addresses potential liability for threats and incitement
on the Internet, remedies against digital defamation, the status
of obscenity and child pornography in cyberspace, the complex
issues of “indecent” Internet
material and material that is “harmful to minors,” and
regulation of commercial speech (including “spam”)
on the Internet.
INTELLECTUAL
PROPERTY: COPYRIGHT Mr. Nachbar In this course we study
the federal copyright statute, as well as its pre-emptive effect
on other doctrines (in particular state law doctrines) that
protect rights in intellectual and artistic property. Some
of the specific topics we cover are subject matter of copyright,
infringement, fair use, ownership, duration and transfer, rights
and remedies of copyright owners, copyright protection of computer
software, and copyright issues peculiar to the Internet, with
particular reference to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act
of 1998. Particular issues we address include database protection;
the legality of videotaping or photocopying copyrighted material
including television programs, books, individual journal articles;
the propriety of reverse engineering of copyrighted computer
programs; peer-to-peer file sharing (i.e., Napster); and access
controls and technological protection measures.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: COPYRIGHT
II - ADVANCED TOPICS Mr. Nachbar A
course designed for students with a deep interest in copyright
and its underlying theory, this class has two halves. During
the first half of the semester, the class covers in depth the
doctrine and policy of international copyright regulation and
digital copyright. The second half will operate as colloquium
on copyright (and related intellectual property) theory, with
a different intellectual property scholar presenting a paper
on a new issue each week.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: INTERNATIONAL
PATENT LAW AND POLICY Ms. Bagley In
this seminar students write a paper on an aspect of international
or comparative patent law or policy. Topics include: differing
world views of patent-eligible subject matter (e.g., patents
on human cloning and computer software); issues in multinational
patent litigation and forum shopping; the continuing controversy
between developing countries and developed countries concerning
TRIPS requirements, access to genetic resources/traditional
knowledge protection, and further harmonization efforts; and
the relevant multilateral treaties (e.g. Paris Convention, Patent
Cooperation Treaty, TRIPS, and the European Patent Convention),
and impediments to global patent harmonization.
INTELLECTUAL
PROPERTY: PATENT Ms. Bagley This
course examines both the theory and practice of patent law. In
particular, it covers the central elements of this branch of
intellectual property: patentable subject matter, utility, statutory
bars to patentability, novelty, nonobviousness, disclosure and
enablement, infringement, defenses, damages, remedies, the examination
process, and more. In addition to legal and policy analysis,
the course teaches some practical aspects of patent litigation
and interpretation.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: PATENT ENFORCEMENT Mr.
Pivnick and Mr. Kramer This seminar focuses
on practical aspects of patent litigation in federal courts,
supported by discussion of relevant case law. Students participate
as members of a trial team in a mock patent litigation, concentrating
only on pre-trial aspects of the case. The mock litigation
takes the class from the initial pleadings through pre-trial
preparation. Students draft short pleadings and other documents,
work as members of a team, think strategically, and argue motions.
Intellectual Property: A Survey
of Patent, Copyright, Trademark Mr. Robinson This
survey course is designed for students who want a general introduction
to intellectual property as opposed to those who want to concentrate
on one or more of its special subjects. The main focus will
be on patent, copyright, and trademark, but with a brief treatment
of trade secrets and some common law treatments of intellectual
property (e.g., contractual protection via shrink-wrap licenses,
tort actions for misappropriation) outside the realm of specially
designed property rights.
INTELLECTUAL
PROPERTY: TRADEMARK Mr. Kitch or Mr. Willsey Development and protection
of a distinctive identity in the contemporary marketplace is
a key component of a firm’s competitive
strategy. This course covers the law that governs how such an
identity can be legally protected. Topics include: Federal Protection
of Trademarks under the Lanham Act, the parallel system of protection
under state law, the common law origin of trademark protection
in the law of unfair competition, the federal remedy for unfair
competition under section 43(a) of the Lanham Act, the relationship
between the allocation of domain names on the Internet and protection
of trademarks, and international treaties relating to trademarks.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: TRADEMARK
AND UNFAIR COMPETITION Ms. BeVier This
course surveys the theory and the law of trademarks and unfair
competition. Topics include the acquisition of trademark rights,
registration of trademarks, loss of trademark rights, infringement,
false designation of origin, advertising, author’s and
performers’ rights
of attribution and publicity, dilution, Internet domain names,
trademarks as speech, and remedies for trademark infringement.
LAW AND TECHNOLOGY
POLICY Mr. Handler (1) This short course
focuses on the coming of age of Internet operations and the
legal framework surrounding such concerns. The course covers
three basic shifts—privacy, database protection,
and intellectual property—that are due, in large part,
to the effects of the Internet. Privacy coverage focuses on U.S.
and state efforts to regulate the flow of personal information.
European law is covered, and database protection is viewed in
an international context. We also focus on how the traditional
notions of intellectual property protection are, or are not,
available once content is online.
PRIVACY AND SURVEILLANCE Mr.
Vaidhyanathan Can we preserve dignity and privacy in the age of Facebook? This seminar will consider the history and current applications of technologies and cultures of surveillance. How and why did we get to the point where almost all of our activities leave a trace? What is our level of tolerance of mass surveillance? Are we willing to let the state into our bedrooms? Are we more comfortable letting our stores and shopping services understand us? What sorts of laws and policies do we need to protect our sense of personal integrity? And is privacy worth anything these days anyway? This course will allow students to survey a broad range of approaches and issues. We will read the latest work as well as some classic contributions to the field.
PROPERTY THEORY Ms.
BeVier and Ms. Mahoney This seminar examines
theories of property, including natural rights and utilitarian
theories. The seminar focuses on the rigorous evaluation of
scholarly argument. Readings consist of classic works in the
field and important contemporary contributions. After a several-week
overview of the field, each session is devoted to an intensive
study of a single law review article, with designated students
criticizing or defending that article.
TRADE SECRETS: HISTORY, THEORY, AND PRACTICE Mr.
Sloan (1) This short course studies the development
of the primary right and tracks its development as a common law
doctrine up to the passage of federal and state legislation in
both the criminal and civil arenas. We explore the various methods
available to protect trade secrets and how the rights are litigated.
Tragedies of the Commons and Anticommons Ms. Fennell This seminar explores the tragedies of the commons and anticommons as conceptual templates within property theory and as lenses for understanding concrete legal problems in natural resource, real property, and intellectual property contexts. The standard “tragedy of the commons” story focuses on the tendency for multiple parties with access to a given resource to use it in a way that degrades its value for the group. The “anticommons” tragedy involves the dispersal of veto rights over a resource’s access to multiple parties—a situation that can prevent anyone from accessing the resource. Moving between broader theoretical questions and specific applications, the course examines the conditions that create these tragedies, the problems that they present, and possible ways of addressing them. Important dilemmas are presented by different kinds of resources—from natural resources like water, fish, and grazing lands, to urban land that might be assembled or configured in various ways, to cyberspace and various intellectual products.
Program |
Curriculum | Patent & Licensing
Clinics
Faculty | Student
Organizations