Intellectual property law is law that is meant to encourage human innovation and creativity without restricting how that innovation and creativity makes it to the people. 

The Ongoing class is designed so that students can jump in at any time and still understand what is going on with the topic.

Intellectual property concerns all of human creativity: literature, the visual arts, music, drama, movies, compilations of useful information, computer programs, biotechnology, electronics, mechanics, chemistry, product design, agriculture, symbols of human and business identity, and artificial intelligence, among others.

The question is how do we encourage people to use their innate talents at creativity and profit from that creation in a way that benefits the creator and the audience for the creativity while punishing those who would steal others’ ideas?

That’s where Intellectual Property Law starts. We will look at patents, trade secrets, copyrights, and trademarks in this class. We will define the terms and begin to understand how they are used in our economy and everyday lives.

We will look at actual court cases to understand the concepts, and after we have a solid foundation in the topic, we will begin to explore the future of intellectual property law with the advent of artificial intelligence and an internet that goes beyond jurisdictional boundaries (how do you enforce law outside of your own borders?).

This is a class that should be taken after having taken one of my other law classes so that you become comfortable with the structure and the thinking of how law works before jumping into intellectual property.

Here’s the schedule for the class (may be changed based on what we are talking about in class):

Week of January 5 - January 12 - What is Intellectual Property?
Week of January 12 - January 19 - Patents - Utility Patents
Week of January 19 - January 26 - Patents - Design Patents
Week of January 26 - February 1 - Patents - Plant Patents
Week of February 2 - February 8 - Trademarks - What are the different types?
Week of February 9 - February 15 - Trademarks - Trademark cases - Trademark in practice
Week of February 16 - February 22 - Trade Secrets
Week of February 23 - March 1 - Copyright - What is it?
Week of March 2 - March 8 - Copyright - Artistic Works
Week of March 9 - March 15 - Copyright - Joint Works and Works for Hire
Week of March 16 - March 22 - Copyright - Derivative Works
Week of March 23 - March 29 - Copyright - Copyright Infringement
Week of March 30 - April 5 - Copyright - Remedies for Copyright Infringement
Week of April 6 - April 12 - Copyright - Fair Use, Part 1
Week of April 13 - April 19 - Copyright - Fair Use, Part 2
Week of April 30 - April 26 - Copyright - Fair Use, Part 3
Week of April 27 - May 3 - Copyright - Fair Use, Part 4
Week of May 4 - May 10 - Intellectual Property and Artificial Intelligence, Part 1
Week of May 11 - May 17 - Intellectual Property and Artificial Intelligence, Part 2
Week of May 18 - May 24 - Intellectual Property and Artificial Intelligence, Part 3