IP Transactions

IP Transactions

This topic covers the myriad transactions involving intellectual property rights in the modern economy with an emphasis on the high technology industry. Increasingly, conventional transactional lawyering involves an intellectual property component; this topic is designed to help those students and readers of this Legal Encyclopedia preparing for a career in business or corporate law become comfortable and familiar with intellectual property rights. We will cover the law of ownership of rights (who is vested with rights initially under the copyright, patent, and trademark statutes); assignment of rights, especially in the employment context; licensing transactions (strategic transactions, UCC rights and warranties, shrinkwraps/webwraps, UCITA, open source); antitrust considerations, channel issues, and consulting/development relationships. We will not deal directly with the issuance and validity of rights, instead focusing solely on transactions involving them.

The topic will give students and readers of this Legal Encyclopedia the tools and skills they will need to draft and analyze intellectual property agreements. After developing the legal foundation outlined above, we will draw on high level practitioners from leading law firms and local high technology companies to explore the real world of intellectual property practice in fields such as merchandising, new media, and the Internet. In addition to lectures, students and readers of this Legal Encyclopedia will have the opportunity to apply their new skills to an IP due diligence exercise and a mock licensing negotiation.