Prerequisite: None

Exam Type: Any-Day Take-Home

This course will examine and assess the legal rules in the United States governing patents. We will discuss the purposes and requirements for patent protection, ways to gain and lose patent rights, and the scope and enforcement of patent rights, including territorial considerations. Along the way we will explore several policy issues pertaining to patents. Those issues include the question of the kinds of subject matter that should be eligible for patent protection; the degree to which the patent system should differentiate among fields of technology (and the ways in which it currently does so); differences between design, utility and plant patent protection; and special considerations involved in the patenting of pharmaceutical products.