ENGIN 5030 - Patent Law and Strategy

This course will fulfill the legal instruction requirement of the COE’s Entrepreneurship Certificate program. Generally the course will focus on patent law. The various types of IP (patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secret) will briefly be compared. Fundamentals like patentable subject matter, novelty, non-obviousness, and written description will be explored. The course will outline the process of obtaining a patent and avoiding litigation, including conception, inventorship, Invention Disclosure Reports (IDRs), patentability searches, infringement searches, validity searches, assignment searches, and maintenance fee searches. Simple aspects of applicable contract law will also be explored, including employer IP agreements. Students will learn to synthesize case law and apply this synthesis with a view to patent strategy. Students will also get experience persuading investors, business partners, attorneys and others with whom they will interact in entrepreneurial domains.