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LAW-2618 Copyright Law
Prof. Rebecca Curtin, Prof. Leah Chan Grinvald,
3 credits day; 3 credits evening.
WEB-Web course-Courses for which more than one-third of the information is online. Students
must have completed 28 credits to enroll in a web course. No more than 15 credits of web
courses may be counted toward the JD.
This course considers problems, practical and theoretical, that arise in the creation, marketing,
and distribution of literary, artistic, musical, and computer related works. Attention centers on
the law of copyright, but the course also considers related branches of law, especially the law of
unfair competition.
Faculty comments
: Professor Grinvald: Although an introductory class to intellectual property
is not a prerequisite to this course, a basic understanding of how copyright compares with
patents, trade secrets and trademark as other forms of intellectual property will help analyze the
law and policy we will be discussing over the semester. This course will focus on the historical
development of copyright and how the law and its practice has evolved into the 21st century with
the explosion of digital technology. The class will be taught in an innovative format: the first few
classes will meet in person, with the bulk of the semester taught through online lectures with
integrated PowerPoint slides (along with a short multiple choice exam at the end), and in-person
small group work (for example, simulated negotiations or license drafting). The class will also
make use of Blackboard features, such as the online discussion board. This class promises to be
exciting, and will also offer more flexibility than a traditional course. This class qualifies as a
'distance education course' under the ABA rules because more than one-third of the instruction
will be online. The final grade for this class will be based on the multiple choice exams and the
small group exercises conducted throughout the semester. There is no final exam for this course.
Elective Course
Meets Intellectual Property Concentration Requirements
Final Exam Required
LLM Course
<<Course Updated: July 26, 2016>>