Course Description
This seminar deals with the theoretical and policy foundations of patent, copyright, and trademark law. The readings consist of both contemporary and "classic" law review articles and other primary and secondary sources that explore connections between intellectual property law and a variety of possible justifications for the law and its leading cases, statutes, and treaties, including history, liberal political theory, economics and other social sciences, literary theory, and cultural theory.
The bulk of the work of the seminar consists of supervision and discussion of original research by students (that is, research in print collections and other collections of analog sources, and digital archives of print collections) on historical intellectual property topics of their choosing, and the production and classroom presentation of a significant piece of original writing by each student.