US Intellectual Property Law (LAWS70406)

Intellectual property is an increasingly contested field – both nationally and internationally. Different states’ intellectual property laws manifest different attitudes towards the defining policy tension in this field of law: how to encourage and reward innovative activity, while ensuring that intellectual property does not raise intolerable barriers to market entry or impede fundamental rights and freedoms. This subject provides an overview of key United States intellectual property doctrines, statutes and principles, and will help students understand some of the ways the United States addresses these issues through its intellectual property laws. Before taking up his joint positions of Professor of Law at Melbourne Law School and Chair in Private Law at Victoria University, Professor Austin directed the intellectual property program at the University of Arizona College of Law.

Principal topics will include:

• Copyright protection for data-rich products
• Prohibitions on copyright and trade mark protections for ‘useful articles’
• Work for hire rules in copyright
• The ‘fair use’ exception to copyright
• Indirect liability for copyright infringement
• Establishment of trade mark rights under state and federal laws, including ‘intent to use’ applications
• Trade mark infringement
• Forms of abandonment of trade marks, including by naked licensing
• Patentable subject matter and standards for patentability
• Scope of patent and trade secret rights
• Remedies.