This curricular pathway provides a progression of courses relevant to intellectual property law that are offered at South Texas College of Law Houston.
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Intellectual Property Law Pathway
| Core courses | |
| Recommended courses | |
| Bar | Relevant bar examination topic |
Stage 1
Copyright Law
View detailsThree semester hours credit. Normally offered once each academic year.
The protection of literary and other intellectual property including art, music, commercial design, computer products, and other forms of expression, with primary emphasis upon the Copyright Act of 1976, study of copyrightable subject matter, the scope of protection, remedies, fair use and other defenses, the effect of developing technologies, related state and federal theories of protection, the preemptive effect of the federal act and international protection.
Patent Law
View detailsThree semester hours credit. Normally offered once each academic year.
This course examines the substantive law of patents and its availability for protecting and commercially exploiting human creativity; the economic and social purposes of a patent system; what a patent is, what it tells the world, and what it protects; what can be patented, and how patents differ from other types of intellectual property; how patent rights are obtained, how they can be lost, and how they may be enforced. No scientific, technical, or other special background is required.
Trademarks & Unfair Competition
View detailsTwo semester hours credit. Offered periodically.
Extension of the law of torts to competitive interference with business relations. The course focus is on problems of business conflicts concerning interference with business contracts and employee relationships, trademark and trade-name rights, good will and trade secrets, product and package simulation, deceptive advertising and trade practices, product disparagement, trade libel and statutory unfair trade practices.
Administrative Law
View detailsThree semester hours credit. Normally offered three times each academic year.
Organization and procedure of federal and state administrative agencies; boards and bureaus; distinction between legislative, executive and judicial powers; delegation of powers; requirements of due process; constitutional limitations; and judicial control over administrative agencies are among the topics covered.
Agency & Partnership
BarView detailsRelevant bar examination topic.
Three semester hours credit. Normally offered twice each academic year.
A study of the legal doctrines governing the formation, operation, and termination of agency relationships, partnerships, limited liability partnerships, limited partnerships, and limited liability companies, including the rights, duties, and obligations of owners and managers.
Corporations
BarView detailsRelevant bar examination topic.
Three semester hours credit. Normally offered three times each academic year.
A study of the legal doctrines governing the formation, operation, and termination of corporations, including the rights, duties, and obligations of shareholders, directors, and officers.
Stage 2
Consider earlier courses plus one or more from below
Intellectual Property Litigation
View detailsThree semester hours credit. Offered periodically.
Prerequisites: Patent Law.
This course builds upon the basic substantive law covered in Patent Law, focusing upon jurisdiction, standing to sue, procedure, pleading, discovery, use of experts, attorney-client privilege and work-product immunity issues, post-discovery strategies, trial preparation, injunctive relief, damages, jury instructions, special verdict forms, appeals, related litigation strategy and tactics, and how these aspects of litigation are different when intellectual property rights are involved. The course also focuses on the litigation-dominating topics of claim construction, proving infringement, proving non-infringement, proving invalidity, and proving unenforceability of a United States patent; on similar topics regarding other forms of intellectual property; and on related litigation strategies and tactics. Although patent litigation is the main focus, other forms of IP litigation are also included (copyright, trademark, trade secret).
Patent Office Procedure
View detailsTwo semester hours credit. Offered periodically.
Prerequisites: Patent Law or Intellectual Property Survey.
This course covers the process for obtaining patent protection for an invention. It examines the formal requirements for filing an application and the rules governing disclosure. The Patent and Trademark Office process, including communications with the examiner, restriction requirements, duty of candor, and submission of related prior art, will be examined. The course also deals with rejection of patent applications, including affidavits, examiner interviews, appeals from patent office decisions, certificates of correction, and reexamination and reissue practice.
Trade Secrets & Related Interests
View detailsTwo semester hours credit. Offered periodically.
This course covers the development and protection of confidential and proprietary business information that gives its possessor a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Coverage includes: the subject matter of trade secrets, the relationship of trade secrets to other forms of intellectual property, implementation of protective programs, methods of enforcement either civil or criminal, available remedies, and the international dimension of protection. The course will also cover related areas of misappropriation, idea protection, interference torts, and covenants not to compete.
Antitrust Law
View detailsThree semester hours credit. Offered periodically.
A study of laws governing competition in business. The class will address monopolies and potentially anti-competitive mergers as well as price-fixing, boycotts, resale price maintenance agreements, predatory pricing, tying arrangements, and similarly suspect practices.
Entertainment Law
View detailsThree semester hours credit. Offered periodically.
This course involves synthesizing a variety of subject matters, including contracts, torts, property (real, personal, and intellectual), ethics and professional responsibility, and state and federal laws in context of the entertainment industry–music, film, television, theater, book publishing, and the internet. The course emphasizes both legal and business aspects of the entertainment industry.
Professional Sports Law
View detailsTwo semester hours credit. Offered periodically.
Prerequisites: None but Antitrust Law is recommended.
This course covers various legal issues affecting professional sports and focuses on antitrust, labor, contracts, regulation of private associations, and player/agent representation issues.
Contract Building Blocks
View detailsTwo semester hours credit. Normally offered three times each academic year. Enrollment limited to 24 students.
This course provides students an opportunity to develop, practice drafting, comment on, and redline the substantive portions of an agreement. The primary goal of the class is to teach students how to translate the terms of a business deal into contract concepts, and draft the contract to close the transaction. Specifically, students will learn how and when to use the basic contract building blocks: covenants, conditions, representations, warranties, rights, discretionary authority, and declarations. The basic parts of a contract will be analyzed in detail and students will learn how to (1) avoid legalese, (2) obtain clarity through document formatting and sentence structure, (3) prevent ambiguity, (4) understand the appropriate use of vague terms, and (5) use various other drafting considerations. Learning how the transactional attorney adds value to the deal by helping the client attain the client’s business goals while avoiding unacceptable risks will be covered as well as several typical ethics issues that arise in transactional work.
Contract Negotiations & Drafting
View detailsTwo semester hours credit. Normally offered twice each academic year. Enrollment limited to 24 students.
This course is designed to provide students with the skills necessary to: (1) identify issues that should be negotiated in complex business contracts; (2) draft several key provisions to be included in the final contract as negotiated; and (3) negotiate a “real” business contract. A variety of assignments help to assure each student completes a variety of tasks that need to be integrated based on an appropriate level of legal issue analysis resulting in an effective and usable work product. Skill development also includes an appreciation of business and legal risks that need to be dealt with when negotiating and drafting.
Civil Pretrial Advocacy
View detailsTwo semester hours credit. Normally offered twice each academic year.
Prerequisites: Must have completed 45 semester hours and have taken or be concurrently enrolled in Texas Pretrial Procedure. These prerequisites will be strictly enforced.
The structure of the course involves students in preparing a realistic civil case against an opponent. Students engage in all aspects of pretrial discovery and motion practice, including client interview, attempts to settle, drafting pleadings, paper discovery, taking depositions, procedural and dispositive motions, and pretrial orders.
Stage 3
Consider earlier courses plus one or more from below
Patent Licensing & Technology Transfer
View detailsTwo semester hours credit. Offered periodically.
Prerequisites: Patent Law or Intellectual Property Survey.
This course builds upon the basic substantive law covered in the prerequisite foundation course, focusing upon gaining economic benefit by giving others the right to use the property rights conferred by a United States patent, and examining what a license is, what can and cannot be licensed, the rights and obligations of the licensor and of the licensee, the content and effect of license agreements, and related competition law issues.
Patent Prosecution & Claim Drafting
View detailsTwo semester hours credit. Offered periodically.
Prerequisites: Patent Law or Intellectual Property Survey.
This course is designed for students who intend to concentrate in the preparation and prosecution of patent applications. This course provides students with an in-depth knowledge of the mechanics of writing patent specifications and the art of drafting patent claims. In particular, the course will focus on providing students with the skills and knowledge necessary to assist an inventor in obtaining a patent, from the initial step of meeting with the inventor through the post patent issuance procedures. Students will be expected to prepare simple patent applications with claims.
Patent Clinic
View detailsTwo or three semester hours credit.
Prerequisites: Patent Law and at least 45 total credit hours.
Students in the Patent Law Clinic would assist in representing individuals and small business in filings and proceedings before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). As part of the USPTO “Law School Clinic Certification Pilot Program,” students would be granted limited recognition to counsel clients regarding patent matters, conduct patentability searches, prepare patentability opinions for clinic clients, draft and file patent applications to the USPTO, and respond to USPTO Office Actions.
Trademark Clinic
View detailsTwo semester credit hours. Enrollment limited. Estimate a weekly commitment of seven hours and the flexibility to largely design your own work schedule.
Prerequisites: At least 45 total credit hours.
This new Clinic is part of a pilot program offered by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. It allows law students to practice trademark law before the USPTO under the guidance of a faculty clinic supervisor. The program promotes affordable intellectual property services to individuals and small businesses. Clinic students will interview and counsel clients, conduct preliminary factual investigations, draft and file applications, and respond to agency actions. Students interested in an IP or small business corporate practice should consider this clinic.
Advanced Patent Law Seminar
View detailsTwo semester hours credit. Offered periodically.
Prerequisites: Patent Law and 45 semester hours plus completion or concurrent enrollment in all required courses (with the exception of the substantial writing credit).
This seminar allows students to study cutting-edge advanced issues in patent law beyond what they learned in the basic Patent Law course. Emphasis will be on the economic, social, and legal policies that underlie patent law. Topics may vary each semester the course is offered, and may include current issues relating to patent litigation and patentability, as well as how the patent reform movement is attempting to drive changes in all areas of patent law. Students can choose from a wide range of topics on which to write their seminar research papers.
Transaction Skills–International Business Transactions
View detailsThree semester hours credit. See Handbook for additional information, including prerequisites.
This course focuses on the development of client communication, problem-solving and contract drafting skills. Students learn about the intellectual property and investment laws of two foreign countries. The main body of the course is built around a multi-party transactional problem which requires the students to draft for a U.S. client a foreign joint venture agreement, a license agreement dealing with patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets, and an international distribution of goods agreement. The students also learn by drafting about the basic documents needed for financing such transactions and about other major contract issues that arise in most, if not all of these transactions—dispute settlement, ethical concerns, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, gray market goods issues and export controls.
International Business Transactions
View detailsThree semester hours credit. Offered periodically.
A survey of the issues encountered by firms and individuals engaged in international trade, the exploitation of intellectual property rights and various forms of foreign direct investment. Topics covered include an introduction to international trade law (including the formation of U.S. trade policy), international sale of goods (including transportation and financing issues), distribution of goods, the protection and licensing of intellectual property rights, franchising agreements, investment rights (under customary international law, treaties and free trade agreements), investment regulation, investment arbitration, joint venture agreements, industrial works contracts, international corruption and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Internet Law
View detailsTwo semester hours credit. Normally offered once each academic year.
Prerequisites: None but Intellectual Property Law Survey is recommended.
This course examines the law regulating Internet commerce. Topics covered include jurisdictional issues, intellectual property issues, Internet service providers’ liability, online contracts, privacy and electronic intrusions.