This course examines intellectual property issues on an international basis, exploring the principles and policies supporting the international protection and exploitation of creative and commercial rights, as well as the sources of those rights. The major international treaties for copyright, patent, and trademark protection, as well as the international intellectual property organizations that produce and administer those treaties and effect policy changes, will be analyzed. With that framework, the course will examine questions of enforcement, jurisdiction, and choice of law, the interaction of trade policy and intellectual property laws, and issues relating to establishing and enforcing intellectual property rights in less developed nations.

Prerequisites: Completion of one intellectual property law course (Patents, Trademarks and Unfair Competition, Copyrights, or the Intellectual Property Law Survey). The grade for this seminar will be based primarily on the final exam.