Law and Tech Curriculum

Berkeley Law offers a remarkably rich curriculum on technology issues: over 20 courses a year, ranging from the intellectual property survey class to advanced courses and seminars on patent prosecution, antitrust, privacy, cybercrime, biotech, telecoms, the law affecting the entertainment industry — even a course on wine law.

Annually, the faculty directors reassess the curriculum to ensure that it covers emerging topics that our students will encounter in practice. For the Fall of 2015 alone, Berkeley added two new technology law courses:

Patent Litigation II
In the last few years, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) has emerged as an important forum for resolution of patent disputes, with a caseload tripling from 564 cases in 2013 to 1494 cases in 2014 . Increasingly, new lawyers embarking on a career in patent law are likely to encounter early on a PTAB proceeding. So in 2015, the BCLT faculty directors worked with leading practitioners to create a new course focusing on litigation before the PTAB and the International Trade Commission.

Berkeley IP Lab
Berkeley Law is placing an increasing emphasis on well- conceived, rigorous, and creative experiential learning. In 2015, BCLT launched a course that offers students the opportunity to assist real startups as they assess the patent landscape for their innovation. The course, which has both practice and classroom components, pairs Berkeley Law students with startups in the UC Berkeley innovation ecosystem, supervised by practicing lawyers from leading firms in the Bay Area.

Law & Technology Certificate

The Law & Technology Certificate recognizes a student’s sustained commitment to technology law through successful completion of a prescribed number of tech- related courses plus participation in a student-led activity. The curricular requirements emphasize depth and breadth while affording students flexibility in adapting their course of study to a range of career paths in this growing field.