Intellectual Property Management and Opportunity Assessment

Catalog description

The goal of this course is to address issues relating to the commercialization of scientific inventions by exposing graduate students to the challenges and opportunities encountered when attempting to develop meaningful intellectual property from the point of early discovery to the clinic and market. Specifically, this course seeks to provide students with the ability to value a given technological advance or invention holistically, focusing on issues that extend beyond scientific efficacy and include patient and practitioner value propositions, legal and intellectual property protection, business modeling, potential market impacts, market competition, and ethical, social, and healthcare practitioner acceptance. These issues transcend disciplinary boundaries, requiring the integration of expertise in the fields of law, business, and biomedical research disciplines. For instance, comprehending the intricacies involved in the evolution of an upstream product from the lab to the marketplace requires an understanding of intellectual property management, namely the identification of optimal appropriability mechanisms, constructing an intellectual property portfolio (e.g., patents, trademarks, and trade secrets), and leveraging this portfolio in a competitive fashion. An emphasis of this course is to help students understand that intellectual property strategy is business strategy, and that IP is a strategic business asset that can be leveraged to create value and intellectual asset formation in the marketplace.