IP, Historical Perspectives

  • Class number: 9739
  • Term: Spring 2008
  • Instructor:

This seminar course will cover the development of intellectual property in the United States, including trade secrets, trademark, copyright, right of publicity, and patent law, from their early modern English origins until the current period. We will examine, among other subjects, a variety of topics: the importation and adaptation of common law norms, comparisons with European intellectual property systems, the creation of the Copyright and Patent clause in the United States Constitution, defining preemption, the judicial construction of fair use and the public domain, shifting definitions of subject matter, the response of law to new technologies and new modes of production, the emerging role of law in shaping public culture, United States responses to international intellectual property frameworks through bilateral treaties and multi-national conventions, public debates about the role of intellectual property as monopoly, the growth of celebrity, and the place of intellectual property in a digital age. Most of the readings will be secondary works, treatises, statutes, and cases. However, we will remain open to drawing upon innovative methods from cultural history, the new history of technology, the history of the book, literature's new historicism, and the history of consumption and material culture. Students will not be required to have taken a course in intellectual property law as a prerequisite, though this would be helpful. No prior knowledge of United States history or historical methodology is assumed. The goal of the seminar is for students to understand how law develops over time, and how legal rules and standards emerge from social contexts. After preliminary examination of the broad themes in the development of intellectual property law, students will research a specific topic. There is no exam. However, a thoughtful, well-researched paper is required.

Course Schedule

  • Date: Wednesday 09:00-12:00AM
  • Location: KT 201

Course Information

  • Catalog number-Section number: 868-01
  • Course Type: Seminar
  • Prerequisites: May Satisfy Writing Req.
  • Credits (min/max): 3/3
  • Notes: This course will meet twice a week (second class meeting time TBD) through March 1st.
  • Subjects:

Enrollment

  • Enrollment status: Open
  • Current enrollment/capacity: 5/12
  • Reserve population/capacity: 0/0
  • Waitlist enrollment/capacity: 0/20

Grading

  • Grade basis: Graded
  • Satisifies Writing Requirement: UCWR
  • Exam type: NO EXAM