1.1. Overview:

The School of Law’s Intellectual Property Concentration is designed for law students who are interested in topicsrelated to legal issues in intellectual property law.

1.2 Concentration Requirements, In General:

To complete the Intellectual Property Concentration, a law student must:

1. Submit the Intent to Complete form attached to this document to the Concentration Director before the beginning of the student’s final academic year at the Law School;
2. Get approval from the Concentration Director for a faculty member to
   serve as the student’s Concentration Advisor;
3. Earn at least 15 credit hours by completing the required and elective courses stated below (see 1.3 below) and achieve at least a 2.80 cumulative grade point average in the required and elective concentration courses;
4. Complete a scholarly research paper on a topic related to intellectual property law (see 1.4 below); and
5. Attend public events on topics related to intellectual property law and timely submit a written description and reflection (see 1.5 below).

1.3  Required & Elective Concentration Courses:

1. Every law student completing this concentration must complete the following three required courses:
   
   Copyright Law (2 credits) 
   Patent Law (2-3 credits) 
   Trademarks and Unfair Competition (2-3 credits)
2. Every law student completing this concentration must earn 7-9 credit hours from the elective courses listed below.
   
   Administrative Law (3-4 credits)
   Crimes in IP and Information Law (2 credits)
   Independent Study (1-2 credits)
   Introduction to Intellectual Property (2-3 credits)
   International Business Transactions (3 credits)
   Technology Transfer Taxation (2 credits)
   Other elective approved by the Concentration Director

1.4  Scholarly Research Paper:

Every student completing this concentration must write a scholarly research paper. The scholarly paper must be:

1. At least 6,000 words, including footnotes (the citation must follow the Bluebook rules and any other applicable citation rules); and
2. On a topic significantly related to intellectual property, approved by the
   student’s Concentration Advisor.

If the above requirements are met, the scholarly research paper may be (a) a paper that is used to satisfy the Law School’s upper-level writing requirement or (b) a paper that was prepared for an independent research project, or (c) an article selected for publication in a TTU or a non-TTU law journal. The scholarly research paper may not, however, be apaper that was written for an independent study course that counts as an elective for this concentration.
 
If the paper was prepared for a course other than for an independent study for the concentration, the student must have received a grade of at least B on the paper (or in the course as a whole if the paper was not separately graded) or CR (credit) if the course or other independent study was graded CR/NC (credit/no credit). If the paper was not prepared for a course or an independent research project, the student’s Concentration Advisor must conclude thatthe paper would have received a grade of at least B had it been submitted in a course.

1.5 Event Attendance Requirement:

After submitting the Intent to Complete Concentration form and getting approval for a Concentration Advisor, every student completing this concentration must attend at least five public events sponsored by the Law School or Texas Tech University that have a focus on intellectual property. For each event, the student must submit a written description that also includes reflection.The description/reflection must be (a) a minimum of 500 words and (2) be submitted to the student’s Concentration Advisor no later than three weeks after attending the public event (and no later than the last class day of the semester in which the student is graduating). 

1.6 Concentration Completion:

Each student is responsible for submitting a Requirements Summary form to the student’s Concentration Advisor at least two weeks before graduation. The Concentration Advisor, in turn, will certify to the Concentration Director and the Office of the Registrar that the law student seeking this concentration has completed the requirements. A “completion of concentration” notation will be noted on the student’s law school transcript.

Concentration Contacts

Barbara Lauriat
Professor of Law;
Dean’s Scholar in Intellectual Property
blauriat@ttu.edu

Intent To Complete Concentration