Instructors:
Robert Merges and Pamela Samuelson
Meeting Time:
Thursday 2:20 – 4:10
Meeting Location:
Boalt 145
As the institutions of property and contract evolve in the digital era, there are many open questions. Should trademark owners be able to stop search engines from using their marks as search terms? Should boilerplate terms of service on interior pages of web sites be enforceable even if the user never clicks on the link that would reveal them? And more broadly, what is the appropriate scope of the public domain, the cultural commons needed for creativity and innovation, and freedom of expression? The seminar takes up selected cutting-edge topics involving the ongoing evolution of contract and property in the intellectual property context.
Prerequisite: Students should have taken at least one introductory intellectual property course or have the equivalent background.
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August 24 Locke Remixed |
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August 31 Trade Secrets and 1st Amendment |
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September 7 Digital Rights Management and Pricing of Digital Products |
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September 14 Fair Use and Copyright Overenforcement |
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September 21 Unwinding Sony |
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September 28 Can Post-Grant Reviews Improve Patent System Design? A Twin Study of US and European Patents |
October 5
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October 12 Rethinking Trade Secret Disclosure in the Internet Age |
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October 19 An Empirical Study of the US Copyright Fair Use Cases |
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October 26 Patent Metrics: The Mismeasure of Innovation in the Biotech Patent Debate |
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November 2 Creativity and Culture in Copyright Theory |
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November 6 Intellectual Property for Market Experimentation **Note: This session will be held Monday from 4:20 – 6:00 pm in room 13. The session is co-sponsored with BCLB.** |
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November 16 The Law and Economics of Information Overload Externalities |
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November 30 University Software Ownership: Trends, Determinants, Issues |
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December 5 Schechter’s Triumph? The Real Shift in Trademark Law’s Normative Foundation |