Law 827: Intellectual Property Workshop

Rebecca Eisenberg & Jessica Litman
Fall 2019
Mondays, 4:10 pm — 6:10 p.m., 1070 JH

 

Course Description

This Workshop will feature presentations from scholars conducting research on intellectual property law and related topics. Students will prepare for these sessions by reading the papers and writing and submitting short critiques. The Workshop will also be open to the public. Faculty, students and staff from the law school and other University departments, and faculty from other universities in the area may attend particular sessions.

Schedule

September 9: Introduction

• Read the introductory handout and syllabus for the workshop and also read It’s All Taken Care of in the Contracts? An empirical study of authors' rights in Australian book publishing contracts by Joshua Yuvarov and Rebecca Giblin

Friday, September 13 (make-up class, 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm in 1020 JH): Rebecca Giblin, Melbourne University

• Paper: 'It's all taken care of in the contracts'? An empirical study of authors' rights in Australian book publishing contracts
• Post your comments on Canvas by noon, Thursday September 12

September 16:

• The assignment is posted HERE
• Post your essay on Canvas by 9 am on Sunday, September 15

September 23:

• The reading assignment is posted HERE
• Essays due Friday September 20 by 8:00 am

September 30: No class

October 7: Jorge Contreras, University of Utah

• Paper: Musing about Myriad
• Comments due October 4

Tuesday, October 15 (Monday schedule):Nicholson Price

• Paper: Opacity and Scientific Progress in Machine Learning (with Arti Rai)
• Comments due October 11

October 21: Sapna Kumar, University of Houston

• Paper: Increasing Technical Expertise in Patent Litigation
• Comments due October 18

October 28: Zvi Rosen, George Washington University

• Paper: Examining Copyright
• Comments due October 25

November 4: Peter Lee, UC Davis

• Paper: Innovation Consolidation: Industry Concentration and the Commercialization of Intellectual Property
• Comments due November 1

November 11: Joseph Fishman, Vanderbilt University

• Paper: Copyright’s Nonobvious Kin
• Comments due November 8

November 18: Molly Shaffer Van Houweling, UC Berkeley

• Paper: Private Law Attorneys General
• Comments due November 15

November 25: Sarah Burstein, University of Oklahoma

• Paper: Whole Designs
• Comments due November 22

December 2: Alexandra Roberts, University of New Hampshire

• Paper: False Influencing
• Comments due November 29

 

Learning Outcomes:

• The primary learning objective for the IP Workshop is to give students a rigorous introduction to legal scholarship as a pursuit in an academic community. Through weekly reading and writing exercises, students will learn to engage with scholarly writing as helpful critics. The initial classes will present introductory material and exercises. In each of the succeeding weeks, students will read a work in progress from a legal scholar in the IP field and submit written comments. Each week, students will receive written feedback on their comments from the instructors in advance of the workshop, guiding them on how best to introduce their comments and questions to the authors in the workshop and also how to improve future written comments. Over the course of the semester, students will improve their skills as commentators and gain confidence in their ability to participate in scholarly discussion. These skills are valuable not only to students interested in future academic employment, but to anyone whose professional future includes working collaboratively to improve arguments and texts.

Past Intellectual Property Workshops

A list of past speakers is HERE.