LAWS7840 · Law
Boston College Law School
This course covers the major doctrines and policies at work in modern patent law. While current law will be taught in detail (both the 1952 Act and the America Invents Act), the course will also focus on enough history and policy so that students are equipped to deal with, and make predictions about, the rapid changes in patent law that we have witnessed recently and that we will continue to see. The course also has a skills component. Students will learn to review prior art, analyze the validity and novelty of particular patents in the form of claim construction charts, and make oral arguments for summary judgment on issues of validity, novelty, and claim construction in front of patent practitioners in the field.
Course experience
Averages use the original five-point historical evaluation scale.
Organization
4.7 / 5
How well the course was organized
Challenge
4.7 / 5
How intellectually challenging students found it
Attendance
4.7 / 5
How necessary attendance was
Assignments
4.7 / 5
How helpful assignments were
Weekly effort
~5
hours per week
Estimated from the original workload response buckets. Individual sections may differ.
Instructor options
Ratings below reflect only recovered evaluations connected to this course.
Across time
Section-level results available in the recovered archive.
Spring 2025
1 sectionFall 2023
1 sectionFall 2022
1 sectionSpring 2022
1 sectionFall 2020
1 section