Meeting Time:
MTuW 11:15-12:30
Instructor:
Robert P. Merges
438 Law Building (North Addition)
510-643-6199
rmerges@law.berkeley.edu
Admin. Assistant:
Chris Swain, 793 Simon Tower (642‑0503)
This course is intended both for students who are interested in a general overview of intellectual property and as a gateway to Boalt’s Law and Technology program. The course begins with an analysis of the competing policies underlying the intellectual property laws. It covers the basics of patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secrets (and other state IP-related areas of) law, as well as some of the salient controversies in intellectual property law, including patent protection for software and business methods, the challenges to copyright law posed by filesharing technology, the role and difficulties of protecting trademarks on the Internet, and the application of common law doctrines to the Internet.
Class Meeting Times:
The class will meet on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays from 11:15 am – 12:20 pm in Room 100.
Office Hours: Tuesdays, 1 – 2:20; or by appointment
Required Reading:
- Merges, Menell & Lemley, Intellectual Property in the New Technological Age (5th rev. edition, Aspen 2010) (IPNTA).
- Merges, Menell & Lemley, Intellectual Property in the New Technological Age: 2009 Case and Statutory Supplement (Aspen 2009) (Supp).
- Syllabus and Supplementary Course Reader (CR) (available on course website)
Course Web-Site:
· Updated Syllabus
· Course Reader
· Casebook website, which contains summaries of recent developments in intellectual property law
Grading
Grading is based primarily on an in-class open book examination. The exam will be divided into three sections: Part I will comprise a series of multiple choice and/or short answer questions where you will be asked to fill in your answer on the examination form; Part II will present a conventional fact pattern and questions for which you will be required to prepare a concise memo explaining your analysis; Part III will be a policy-oriented question. Examples of the types of questions for which you will be responsible are contained throughout the casebook in the form of problems and in the ASP materials. Class participation will be used as a factor in determining grades for students who are near the P/H and H/HH borderlines. In addition to the casebook, supplement (Supp.), and course reader (CR) assignments, students should be sure to review the relevant statute sections and carefully work through the problems listed for each class session.
Syllabus
|
Date |
Topic |
Materials; Statute; Problems |
|
M 1/11 |
Course Introduction Overview |
Casebook pages 1-31
|
|
PATENT LAW |
||
|
Tu 1/12 |
Patent Overview Subject Matter |
125-34 §101, 134-46 |
|
W 1/13 |
Subject Matter |
§101, Problem 3-1 147-163 |
|
M 1/18 |
Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday |
|
|
Tu 1/19 |
Utility |
166-180 |
|
W 1/20 |
Enablement & Written Description |
§112; 181-191, 195-201 |
|
M 1/25 |
Novelty and Statutory Bars |
§ 102; 209-216; 216-224 |
|
Tu 1/26 |
Priority Non-Obviousness |
230-235 §103; 235-247 |
|
W 1/27 |
Non-Obviousness (cont’d) |
247-256 |
|
M 2/1 |
Infringement Analysis |
§271, 267-294 295-299 |
|
Tu 2/2 |
Doctrine of Equivalents |
300-318 |
|
W 2/3 |
Defenses Remedies |
343-362 §§283-87; 377-398 |
|
|
||
|
M 2/8 |
Overview Requirements – originality |
411-420 420-431, 442-46, §§101 (definition of “created”) |
|
Tu 2/9 |
Requirements continued – fixation, formalities Limiting Doctrines (idea-expression) |
431-441, §101 (definitions of “created,” “fixed,” “compilation,” “copies,” “phonorecords,” “literary works,” “motion pictures,” “audiovisual work,” “sound recording,” “pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works”); §§401 – 12 (skim) 441-448; 460-463, Problems 4-4, 4-5 |
|
W 2/10 |
Limiting Doctrines continued (useful article) Government Works Ownership |
464-478, §§101 (“useful article,” “pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works,”), 102(b), 120, Problems 4-6, 4-7, 4-8 §105 487-497; §§ 101 (“work made for hire”), 201, 202 |
|
M 2/15 |
President’s Day |
|
|
Tu 2/16 |
Joint Works and Collective Works |
497-508 |
|
W 2/17 |
Ownership · Division, Transfer, and Termination of Transfers Infringement |
508-518, §101 (“joint work”), (“collective work”), §201(c) 519-526, §§302-05 |
|
M 2/22 |
Infringement |
527-557, §§201(d), 203, 204, 205 |
|
Tu 2/23 |
Infringement continued · Derivative Work Right Other Exclusive Rights |
557-566 567-581 |
|
W 2/24 |
Indirect Infringement Defenses: Fair Use |
581-592 592-606 |
|
M 3/1 |
Defenses: Fair Use (cont’d) |
606-634 |
|
Tu 3/2 |
Digital Copyright I
|
652-664; 666-684
|
|
W 3/3 |
Digital Copyright II |
684-702; 702-713 Copyright Act §101 |
|
M 3/8 |
International Issues; Remedies
|
713-722; 722-732 |
|
TRADEMARK LAW |
||
|
Tu 3/9 |
Introduction Establishing TM Protection |
733-740; 740-764 |
|
W 3/10
|
Establishing Protection (cont’d) |
764-777 Lanham Act §§ 45 |
|
M 3/15 |
Priority |
777-793
|
|
Tu 3/16 |
Trademark Office Procedures Incontestability |
796-810 810-816 |
|
W 3/17 |
Infringement |
816-837 |
|
3/22-26 |
Spring Break |
|
|
M 3/29 |
Dilution |
838-853 |
|
Tu 3/30 |
Extension by Contract Domain Names and Cybersquatting Indirect Infringement; False Advertising |
855-859; 859-878 878-890 |
|
W 3/31 |
Defenses Remedies |
890-940 947-953 |
|
Monday, April 5 & Tuesday April 6: No Class |
||
|
State Law: Trade Secret, Contract, Misappropriation, Right of Publicity |
||
|
W 4/7 |
Trade Secret – Overview Trade Secret — Requirements |
33-39 39-49 |
|
M 4/12 |
Trade Secret — Requirements continued Misappropriation of Trade Secrets |
49-58 58-84
|
|
Tu 4/13 |
Departing Employees |
85-111 |
|
W 4/14 |
Remedies, Criminal Liability |
111-123 |
|
M 4/19 |
Introduction, Misappropriation Clickwrap Agreements |
963-976 977-985 |
|
Tu 4/20 |
Clickwrap Agreements (cont’d); Idea Submissions |
985-1001 1001-1012 |
|
W 4/21 |
Idea Submissions (cont’d); Right of Publicity |
1012-1020 1020-1026 |
|
M 4/26 |
Right of Publicity (cont’d); |
1026-1051 |
|
Federal Preemption TM Fair Use and Parody |
1064-1073 |
|
|
TBA |
Review |
|
|
|
Exam |
|
