About
The mission of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology (BCLT) is to foster the beneficial and ethical understanding of intellectual property (IP) law and related fields as they affect public policy, business, science, and technology.
Established in 1995 with a focus on intellectual property, BCLT has expanded over the years to encompass privacy law, electronic commerce, digital entertainment law, cleantech, telecommunications regulation, cyberlaw, and many other areas of constitutional, regulatory, and business law that are affected by new technologies.
The Most Comprehensive Instructional Program in Law and Technology
BCLT’s research and programs enable Berkeley Law to attract the very best students and offer them the world’s most comprehensive instructional program in law and technology, featuring four essential components: 1) strong foundational courses taught by Berkeley Law faculty using their own leading casebooks; 2) diverse, challenging, and regularly updated advanced courses taught by leading faculty and practitioners; 3) closely supervised analytic writing- and research-oriented courses with a specific emphasis on law and technology issues; and 4) a twice-weekly series of lunchtime presentations from practicing attorneys covering the practical implications of current developments on their technology law practice. Email me
BCLT also works closely with students on the Berkeley Technology Law Journal (BTLJ) in producing its Annual Review and Symposium issues, as well as the lunchtime presentation series. BCLT provides administrative and financial support for many student groups related to law and technology, including BTLJ, Patent Law Society, boalt.org, Healthcare and Biotech Law Society, Berkeley Energy & Resources Collaborative, Sports and Entertainment Law Society, and Universities Allied for Essential Medicines. BCLT also provides primary funding to Moot Court for its Intellectual Property and Technology Law Competitions.
An Emphasis on Collaboration and Community
BCLT has developed relationships with a variety of outstanding affiliated scholars with interests in technology law, including some of the top economists and technologists working on technology policy issues. The center works closely with other research centers on the UC Berkeley campus, including the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interests of Society (CITRIS); the Competition Policy Center (CPC); the Team for Research in Ubiquitous Secure Technology (TRUST); and the Institute for Business Innovation.
The center creates networking opportunities for leading academics nationwide through its frequent roundtables and programs, including the IP Scholars Conference—which brings together about 175 intellectual property scholars from over 70 institutions to present their works-in-progress—and the recently instituted Privacy Law Scholars Conference. BCLT takes advantage of its location near Silicon Valley by reaching out to Bay Area law firms and leading technology companies to forge a unique technology law community. This not only provides opportunities for world-class training of students interested in technology law, but also serves as a resource for lawyers, industry groups, and other affected parties as they grapple with the complex policy and legal issues arising in the wake of new developments in technology.
Supporting the Development of Public Policy
BCLT plays a direct and important role in public-policy debates and the education of public officials. The center’s conferences and faculty research address leading-edge issues, with recent symposiums on the history of copyright law, IP and entrepreneurship, identity theft, copyright and consumer protection, stem cell research, spyware, patent reform, and digital rights management. BCLT faculty and fellows regularly testify at legislative hearings and advise public officials.
Research Initiatives Include:
Copyright Modernization.
BCLT has assembled a group of scholars and representatives of relevant industries, including technologists, to develop a model copyright law or set of copyright principles that could serve as a basis for revising U.S. copyright law to make it more suitable for the digital networked environment. The group, led by Professor Pamela Samuelson, will analyze complex and unwieldy U.S. copyright law, considering how to adapt it to digital networked environments while maintaining its integrity for existing industry products and services. The group has been meeting on a regular basis for several years with a goal of articulating a model copyright law.
Judicial Education
Since 1997, Professor Peter Menell has organized many of the Federal Judicial Center's intellectual property education programs for the federal judiciary. In addition, he has organized several advanced patent programs for the FJC as well as the intellectual property presentations, panels, and symposia for various circuit court and district conferences. All told, Professor Menell has organized more than 30 education programs for the federal judiciary. Building on this work, he co-authored the Patent Case Management Judicial Guide (with Lynn Pasahow, James Pooley, and Matthew Powers), an authoritative treatise on all aspects of patent case management for the FJC. Professor Menell is currently working on analogous projects on copyright and trademark case management, as well as an authoritative treatise on patent enforcement at the International Trade Commission (scheduled for release in early 2011).
International Connections
In today’s interconnected world, IP and other technology law issues must be addressed on a global basis. Recognizing this, BCLT and the Seoul National University Center for Law and Technology have worked collaboratively to encourage scholars, lawyers, entrepreneurs, public officials, and students to discuss and write about differences in the IP and telecommunication regimes of various countries, and to confront important legal issues surrounding the international development of technology law. BCLT has also collaborated with the Haas School of Business to bring high-level Chinese government officials and judges to Berkeley for classroom training, enterprise and institutional visits, and dialogue. BCLT has strong working relationships with a number of other universities and organizations around the world, including the Center for Intellectual Property Studies, Gothenburg & Chalmers University, Sweden; the University of Technology, Tel-Aviv University, Israel; the Institute for Information Law, University of Amsterdam; and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, Zürich.
Patent Reform
BCLT researchers are studying several controversial issues being debated as the U.S. Congress considers patent legislation, with the goal of developing consensus and/or legislative recommendations. BCLT has hosted or co-sponsored many events focused on patent law and patent reform. These include the annual Advanced Patent Law Institute for practicing lawyers, as well as roundtables and conferences with attorneys from corporations and law firms, government officials, and academics. BCLT has also hosted numerous events with officials from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the Federal Trade Commission to enable them to get feedback from West Coast companies.
Privacy
BCLT is a leader in privacy law scholarship. In collaboration with the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, BCLT is a hub for students and researchers engaging in interdisciplinary research on privacy. New technologies, business practices, and government policies constantly change the relationships among individuals and organizations. In many cases, these relationships have shifted to provide individuals with more opportunities to communicate with others and engage in online communities. In doing so, however, individuals increasingly leave information trails documenting their expressive activities. The legal standards governing access to these trails are a focus of much attention among center faculty and fellows. The BCLT faculty includes several leading privacy experts with concentrations spanning international and comparative privacy law, the law of surveillance, U.S. information policy, Fourth Amendment search and seizure, consumer privacy law, and the intersection of IP law and privacy. The center also works with chief privacy officers at major corporations to formulate prescriptions on best practices.
