Table of Contents
Study Materials
Readings
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The course textbook is:
Bagley, Constance E., and Craig E. Dauchy. The Entrepreneur's Guide to Business Law. 2nd ed. Mason, OH: South-Western College Publishing, 2002. ISBN: 0324042914.| LEC # | TOPICS | readings | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Module I - Basic Building Blocks | ||||
| 1 | Introduction | Akula, John. "Tort Law in a Peanut" (PDF) In re Union Carbide Corp. Gas Plant Disaster, 634 F. Supp. 842, 844 (1986). (Early legal maneuvering relating to massive industrial accident in Bhopal, India) | ||
| 2 | The Law of Duties | Wickline v. State of California, 192 Cal. App. 3d 1630, 239 Cal. Rptr. 810 (Ct. App. 1986). (Early case on liability of an HMO for poor medical care; raises issues of accountability for professional judgments in the context of an innovative business model). Kozup v. Georgetown University, et al., 663 F. Supp. 1048, 1057, 1058 (D DC 1988). (Liability of hospital for HIV-tainted blood infusion). | ||
| 3 | The Hard Edge of Regulation | Akula, John. "Business Crime: What To Do When the Law Pursues You." MIT Sloan Management Review 41, no. 3 (Spring 2000): 29-41. In the matter of John Gutfreund (SEC release on action against Solomon executives) | ||
| 4 | Contract I | Bagley. Chapter 8 ("Contracts and Leases"), pp. 176-191 (then skip "Electronic Contracts"); 193-210 (stop before "Promissory Estoppel"). | ||
| 5 | Contracts II | Tarbert Trading, Ltd. v. Cometals, Inc., 663 F.Supp. 561, 567 (S.D.N.Y. 1987). (Public policy) Filanto, SPA v. Chilewich Int'l Corp., 984 F.2d 58, 60 (2d Cir. 1993). (Dispute over inclusion of arbitration term). Transatlantic Financing Corp. v. Delchi Carrier SpA v. Rotorex Corp., 71 F.3d 1024, 1027-28 (2d Cir. 1995). (Damages). | ||
| Module II - Launching, Growing, and Exiting a Venture | ||||
| 6 | Setting Up a New Venture Guest: Joe Hadzima, Main St. Partners | Bagley. Chapter 4 ("Deciding Whether to Incorporate"), pp. 49-70 (stop before "Putting it into Practice"), and Chapter 5 ("Structuring the Ownership"), pp. 74-106 (stop before "Putting it into Practice"). | ||
| 7 | Financing the Venture I - Venture Capital Guest: Kenneth Gordon, Testa Hurwitz & Thibeault | Bagley. Chapter 7 ("Raising Money and Securities Regulation"), pp. 133-164 (stop before Exhibit 7.2), and Chapter 13 ("Venture Capital), pp. 431-473 (stop before "Putting it into Practice"). Sample Venture Capital Term Sheet | ||
| 8 | Financing the Venture II - Going Public Guest: Kenneth Gordon, Testa Hurwitz & Thibeault | Bagley. Chapter 17 ("Going Public"), pp. 649-698 (stop before "Putting it into Practice"). | ||
| 9 | Joint Ventures and M&A | |||
| 10 | Employment; Module Wrap-up | Bagley. Chapter 2 ("Leaving your Employer"), pp. 9-28 (stop before "Putting it into Practice"), and Chapter 10 ("Marshalling Human Resources"), pp. 265-305 (stop before "The Employment Agreement"). | ||
| Module III - Innovation, Commercialization, and Intellectual Property | ||||
| 11 | Introduction to Technology Transfer | For this module, read all of Bagley, chapter 14, except stop before "Putting it into Practice." Waugaman, Paul, and Roger Porter. "Mechanisms of Interactions Between Industry and the Academic Medical Center." In Biomedical Research: Collaboration and Conflict of Interest. Edited by Roger Porter and Thomas Malone. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992, pp. 93-118. ISBN: 0801844002. Moses, H., E. Braunwald, J. Martin and S. Their. "Collaborating with Industry - Choices of the Academic Medical Center." New England Journal of Medicine 347, no. 17 (October 2002): 1371-5. Stern v. Lucy Webb, 381 F. Supp. at 1013. (Perhaps the most influential modern decision on conflicts of interest in a non-profit corporation). | ||
| 12 | Copyrights and Software | Bagley. pp. 498-510 ("Copyright.") Lotus Development Corp. v. Bortland International Inc. , 49 F.3d 807 (1st Cir. 1995). (Leading case on copyright protection for software). In re Aimster, 334 F.3d 643 (7th Cir. 2003). (Recent case on peer-to-peer copying). | ||
| 13 | Patents I: The Basics of Patent Law Guest: Bo Pasternack, Choate Hall | Bagley. Chapter 14 (section on "Patents"), pp. 510-25. Amazon.com, Inc. v. Barnesandnoble.com, Inc., 239 F.3d 1343, 1350, 57 USPQ2d 1747, 1751 (Fed. Cir. 2001). (Leading case on internet-related business method patents). Please read carefully before class if you are "on-deck" - otherwise you may want to skim it and read it carefully after class. | ||
| 14 | Patents II: Breakthrough Technologies - The Example of Biotechnology Patents Guest: Anita Meiklejohn, Fish & Richardson | Elliott, George C. "A Brief Guide to Understanding Patentability and the Meaning of Patents." Academic Medicine 77, no. 12, part 2 (December 2002): 1309-14. Rai, Arti. "Genome Patents: A Case Study in Patenting Research Tools." Academic Medicine 88, no. 12, part 2 (December 2002): 1368-72. Goldstein, Jorge, and Elina Golod. "Human Gene Patents." Academic Medicine 77, no. 12, part 2 (December 2002): 1315-28. Newspaper clippings about Amgen, Cox-2, and Ariad litigation. | ||
| 15 | Antitrust, JVs and IP | Akula, John. "Antitrust Law in a Peanut." 1993. "Antitrust Guidelines for the Licensing of Intellectual Property." Issued by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. 6 April 1995. (PDF) Newspaper clippings about airlines setting suit by government on fares, Varta Bosch, and U.S. vs. Microsoft®. | ||
| 16 | IP Rights and Business Strategies I Guest: Sarah Cabot, Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky & Popeo | Moscho, Alexander, Regina Hodits, Friedmann Janus, and Josef Leiter. "Deals That Make Sense." Nature Biotechnology 18, no. 7 (July 2000): 719-22. Meltzer, Steven, Michelle Marks, and James McCormick. "Intellectual Property as a Foundation for Funding." Nature Biotechnology 20, supplement: BE47-BE50. Barrett, Bill, and Cave Crawford. "Integrating the Intellectual Property Value Chain." Nature Biotechnology 20, supplement: BE43-BE46. | ||
| 17 | IP Rights and Business Strategies II Guest: Joe Hadzima, Main St. Partners | Davis, Julie, and Suzanne Harrison. Edison in the Boardroom: How Leading Companies Realize Value Form their Intellectual Assets. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, 2001, pp. 12-15 and 143-158. ISBN: 0471397369. Rivette, Kevin, and David Kline. Rembrandts in the Attic: Unlocking the Hidden Value of Patents. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2000, pp. 1-13 and 33-36. ISBN: 0875848990. | ||
| 18 | Shifting Business Models and the Law: The Example of the Internet Guest: Jorge Contreras, Hale & Dorr | Bagley. Chapter 14 (section on "Trademarks" and "Domain Names"), pp. 525-534. Not required reading - for your future reference only: Hale and Dorr LLP's "2003 Internet Alerts." Available at the Web site of Hale and Dorr LLP. | ||
| 19 | International IP Protection; Licensing; Wrap-up | Newspaper clippings on Prilosec, GlaxoSmithKline and AIDS Drugs. Corixa, and Integra. | ||
| Module IV - Innovation: The Regulatory and Liability Risks | ||||
| 20 | Litigation | Akula, John. "Business Disputes - The U.S. Legal Framework." | ||
| 21 | The Inside Counsel's Perspective Guests: Tom DesRosiers, Genzyme | |||
| 22 | Bankruptcy and Reorganization Guest: Jeanne Darcey, Palmer & Dodge | Bagley. Chapter 12 ("Creditors Rights and Bankruptcy"), pp. 384-428 (stop before "Putting it into Practice"). | ||
| 23 | National Security and Dealing with Government | |||
| 24 | Products Liability Guest: David Geiger, Foley Hoag | Bagley. Chapter 9 (section on "Strict Liability for Defective Products"), pp. 239-246. | ||