LAW 6743

Conflicts in Patent Law and Practice

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2016-2017.

This course will consider important assumptions that underlie much current day patent law and practice but are seldom articulated or critically analyzed. Students will consider the legal effect(s) of "public domain" status; the meaning of "invention" (which now includes at least some "business method" conceptions); the relationship between patent "claims" and patented "inventions;" conflicting standards for determining if a patent is valid or infringed; procedural devices that operate to limit or allocate adjudicatory authority in the patent system (e.g., judge versus jury; court versus agency); and intersections between patent law and principles of administrative, antitrust, federal court jurisdiction, personal property, tort, and unfair competition laws. Special attention will be paid to conflicts between precedent of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, a specialized court formed in 1982, and applicable Supreme Court patent precedent. The grade for the course will be based on a combination of class participation (20%) and five reaction papers (80%) of 600 to 800 words each (approximately 2 ½ to 4 pages of typed, double-spaced text). A student may write up to six reaction papers, and in that case, the grade will be based on the student's five best papers.

When Offered Spring.

Satisfies Requirement Satisfies the skills requirement.

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