The Law of Intellectual Property

Written to meet the need for a teachable casebook that maintains its focus despite the extent and complexity of the law, "The Law of Intellectual Property" is an accessible and effective presentation of federal law on trademark, copyright, and patents and of key state law doctrines such as trade secrets, rights in ideas, and rights of publicity.

This refreshing new approach to IP law: introduces high interest, cutting-edge applications, problems, and perspectives within the context of traditional IP principles: for example, the patent issues relating to the development of human genomics and the copyright questions raised by digital music; supplies comprehensive, current coverage by integrating IP case law, theory, and statutes in the expanding contexts for its use; serves as a practical and thorough foundation, which also prepares students for more advanced courses; and, draws on the expertise of its authors, all recognized scholars, teachers, and practitioners who have written extensively on both the fundamentals and the subtleties of various aspects of IP law. It makes excellent use of cases - chosen for the clarity with which they illustrate the principles under discussion as well as their currency and inherent interest - to offer straightforward statements on and insights into the applicable law; uses supporting text and notes to clarify technological points and emphasize the theory, broad context, and significance of the cases; integrates statutory excerpts precisely relevant, distinctively marked, and conveniently placed following each of the book's major subject divisions so students fully and immediately appreciate their applicability.

The book is carefully constructed to facilitate both teaching and learning: distinctive and insightful. Comparative Perspectives and Policy Perspectives create an enriched context encompassing comparative law, special rules relating to technology, and theoretical views on the topics and issues; numerous problems drawn from actual cases test broad comprehension of principles and statutory materials and introduce key portions of cases; a thorough Teacher's Manual contains careful guidance for teachers on how to teach from the materials; outlines of the main procedural and substantive points of the cases; discussions of why the cases appear where they do and how each fits into the structural context of intellectual property law; and suggested answers for all questions raised and problems presented in the text.