Creativity, Innovation and Intellectual Property

Catalog description

Copyright and patent laws exist to manage the production of creativity and innovation. By establishing exclusive rights for authors and inventors, IP laws encourage people to create. But IP laws must also balance incentives to creators with opportunities for consumers and subsequent creators to use, adapt, and transform existing works and inventions. This course will examine the ways in which copyright and patent laws attempt to strike this balance. It will focus on legal and social scientific research on creativity, incentives, sequential innovation, and the public domain in order to assess the successes and failures of current IP law and policy. Students may elect one of two mechanisms for evaluation. First, students can complete a substantial research paper on a topic chosen in coordination with the professor and due at the end of the term. Second, students can complete a series of analysis papers that will be due on a regular basis throughout the term.