Patent Law

Patent Law: An Open-Access Casebook is a comprehensive casebook covering all the fundamentals of the United States patent system. It is a valuable resource for a wide range of readers: law students taking a course in patent law, lawyers looking for reference material on particular topics, or inventors trying to understand how the legal system promotes innovation.

This is the second edition of the casebook. It is designed to be used as the primary text in a 3-credit or 4-credit patent law course. Any portion of the casebook may also, of course, be used separately.

The casebook emphasizes that patent law is, first and foremost, law. This means that cases and statutes are the primary materials. But the casebook also goes further than that. American patent law is best understood as part of a broader legal system, shaped by its deep history and social context, with urgent political and economic consequences, and existing alongside many such systems around the world. Essays, commentary, and discussion questions in the casebook enable students to learn about patent law from these varied perspectives. Our goal is to provide the foundation for a lifetime of patent practice and study.