My First Year Elective Course

At the end of first semester, I decided to take innovation law as my elective. I have always been interested in the right of publicity and how athletes, celebrities and people in general, protect not only their creations, but also their own image. While the right of publicity is an upper level course at Loyola, I figured innovation law would be an excellent chance for me to get an introduction into the field.

So far we have covered trade secrets, copyright laws and infringement. We are now exploring the field of patent law, patent software, and antitrust. Frankly, it is pretty complex material. I never understood why it was necessary for patent attorneys to have a hard science background until now. After reading unedited cases that go into great detail about the invention and the stipulations behind it, I often find myself utterly confused. My professors have reassured us that patent descriptions are indeed difficult to understand. They then proceed to translate the patent language into everyday lawyer language for us….a true blessing.

So far, learning about the interrelationship between trade secrets, copyright and patents has been my favorite part. Inventors, companies, and other individuals all face a taxing decision when contemplating what type of intellectual property they want to pursue for their invention, creation, work, etc. While it can sometimes be obvious what type of intellectual property protection an inventor should be pursuing, in other instances it can be less cut and dry. That is when it gets messy, complex, and a little more fun for us!

While intellectual property continues to be of great interest to me, I am very excited to dive into our artificial intelligence unit. Before hearing the course description for innovation law, I had never considered artificial intelligence to be of relevance in the legal world. I am very intrigued by what these new technological advances may mean for future lawyers.

As law school goes on, I hope to take the basics I will have learned in innovation law and use them as a back drop for higher level IP classes. While my heart is still set on working in sports and implementing initiatives for the mental health of athletes, I am pleasantly surprised by how much interest I have found in this subject!