Law 827: Intellectual Property Workshop

Fall 2025

Rebecca Eisenberg & Jessica Litman

Monday 4:30 - 6:30 pm, 1025 Jeffries Hall

The Intellectual Property Workshop will feature presentations from scholars conducting research on intellectual property law and related topics. Students will prepare for these sessions by reading the papers and writing and submitting short comments, questions and suggestions. The Workshop will be open to the public. Faculty, students and staff from the law school and other University departments, and faculty from other universities in the area may attend particular sessions.

Schedule:

August 25: Introduction

September 1: Labor Day -- no class

September 8: practice session

September 15: Jeanne Fromer, N.Y.U.

September 22: Maya Durvasula, Stanford

September 29: Xiyin Tang, U.C.L.A.

October 6: Dennis Crouch, University of Missouri

October 13: Fall Recess -- no class

October 20: Salome Viljoen, University of Michigan

October 27: Jake Sherkow, University of Illinois

November 3: Mark McKenna, U.C.L.A.

November 10: Kristelia Garcia, Georgetown

November 17: Rebecca Wexler, Columbia Law School

November 24: Aaron Perzanowski, University of Michigan

December 1: Final class session

______________

Learning Outcomes:

The primary learning objective for the IP Workshop is to give students a rigorous introduction to legal scholarship as a pursuit in an academic community. Through weekly reading and writing exercises, students will learn to engage with scholarly writing as helpful critics. The first two weeks will present introductory material and exercises. In each of the succeeding weeks, students will read a work in progress from a legal scholar in the IP field and submit written comments. Each week, students will receive written feedback on their comments from the instructors in advance of the workshop, guiding them on how best to introduce their comments and questions to the authors in the workshop and also how to improve future written comments. Over the course of the semester, students will improve their skills as commentators and gain confidence in their ability to participate in scholarly discussion. These skills are valuable not only to students interested in future academic employment, but to anyone whose professional future includes working collaboratively to improve arguments and texts.

______________

Weekly written assignments

Your weekly written assignments will be due Friday mornings at 9 am. We have posted instructions for the written assignments here.

______________

Class policies:

Attendance at every workshop is mandatory
Your final seminar grade will be based on the overall quality of your weekly written comments and the quality of your contributions to class discussion
It is the policy and desire of the Law School to provide reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities. Students who may require some type of accommodation should speak with Angela Baugher (abaugher@umich.edu) in the Law School Office of Student Life (734-764-0516) or with Natalie Ridgeway (rnatali@umich.edu), the Law School's SSD Coordinator at the University Services for Students with Disabilities (https://ssd.umich.edu/(Links to an external site.)).

______________

Office Hours:

Rebecca Eisenberg: Tuesday 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm, 407 Hutchins Hall
Jessica Litman: Monday 2:00pm - 3:30 pm, 432 Hutchins Hall

_____________

Faculty Assistants:

Krista Turner - 308 Hutchins Hall - tkrista@umich.edu
Devin Fredrickson - 308 Hutchins Hall - dfredric@umich.edu