King Hall Launches Intellectual Property Certificate Program
UC Davis School of Law, a leader in intellectual property law, has launched an intellectual property certificate program that will provide students with broad and deep exposure to intellectual property law and prepare them for practice in the area, help make students more marketable to employers, and increase awareness of the King Hall IP program's strength in the legal community.
The new certificate program expands the Law School's commitment to intellectual property law and helps to ensure consistent availability of IP courses to King Hall students, who have demonstrated substantial interest. Last year, the King Hall Intellectual Property Law Association had more than 110 student members, and 73 students enrolled in the Intellectual Property survey course. Moreover, recent faculty hires have bolstered the Law School's strength in IP, with Professors Mario Biagioli, Anupam Chander, Lisa Ikemoto, Leslie Kurtz, Peter Lee, and Madhavi Sunder holding special interests in the area and teaching intellectual property- or technology-related courses.
UC Davis School of Law also has recently established two academic centers with significant IP components. The new Center for Science and Innovation Studies (CSIS), under the direction of Professor Biagioli, an internationally renowned expert in the fields of intellectual property and the history of copyright, engages the many dimensions of the process of techno-scientific innovation, including the ways in which intellectual property and copyright help or hinder progress. CSIS has hosted a lecture series and other intellectual property-related events including the "Bayh-Dole at 30: Mapping the Future of University Patenting" conference in 2011. In addition, the California International Law Center at King Hall (CILC), under the leadership of its new Director Anupam Chander, a leading scholar in the law of globalization and digitization, has hosted a number of intellectual property- and technology-related lectures, including a recent talk by author Rebecca MacKinnon, an expert on global internet policy, free expression, and the impact of digital technologies on human rights.
In addition, UC Davis School of Law is home to the annual Fenwick & West Symposium in Technology, Entrepreneurship, Science, and Law (TESLaw) symposium, which has brought speakers including Twitter co-founder Jason Goldman and venture capitalist John Doerr to King Hall. Sponsored by the Silicon Valley firm Fenwick & West, the series provides practitioners, academics, and students with the knowledge base to address the challenges inherent to the computing, digital communications, social media, "clean" technology, and biotechnology markets of the 21st century. The symposia, along with lecture events hosted by CILC and CSIS, and mixers hosted by the King Hall Intellectual Property Association (KHIPLA), offer students the opportunity to meet and network with intellectual property alumni and leading professionals in the field.
KHIPLA is very active as a resource for students interested in IP. The group hosts annual networking events in both the Sacramento and Bay Areas, brings in speakers on hot topics, trains students on resume preparation and applying to IP job fairs, and keeps students up to date on issues related to all aspects of IP. The Entertainment and Sports Law Society is also active and a valuable resource. It brings in high-profile speakers in the entertainment and sports law industries and sponsors charitable events to support the underprivileged community in their sports and entertainment-related endeavors.
To earn the IP certificate, students will need to complete at least 15 units of intellectual property- or technology-related courses, selecting from a list approved by the Education Policy Committee. Students who take the Intellectual Property survey course must take either Patent Law, Trademark, or Copyright; students who do not take the survey course must complete two of the other three. Students may complete up to four of the required 15 units through independent study, group study, or an IP-related externship. They will also be required to complete a writing-requirement-quality paper, approved by an IP professor, and maintain a grade point average of at least 3.0 in graded certificate classes.