The lectures were very good at slowly going deeper into the subject. We started off with some general terms and distinguishing a patent with more mainstream and common terms such as copyright and trademark. We learned how to break down a patent application and analyze each part of the application. We learned what a patent really should constitute, for example, non-obviousness and novelty. We went over some patent evolutions such as the cup sleeve patents. It was really interesting to see patents being built on top of each other. But we also went over silly and ridiculous patents that made us question the usefulness and in some cases, safety, of the inventions. We also went over problems with the current patent system and the whole debate over the patent trolls.
In addition, some weeks we had guest speakers who brought in a different perspective from that of the professor's. And each speaker had his or her own specialty, which was very exciting to be part of. We also watched a couple TED talk videos that focused on patents and its capabilities and limitations.
Overall, I thought this class was a very well-balanced course on patents. It did a great job of introducing patents and what they are, and then provided several different aspects of patents through different people's perspectives. I definitely learned a lot and would encourage others to give this class a try.
I like that you brought up how we had guest speakers! The guest speakers were really able to give me a different perspective on the patent world other than what we were taught in class.
ReplyDeleteI think you did a really good job describing this class. It did start off slow, but I think that the background we got in the beginning was extremeley important in understanding the more complex topics that we covered towards the end of the semester.
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