| Dr. TyAnna Herrington | Skiles 23 | Office hours- 10-11 M,W,Th | 404.894.6207 |
| tyanna.herrington@lcc.gatech.edu |
| WebBoard |
Intellectual Property Policy and Law
provides an overview of intellectual property law and the policy issues that shape and drive it. Course participants will examine the pragmatic aspects of the law to understand definitions of areas of product protection (such as trademark, patent, and copyright), the extent of protection afforded to creative products, limitations on product control, and operation of special treatment areas such as work for hire, among others . They will also examine the effects of policy on interpretation, application, and creation of law within the frameworks of differing ideological structures, particularly as they are influenced by the Internet and digitized communication. Assignments include reading and discussion, hard copy critical analyses, and/or digital products.
Description of Assignments
Readings/Participation Students are responsible for all course readings on the day assigned. Failure to complete the readings can severely hinder ability to understand the information covered.
External Reading Responses Students will locate, summarize, and present material from 10 external article readings, to be presented from March 12 through April 11. These readings should focus form the basis of the analytical project work that students will do in another course-related assignment and provide the rest of the class with a database of sources from which to draw information.
Analytical Artifact Students will produce final analytical projects that will answer focused questions of their choice in intellectual property. They must ask and answer a specific question in an area of their choice in intellectual property. They may submit an analysis in a more traditional print-based medium or may choose to submit a project in a digital medium or combination of media. All projects must provide documentation to explain their theoretical bases, reasoning for technological media choices, a clearly explained synthesis of their ideas and choices, and a final artifact that answers the question asked. To enhance the learning of all course participants, students will present their findings in class.
Grading
Readings/Participation 10%
External Reading Responses 20%
Analytical Artifact 70%, broken down as follows:
Schedule of Classes
January
10- introduction to course, ideology and law
17- read Bolter foreword, Constitutional basis, balance, law and policy, read Patterson and Lindberg ch 9
24- history, Patterson Lindberg ch 2, protections
31- copyright
February
7- work for hire, read Herrington "Work for Hire for Non-academic Creators," begin fair use
14- fair use
21- misc other issues
28- proposal discussion, discussion of potential topics
March
7- Spring Break
14- read Jaszi and Woodmansee, article summaries and discussion
21- (No class today--- 4 Cs Conference)
28 read Logie, read Herrington "The Interdependency of Fair Use and the First Amendment," article summaries and discussion
April
4- read Karjala, article summaries and discussion, discusion of oral presentation
11- article summaries and discussion
18- presentations
25- Last Day of Class - final presentations and wrap-up all work due