REAL COMPANIES. REAL TECHNOLOGY. REAL EXPERIENCE.
Specialize in a law degree that prepares you for a career in a high-demand field.
The Innovation Law Center provides students with the skills and experience to understand the business goals of technology commercialization transactions, facilitate innovation, and understand how intellectual property, corporate, and contract law can be used in creative ways to advance a client’s objective.
This combination of a course concentration and applied learning opportunities within the Syracuse University College of Law’s curriculum focuses on the process of “technology commercialization,” which starts after an inventor develops a new technology and continues the business development process until that product or process is brought to market.
The ability to counsel inventors, entrepreneurs, and start-up businesses on intellectual property matters—such as patents, trade secrets, copyrights, and trademarks—and market intelligence is an expertise that is in high demand. Law students with and without science, engineering, or business backgrounds have succeeded in this program.
Core Innovation Law Courses
Law 815: Innovation Law-Practicum
This experiential learning course allows students interested in the areas of intellectual property and technology commercialization to apply their knowledge to an actual new technology under development. Students, sometimes from multiple disciplines, work in supervised teams consulting with real-world companies, entrepreneurs, or universities that are seeking to commercialize a product or service.
This course therefore engages the student in a project that has real technology and a real client. The project is undertaken as part of the New York State Science & Technology Law Center, which is affiliated with the Innovation Law Center and the College of Law. The practicum also offers a series of tutorials given by subject matter experts in order to expose the student to issues that involve engineering, business, and legal concepts.
The finished product includes a report and presentation that cover such topics as: analyzing the technology, investigating IP protection, examining the market landscape, identifying regulatory concerns, and exploring opportunities for funding or licensing.
Innovation Law Curriculum by Subject Area (NOTE: Changes Pending)
Intellectual Property Law Curriculum
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Advanced Patent Law and Policy | Internet Law |
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Communications Law | Patent Prosecution |
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Computer Law | Patents and Trade Secrets |
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Copyright—Literary and Artistic Works | Advising the StartUp I & II |
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Federal Income Taxation: Corporate | Innovation Law-Practicum |
| Intellectual Property |
Trademarks and Unfair Competition |
Law, Technology, and Management
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Advanced Patent Law and Policy |
Internet Law |
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Communications Law |
Law and Market Economy |
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Computer Law |
Patents and Trade Secrets |
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Copyright—Literary and Artistic Works |
Patent Prosecution |
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Copyright Protection of New Technology |
Products Liability |
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Federal Income Taxation II – Taxation of |
Advising the StartUp I & II |
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Business Transactions |
Innovation Law-Practicum |
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Intellectual Property |
Trademarks and Unfair Competition |
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International and Foreign Intellectual Property Law |
Curricular Program in IP and Technology Commercialization
College of Law Academic Handbook
Program Description
The Concentration in Technology Commercialization Law Studies is designed to prepare students to practice in the fields of technology, entrepreneurship, intellectual property and technology -related business law. The Concentration includes in-depth course work in licensing law, commercializing university technologies, industry employer-employee intellectual property rights, secured transactions, antitrust law, taxation of technology creation and transfer, business organizations and management responsibilities, and financing technology innovation. The course work includes a number of exercises including the valuation of an early-stage technology, performing an intellectual property search, negotiating and drafting a venture capital investment term sheet, and negotiating and drafting a complex license agreement.
The Concentration in Technology Commercialization Law Studies Program also includes work with the Syracuse Intellectual Property Law Institute (SIPLI), directed by Crandall Melvin Professor of Law Shubha Ghosh, and clinical work in the Innovation Law Practicum. The Practicum undertakes technology commercialization projects on behalf of technology companies, research universities and federal laboratories. Student teams work over the course of a semester preparing a technology commercialization research report which includes an evaluation of the technology being studied, research on potential market applications, and an analysis of the legal and regulatory hurdles that must be addressed in bringing the technology to market. If there are any questions, please contact Professor Shubha Ghosh.
Requirements
The total course work necessary for the Technology Commercialization Law Studies will generally be 24 credits; 12 credits of required course work and 12 credits of elective course work. Students are encouraged to use their 6 non-law credits to take graduate courses in Management, Information Studies, and Engineering. Students must earn a minimum average GPA of 3.0 in all courses counted toward satisfaction of program requirements and no such course can be taken Pass/Fail. Please note that these requirements do not displace the rules governing all curricular programs which are listed in the Academic Handbook and should be consulted.
Required Courses
- Innovation Law-Practicum (Law 815)
Elective Courses
Students must take at least two courses from the Intellectual Property elective categories and at least two courses from the Commercial Law elective categories.
Intellectual Property Courses
- Intellectual Property
- Patents & Trade Secrets
- Patent Prosecution
- Unfair Competition
- Internet Law
- Computer Law
Commercial Law Courses
- Bankruptcy Law
- Commercial Transactions
- Business Associations
- Federal Income Taxation I & II
- International Business Transactions I & II
- Antitrust Law
- Creditors’ Rights
- Federal Government Contracts
- Securities Regulations
The elective course requirements can be modified with permission of the Program Director, Professor Shubha Ghosh.
Capstone Project
The program’s capstone project takes place in the Technology Transfer Research Center. The written work product requirement for the Certificate programs is satisfied in this course.