Certificate in Intellectual Property Law

This page describes the requirements to obtain a certificate in Intellectual Property Law and provides links to the documents that must be submitted to the Registrar’s Office by February 1st for a May graduation date or October 31st for a January graduation date.

Please also visit the Intellectual Property Law program page for general information about Intellectual Property Law at Lewis & Clark Law School.

Documents:

Application

Paper Requirement 

Certificate in Intellectual Property Law

The Certificate in Intellectual Property Law, awarded to qualified Lewis & Clark Law School students upon graduation, recognizes successful curriculum concentration in the field of intellectual property law. In order to receive a Certificate, students who believe they fulfill the requirements must complete an application form and the Paper Requirement form linked in the Documents section above. Students qualify for a Certificate in Intellectual Property Law by satisfying the course, paper, and grade point average requirements set forth below.

A. Course Requirements

1. To obtain the certificate, a student must satisfactorily complete two of the following three courses: Copyright Law; Patent Law & Policy; or Trademark & Unfair Competition Law.

2. In addition, a student must complete nine (9) additional credits in courses approved for the Certificate in Intellectual Property Law. A minimum of six of these additional credits must be in approved classroom courses, and this minimum of six credits must not be graded on a credit/no-credit basis. Stated another way, up to three ungraded credits in total can come from the courses: Individual Research, IP: Practicum, and the Small Business Legal Clinic. 

A list of approved courses appears below. PREREQUISITES: Please note that some courses do have prerequisites; the Intellectual Property Survey, however, is no longer a prerequisite for taking any courses. EXCLUSIONS: Students are not permitted to enroll in the Intellectual Property Law Survey course if they: (a) have already taken two or more of the three courses listed in ¶ A.1: Copyright Law, Patent Law & Policy, or Trademark & Unfair Competition Law; (b) will be concurrently enrolled in two or more of the ¶ A.1 courses in the same semester as the Intellectual Property Survey; or (c) have already taken one of the ¶ A.1 courses and will be concurrently enrolled in one or more of the ¶ A.1 courses in the same semester as the Intellectual Property Survey. This rule seeks to prevent a student from taking two ¶ A.1 courses and using the Intellectual Property Survey as a substitute for a third ¶ A.1 course. E.g., if you have already taken Copyright Law and Patent Law, it does not make sense to take the Intellectual Property Survey to learn Trademark law. Instead, it would behoove the student to simply take Trademark & Unfair Competition Law. We do want to stress, however, that it is entirely possible and appropriate for a student to first take the Intellectual Property Survey and then, upon learning of their genuine interest in intellectual property, to enroll in all three of the ¶ A.1 courses.

This list of approved courses is subject to change. Some courses listed below are no longer offered, but if previously taken by a student will still qualify. Questions regarding changes to this list or the certificate should be directed to both of the Certificate Directors, Professors Lydia Loren and Tabrez Ebrahim.

Intellectual Property Certificate Courses

Course #

104 Antitrust Law 

221 Contract Drafting: Entertainment Law OR 345 Entertainment Law (but not both)

331 Copyright Law‡

333 IP: Advanced Topics

337 Copyright Law in Practice (formerly known as Copyright Law: Simulation Lab)

345 Entertainment Law OR 221 Contract Drafting: Entertainment Law (but not both)

347 Data Privacy and Security Compliance OR 423 Information Privacy Law (but not both)

368 Intellectual Property Survey

386 Medical Technology Law [no longer offered]

397 Technology Transfer & Licensing

416 Patent Law & Policy‡

419 Technology & Patent Litigation (Patent Law 416 is a prerequisite)

423 Information Privacy Law OR 347 Data Privacy and Security Compliance (but not both)

426 Sports Law

432 Trademark & Unfair Competition Law‡

455 Patent Prosecution (Patent Law 416 is a prerequisite)

540 Law and Economics

546 Telecommunications Law

702 Individual Research (Intellectual Property Law topic) *†

741 IP: Practicum (also known as In-House Counsel/IP: Practicum)*† [no longer offered]

792 Small Business Legal Clinic*

792P Small Business Legal Clinic Patent Program*

† Only two credits from this course may be used to satisfy certificate requirements.

‡ Students cannot use this course to simultaneously satisfy the requirements in ¶ A.1 and ¶ A.2. A student can, however, use two of these courses to satisfy ¶ A.1 and the third to help satisfy ¶ A.2.

* This course does not qualify as a “classroom course” for purposes of ¶ A.2.

Finally, course credit may be allowed, in the sole discretion of the Certificate Director for one course of up to three credits taken at another law school. In the event the Certificate Director allows such course credit, only the credit hours earned for that course will be applied to determining overall eligibility for the certificate; the grade earned in the course will not be used to determine the student’s grade point average in certificate courses. Nevertheless, the grade may factor into whether the credits will be counted.

B. Paper Requirement

To obtain the certificate, a student must complete one substantial research paper satisfying the following criteria:

1. The paper must concern a topic relating directly to intellectual property law.
2. The paper must satisfy the criteria for the “Capstone” writing requirement.
3. The paper must be written for graded credit while at Lewis & Clark Law School.

The Certificate Director has sole discretion to determine whether a student paper meets the foregoing criteria. A student with questions about whether a proposed paper will qualify under these criteria should consult with the Certificate Director about such questions as early as is practicable.

C. Grade Point Requirement

To obtain the certificate, a student must maintain an overall grade point average of B (3.00) or better in courses that are taken and submitted to satisfy the requirements for the certificate. To obtain the Certificate “with Distinction,” a student must maintain an overall grade point average of 3.67 or better in courses that are taken and submitted to satisfy the requirements of the Certificate.

Updated 8/5/23