Certificate in Intellectual Property for J.D. Students

The Intellectual Property Institute offers Richmond Law students the opportunity to obtain a Certificate in Intellectual Property ("IP") in the course of earning the J.D. degree.

Earning the IP Certificate is similar to completing a major as an undergraduate student. The student must:

1. Take the Intellectual Property Fundamentals course and a certain number of additional credits from a designated group of other IP-related courses
2. Write his or her upper-level writing requirement on an IP-related subject
3. Achieve a minimum grade point average in "Core" Certificate courses

Students who satisfy the requirements receive the IP Certificate at graduation, plus an indication on their transcript that they completed the Certificate program.

The specific Certificate requirements are as follows:

Required Course: Intellectual Property Fundamentals
This three-credit course will serve as an introduction to the core subject matters within the field of IP and therefore must be taken in order to earn the Certificate.

Fifteen Total IP Credits
Each Certificate student must take a total of fifteen credits from the IP curriculum. These credits can come from three sources. First, as already discussed, three of the credits must come from the Intellectual Property Fundamentals course. Second, each student must take at least eight credits from the following "Core" IP courses (and may count more than eight credits from "Core" courses if he or she wishes).

Core Intellectual Property Courses

• Computer Law
• Copyright Law
• Entertainment Law
• Information Privacy Law
• Intellectual Property & Transactional Law Clinic
• Intellectual Property Litigation
• Intellectual Property Law and Policy
• International Intellectual Property
• Licensing and Technology Transfer
• Patent Law
• Patent Preparation and Prosecution
• Trademark, Copyright, and Trade Secrets Practice
• Trademark and Unfair Competition

Finally, up to four credits from other sources may be counted toward the total of fifteen. This includes credits from the following "Satellite" courses.

Satellite Intellectual Property Courses

• Administrative Law
• Antitrust
• Bioethics
• Cultural Property: Archaeology, Ethics, & Law
• First Amendment Law
• Law and Economics
• Narrative Design and the Law
• Remedies
• Scientific Evidence
• Sports Law
• Transactional Drafting

The four credits from other sources can also include credits from Independent Studies, Research Assistance, clinical placements, IP moot court competitions, and courses taught outside of the University of Richmond School of Law—but all such credits must be approved as sufficiently IP-related by the Director of the IP Institute, in consultation with the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.

Upper-Level Writing Requirement
Each Certificate student must satisfy his or her upper-level writing requirement by writing on an IP-related topic. "IP-related" means that the paper either was written for a Core course within the IP curriculum or has been approved as IP-related by the Director of the IP Institute and the instructor, if any. Students should seek such approval as early as possible in the paper-writing process. Students should also keep in mind that the paper must not only be IP-related, but must also meet the generally applicable standards for the upper-level writing requirement as set forth in the Student Handbook.

Grade Point Average
Certificates will be awarded only to those students who achieve a grade point average of at least 3.0 in all Core courses (including Intellectual Property Fundamentals) that they have taken. Students whose average is 3.5 or higher in those courses will earn the certificate "with distinction."