Half-Course: Maximizing the Value of Your Intellectual Property

Course Number 1505

Senior Lecturer Robert C. Pozen
Early Fall, 14 Session half-course
1.5 Credits
Exam

Career Focus

This half-course is aimed at students who want to maximize the value of intellectual property in knowledge-based industries; it will integrate materials on competitive strategies and economic incentives with legal materials. Intellectual property covers patents as well as trade secrets, trademarks, and copyrights. The course should have particular appeal to students thinking about careers in high tech, financial services, telecommunications, entertainment, biotech, and pharma.

The course is designed for future business executives without any legal training. The focus will be on the offensive and defensive uses of intellectual property as part of an overall business strategy. The course is also open to students in the JD-MBA program, though they can take Law School courses with more in-depth analyses of the legal doctrines related to intellectual property.

Educational Objectives

The course has three main educational objectives. First, it will introduce business students to the main concepts and procedures in the US law on intellectual property. Second, it will discuss how intellectual property can be used as part of an overall strategy of a business to create a market for new products and services, or keep other companies from entering such a market. Third, it will address the challenges of intellectual property when running a global business.

Course Content and Organization

The course will meet on the X schedule for the first half of the fall semester. It will be matched with Professor Lena Goldberg's Half-Course: Legal Aspects of Entrepreneurship, which will also meet on the X schedule for the second half of the fall semester.

The course will begin with an introduction to managing the processing and litigation of patents. It will cover copyright issues in traditional forms and Internet-based businesses. It will deal with trademark issues in the US and abroad. It will also address how to navigate in an open source environment.

The case studies cover a broad range of industries. These include car manufacturing, CD players, financial products, Google books, genetic testing, high fashion, internet start-ups, and high-tech chips.

Grading will be based equally on the final exam and class participation. There is no paper for this course.