Requirements
The BU Law faculty offers an elective Intellectual Property Concentration. The Intellectual Property Concentration brings together three core areas--patent, copyright and trademark. This concentration capitalizes on the School's significant teaching and curriculum strengths in the intellectual property area and matches these strengths with a significant market need for intellectual property specialists.
Once students have decided to pursue a concentration, they should complete an Online Intent to Concentrate Form (also available in the Registrar’s Office). In the final semester, students will receive a Concentration Completion Form from the Registrar’s Office to show the course work and written work that satisfies the concentration requirements.
Program Requirements
A student may be certified as having completed a concentration in Intellectual Property by meeting the following requirements:
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Satisfactory completion of three (3) of the following "Exhibit A" courses:
Intellectual Property
Copyright Law
Patent Law
Unfair Competition and Trademark Law -
Satisfactory completion of an additional two (2) BU Law courses/seminars in the Intellectual Property area. Current law course offerings that satisfy this requirement are:
Exhibit B
- Antitrust, Intellectual Property and High Technology (S)*
- E-Commerce, Intellectual Property and the Business Lawyer (S)
- Entertainment Law (S)
- European Intellectual Property (S)*
- Independent Study (Supervised Research with faculty on an IP topic)
- Innovation and Patent Policy (S)*
- Intellectual Property Theory (S)*
- International Intellectual Property (S)
- Legislative Drafting Clinic (Intellectual Property)
- Patent Prosecution (S)
- Philosophic Problems Related to Copyright & Patent Law (S)*
- Public Policy Toward the High Tech Industry (S)*
- Rhetoric and Copyright (S)*
- Selected Topics in Intellectual Property (S)*
- Software and the Law (S)
- Technology Licensing (S)*
- Topics in Trademark Law (S)
*Not offered 2009-2010
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Satisfactory completion of two (2) additional course from select background and related courses from "Exhibit C" courses below, or from "Exhibit B" courses above.
Exhibit C
a. Administrative Law
b. Antitrust Law
c. Communication Law (S)*
d. The First Amendment
e. Food, Drug and Cosmetic Law (S)
f. Intellectual Property and Business Strategy (S)*
g. International Business Transactions
h. International Competition Law Research (S)
i. International Legal Research (S)
j. International Trade Regulation*
k. International Law
l. Internet Law*
m. Issues Raised by the Internet*
n. Law & Economics*
o. Law & Economics Workshop (S)
p. Law and Sports (S)
q. Law and the Arts (S)*
r. Law & the Lifecycle of a Technology Company (S)*
s. Representing Life Sciences Companies (S)
t. Technology Commercialization (GSM)
u. Telecommunication Law*
* Not offered 2009-2010 -
Satisfactory completion of a substantial written work on an intellectual property topic. The requirements vary depending on two factors: (1) whether the paper is written for a core IP faculty member, and (2) whether the paper is also the student’s Upper-Class Writing Requirement paper.
CORE IP FACULTY—If a student writes a paper for a member of the core IP faculty (Professors Bone, Gordon, or Meurer), the student should make any arrangements regarding the concentration paper requirement with that faculty member.
NON-CORE FACULTY—If a student plans to write a paper under the guidance of someone outside the core IP faculty, the student must obtain approval of the paper proposal from a member of the core IP faculty in advance of writing the paper (“ex ante review”). This ex ante review will focus on the question of whether the proposed topic fits within the concentration’s subject matter. When the ex ante approval is given, the student will then email the person supervising his or her paper, summarizing the topic and informing the supervisor that the student intends the paper to satisfy the IP concentration requirement; on the email, the student should “cc” the core IP faculty member who gave the ex ante approval.
If the paper is not the certification paper (for the Upper-Class Writing Requirement), it must also be reviewed by a member of the core IP faculty after completion and judged to be of satisfactory quality (“ex post review”). A paper that is reviewed ex ante and found to be within IP subject matter need not be reviewed ex post if the supervising person certifies it as satisfying the Upper-Class Writing Requirement and as being within the topic approved in the ex ante review.
Students receiving a 3.5 grade point average in courses taken from Exhibit A and Exhibit B will be certified as earning honors in the concentration. All courses and seminars taken that could count toward the concentration will be considered when determining honors unless, by the end of the applicable add/drop period, a student designates, in writing, that the student does not want a course/seminar that is taken that semester to count towards the concentration. This "opt-out" provision does not apply to courses/seminars that are needed to satisfy the minimum concentration requirements.
To ensure maximum flexibility for students in their future career decisions, the transcripts of students who elect the Intellectual Property Concentration will not reflect the concentration; rather, the BU Law Registrar's Office will separately record completion of the concentration and honors in the concentration and will make available official documentation of completion of the concentration and of honors.
Important Note about Concentrating in Intellectual Property
A technical background can be useful in obtaining intellectual property jobs. It is not a requirement, however. Many areas of intellectual property practice do not require such a background. Nevertheless, some firms that view themselves as "intellectual property firms" are primarily patent firms and are not interested in hiring people unless they can practice on the science side of the intellectual property field.