Intellectual Property
and Technology Law Clinic

The USC Intellectual Property and Technology Law Clinic works with artists, entrepreneurs, nonprofit organizations, and policymakers who are struggling with the challenges presented by the clash of technology with law and policy.  In the Clinic, students work closely with clients on cutting-edge issues in copyright, patent, privacy, First Amendment law, and other areas; along the way, they learn substantive law related to their projects and develop valuable skills that will help them maneuver professionally in this rapidly-changing field.

The Clinic’s curriculum stresses the importance of thinking through the complexities of intellectual property and technology law, and working to understand its effect on the public interest.  “Amid rapid technological and social change, intellectual property and other technology-related fields of law such as privacy have become increasingly important to our culture, to business, and to our very democracy,” says Clinic Director Jack Lerner.  “In the USC Intellectual Property and Technology Law Clinic, students are given the opportunity to think deeply about the challenges that arise where technology and the law intersect, and to use their skills in a real-world setting.”   

Through the hands-on experience of representing clients in various forums, students learn professional responsibility, counseling and advocacy skills, research skills, substantive law and procedural rules related to their projects, as well as more general skills related to professionalism, work-flow management and teamwork.  For example, in 2007-2008 students in the Clinic worked with the Chile Ministry of Education on a study of copyright limitations and exceptions, and in 2008 students in the Clinic represented a coalition of documentary filmmakers seeking an exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in a rulemaking proceeding before the Copyright Office.