Academics

Intellectual Property Law Honors Concentration

Register for the Concentration (PDF)

Receive instruction and training in those subjects and skills that are fundamental to the practice of intellectual property attorneys.

Faculty Concentration Advisors and Advisement

Professor Irina D. Manta serves as the faculty concentration advisor for this Concentration. The Concentration faculty advisor may modify the Concentration requirements in exceptional circumstances upon notice to the Dean.

Guidance from a student’s concentration faculty advisor is an important element of successful completion of the Concentration. A Concentration faculty advisor must approve a student’s enrollment in the Concentration. Students should meet with their advisor as soon as they find themselves interested in the Concentration, but in no event later than the course selection deadline for their fourth semester of study (or fifth semester of study for part-time students). An advisor may permit a student to enroll in the Concentration at a later date, but only after determining that the student can realistically meet the requirements of the Concentration prior to graduation.

Once enrolled in the Concentration, students must meet with their faculty advisor at least once per semester, prior to that semester’s course selection deadline, in order to plan their course selection and review their progress in fulfilling the Concentration’s requirements. A student’s concentration faculty advisor must also review and approve the concentration writing requirement.

The Concentration maintains a TWEN site, which is used for communication and programming. All concentration enrollees should sign up for the site (“Intellectual Property Law Honors Concentration”).

Concentration Requirements

Students must take the Intellectual Property Survey course. In addition, they must take two of the following three courses:

  • Copyright
  • Patents
  • Trademarks
  • Students who take all three of these courses may waive the requirement to take the Intellectual Property Survey course if they wish to do so.

Students must also take a total of at least 3 elective courses from “List A” and “List B.”

At least 1 of these courses must be taken from “List A,” below, and at least 1 must be one of the Capstone courses, which involve skills training and are marked with asterisks (the two requirements in this sentence may be fulfilled with the same course).

List A

  • Art Law
  • Comparative Cyberlaw
  • Entertainment Law
  • Global Compliance in the Digital Age
  • Intellectual Property Colloquium
  • Law in Cyberspace
  • Patent Litigation*
  • Patent Practice*
  • Patent Prosecution Externship*
  • Privacy in the Digital Age
  • Sports Law
  • Telecommunications Law and Policy

List B

  • Administrative Law
  • Antitrust
  • Biotechnology: Law, Business, and Regulation
  • Business Drafting Seminar*
  • Discovery Skills II: Depositions*
  • E-Discovery Practice*
  • Evidence (Prof. Krieger only)*
  • International Business Transactions
  • International Commercial Arbitration*
  • International Sales Law
  • International Trade
  • Law’s Response to Reproductive Technology
  • Legal Interviewing, Counseling & Negotiation*
  • Litigation Drafting Skills*
  • Mass Media and the First Amendment
  • Pretrial Skills*
  • Remedies*
  • Scientific Evidence
  • Transactional Lawyering*

Additionally, any other course approved by the student’s concentration advisor, including Independent Study coursework, can be used to satisfy the third elective. Subject to a student’s concentration advisor approval, students can also use an IP-related externship not on this list to fulfill the Capstone part of the electives requirements.

A student must complete a writing requirement that would satisfy either Writing Requirement I or II in any course, or via any Journal note or Independent Study, on an intellectual property law subject or subjects, as approved by the student’s concentration faculty advisor. It is permissible for the writing used to satisfy this requirement to be the same writing used by the student to satisfy another Law School requirement.

A minimum GPA of 3.1 is required at the time of application for the Intellectual Property Law Honors Concentration. Although a GPA of 3.1 or greater need not be maintained throughout a student’s time in the concentration, a student must graduate with a GPA of 3.1 or greater in order to be awarded credit for the concentration.