The casebook is Janicke, Modern Patent
Litigation , third edition. It is available in e-book form only, from Carolina Academic Press.
We will cover 5 or 6 cases per class. If you are prepared that far ahead, you are OK.
This is a litigation course, but it treats
primarily doctrinal law topics rather than tactics or procedure. A background
in patent prosecution is not particularly helpful or harmful, and the
same is true of a technical background. I am amenable to waiving the
prerequisite Patent Law for those students who wish to take both courses
simultaneously, although this is not recommended.
It will be helpful to have some version
of the 1952 patent statute available to you during each class session.
The remedies and defenses provisions of this law were left almost entirely
intact by the new patent reform bill, the America Invents Act, signed
into law in September 2011.
The course will progress at about 50 pages
per week.
If the class so elects, there will be
two multiple-choice quizzes during the semester, on pre-announced dates.
The quizzes will count, in the aggregate, for 10% of your final grade.
Exam numbers will be issued by the Law Center administration before
the first quiz.