Prerequisite: None

Exam Type: Any Day Take-Home

This course will introduce, examine, explore, and evaluate patent law. At the outset, the course will consider how the United States patent system works, including the constitutional, statutory, and common law sources of the patent law, the roles of the Patent Office, district courts, and the Federal Circuit, and the role the patent system plays in the economy. The course will focus heavily on patent claims, including how claims operate and the law governing patent claim construction. It will address in detail the law of patentability, including the requirements of patentable subject matter, novelty, nonobviousness, written description and enablement, and definiteness. Then, the course will take a close look at the law of infringement, including the doctrine of equivalents, indirect infringement, legal and equitable defenses to infringement, and remedies — including injunctions, lost profits, reasonable royalties, and enhanced damages. Along the way, the focus will be both on how patent law operates today, as well as what the future of patent law could (or should) look like. In particular, the course will pay attention to developing policy issues, including standard essential patents, non-practicing entities, and patents on and by artificial intelligence.