Intellectual Property Law

GW LAW HAS BEEN A NATIONAL LEADER IN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY EDUCATION AND SCHOLARSHIP for more than 100 years. In fact, when the law school established a master’s of patent law program in 1895, its alumni already had written the patents for Bell’s telephone, Mergenthaler’s linotype machine, and Eastman’s roll film camera, among hundreds of other inventions; dozens more alumni had worked in the U.S. Patent Office. Today, GW Law is internationally known for its intellectual property law program, with significant strength in the areas of patent, copyright, trademark, privacy, communications, internet and cyberlaw, and genetics.

In the early 1950s, long before the term “intellectual property” was widely used, GW Law recognized the close relations among patents, trademarks, and copyrights by establishing the Patent, Trademark, and Copyright Foundation, the country’s first research institute in any of those areas. In recent years, as intellectual property law issues have become more tightly interwoven with issues in commercial law, privacy, internet and cyberlaw, communications law, and the regulation of genetics and medicine, GW Law has been among the first to add faculty and courses in those areas. At the same time, we have not neglected our core strength in patents and have continued to develop an unparalleled patent law faculty and curriculum. The result: an Intellectual Property Law LLM Program that is second to none and that equips students to respond successfully to the innovations of the coming century. The LLM degree program is designed for both U.S. and non-U.S. law school graduates interested in intensive study of U.S., international, and comparative intellectual property law. Many U.S. attorneys complete the program to gain the specialized knowledge necessary to practice, teach, or regulate in a legal field that has been one of the most important and most interesting for the last several decades. Many non-U.S. attorneys complete the program to get their first in-depth look at U.S. intellectual property law, while qualifying to take a bar examination that will enable them to practice in the United States, such as in New York.

Tina Chappell, Board of Directors Member for the Federal Circuit Bar Association and former Associate General Counsel for Intel Corporation, presented at a recent Patents in Telecommunications Conference.

CURRICULUM REQUIREMENTS

A minimum of 14 credits from the following courses is required, including two (2) credits graded on the basis of research paper. For students who choose to write a thesis, Thesis and a minimum of 10 credits from the following courses are required.

Advanced Trademark Law Art, Cultural Heritage, and the Law Seminar Chemical and Biotech Patent Law Computer Law Copyright Law Design Law Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights in the U.S. International Trade Commission Entertainment Law The Federal Circuit Government Procurement of Intellectual Property Seminar Information Privacy Law Intellectual Property Antitrust Seminar Intellectual Property Law Seminar International and Comparative Patent Law International Copyright Law International Intellectual Property Internet Law Law in Cyberspace Legal Drafting (IP) Licensing of Intellectual Property Rights Patent Appellate Practice Patent Enforcement Patent Law Patent Strategies and Practice Selected Topics in Intellectual Property Law Trade Secrets Law Trademark Law and Unfair Competition USPTO Post-Grant Patent Proceedings Property also will be available; only students with a non-U.S. law degree who plan to take the New York bar examination may count this course toward the 14 credits required in the field.

COURSES RELATED TO INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW

These courses are related to, but do not count toward, the Intellectual Property Law curriculum requirement.

Antitrust Law Formation of Government Contracts Genetics and the Law Intellectual Property Law Law and Medicine Sports and the Law Telecommunications Law

Most courses are offered at least once per year. Course listing is based on 2020-21 Law School Bulletin.

FIELD PLACEMENT The Washington, D.C., area has the country’s highest concentration of internship opportunities with nonprofit and trade groups, courts, and government agencies specializing in intellectual property, including the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the U.S. Copyright Office, the U.S. International Trade Commission, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. Through field placements, students gain mentorship from members of the local intellectual property community, as well as up to four hours of academic credit (five hours of work per week are required for each credit). GW Law’s Intellectual Property Law Program maintains a list of approved placements.

RESEARCH AND WRITING Each LLM student must write either: (a) a substantial research paper in connection with a seminar or independent legal writing for at least two credits, or (b) a thesis for four credits. Our students have published their work not only in general law reviews in the United States (including GW’s Law Review and International Law Review) but also in specialized journals such as the American Intellectual Property Law Association Quarterly Journal and The Federal Circuit Bar Journal (both housed at GW); Journal of the Patent and Trademark Office Society; International Review of Industrial Property, Copyright, and Competition Law; and the counterpart German language journals of the Max Planck Institute of Intellectual Property, Competition, and Tax Law in Munich.

THE DEAN DINWOODEY CENTER The Dean Dinwoodey Center for Intellectual Property Law Studies, directed by Associate Dean John Whealan and Professors Martin Adelman and Robert Brauneis, sponsors research, lectures, conferences, and activities on a broad range of intellectual property issues. The center is funded in part by the Bureau of National Affairs in memory of its founder, Dean Dinwoodey, LLB ’29. ANNUAL LECTURE SERIES The IP program hosts several ongoing lecture series and symposiums featuring noted and emerging IP scholars from the United States and abroad. Events include the IP Speaker Series, which brings professors from other law schools to discuss their research; the biannual A. Sidney Katz Lecture; the Christopher A. Meyer Memorial Lecture in Copyright Law; and the Post-Grant Roundtable.

MUNICH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW SUMMER PROGRAM Participants in the Munich Intellectual Property Summer Program—held each summer at the Munich Intellectual Property Law Center in Munich, Germany—study current intellectual property issues with a focus on international law in the city known as Europe’s intellectual property capital. Leading academics in the field offer courses on topics such as international patent law, copyright law, and internet law. Special lectures and study visits to international IP institutions are part of the program.

AMERICAN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW ASSOCIATION QUARTERLY JOURNAL FEDERAL CIRCUIT BAR JOURNAL GW Law is home to these two leading IP journals. Both are edited by students under faculty supervision and are distributed to judges, attorneys, professors, and law students in the field.

FACULTY

Full biographical information for full-time faculty members and deans begins on page 64.

ASSOCIATE DEAN AND CO-DIRECTOR

John M. Whealan Intellectual Property Advisory Board Associate Dean for Intellectual Property Law Studies; Co-Director, Dean Dinwoodey Center for Intellectual Property Law Studies

CO-DIRECTORS

Martin J. Adelman Theodore and James Pedas Family Professor of Intellectual Property and Technology Law; Co-Director, Dean Dinwoodey Center for Intellectual Property Law Studies

Robert Brauneis Michael J. McKeon Professor of Intellectual Property Law; Co-Director, Dean Dinwoodey Center for Intellectual Property Law Studies; Member, Managing Board, Munich Intellectual Property Law Center FULL-TIME FACULTY

Michael B. Abramowicz Professor of Law

Susan R. Jones Professor of Clinical Law

Dmitry Karshtedt Associate Professor of Law

F. Scott Kieff Fred C. Stevenson Research Professor of Law

Dawn C. Nunziato William Wallace Kirkpatrick Research Professor

Joan E. Schaffner Associate Professor of Law

Roger E. Schechter Professor of Law

Daniel J. Solove John Marshall Harlan Research Professor of Law

Sonia M. Suter The Kahan Family Research Professor of Law; Founding Director, Health Law Initiative ADJUNCT FACULTY

The adjunct faculty for the LLM Program in Intellectual Property Law includes approximately 25 faculty members who are prominent legal experts in the field. They come from U.S. government agencies, leading law firms, nonprofit organizations, U.S. government agencies, and international organizations including:

• Banner Witcoff • Covington & Burling • Crowell & Moring • Davis Wright & Tremaine • Debevoise & Plimpton • Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath • Finnegan • Fish & Richardson • Hogan Lovells • Latham & Watkins • Laurence & Phillips IP Law • McDermott Will & Emery • PBS KIDS • Paul Hastings • Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman • Ropes & Gray • Singer Cashman • Sentinel Worldwide • Traphagen Law • U.S. Court of Appeals for the

Federal Circuit • U.S. Department of Defense • U.S. Department of Justice • U.S. International Trade Commission • U.S. Patent and Trademark Office • Williams & Connolly • Zacharia Law

Full biographical information for our adjunct faculty members is available at www.law.gwu.edu/faculty.

IP students find a variety of enrichment opportunities, including (clockwise) the Rothwell IP Moot Court Competition and the annual GW Law-sponsored reception at the AIPLA Conference. Bottom: Professor Sonia Suter