The seminar will meet regularly, except for a few weeks in which I will meet with you to discuss your presentations and papers (see below).  The first class meeting will be devoted to an overview of general issues relevant to the course.  The second class will focus on research and writing skills.  After a break of a few weeks, during which I will meet with you individually, we will begin student-led discussions as described below. 

1. 2/20  General Introduction

2.      2/27  Guidance on Research and Writing

•  Materials to be distributed

(1) Eugene Volokh, Writing a Student Article, 48 J. LEGAL EDUC. 247 (1998).

•  Bring your laptop to class for the Westlaw database training

3.      3/06 AI & Patent: The European Patent Office DABUS case

• Reading assignments:

(2) J 0008/20 (Designation of inventor/DABUS) 21-12-2021 (Decision of the Board of Appeals for the European Patent Office)

• 【Presentation drawing】

4.      3/13 AI & Copyright authorship: The U.S. Copyright Office Zarya of the Dawn case

• Reading assignments:

(3) U.S. Copyright Office, Letter re: Zarya of the Dawn (Registration # VAu001480196) (Feb. 21, 2023), available at: https://copyright.gov/docs/zarya-of-the-dawn.pdf

• 【Sign up for Mandatory Individual Meeting】

5.      3/20 AI & Copyright fair use: The New York Times vs. OpenAI & Microsoft case

• Reading assignments

(4) The Times’s complaint:

https://nytco-assets.nytimes.com/2023/12/NYT_Complaint_Dec2023.pdf

(5) Open AI’s response:

https://openai.com/blog/openai-and-journalism

• 【Two-page proposal】Please turn in a hard copy of your proposal in class.

6.      3/27 Work on presentations and draft

7.      4/03 No class (National Holiday)

8.      4/10 Work on presentations and draft

9.      4/17 【Mandatory individual meetings】

10.    4/24 Guest Speaker: TBD

• 【First draft due by P.M. 5:00, April 24th】Please uploads your first draft file in the format of a Word document to Moodle.

11.    5/01 Student presentations and discussions

12.    5/08 Student presentations and discussions

13.    5/15 Student presentations and discussions

14.    5/22 Student presentations and discussions

15.    5/29 Student presentations and discussions

16.    6/05 Wrap up【Final draft due by P.M. 5:00, June 5th】

•  Please upload your final draft file in Word format to Moodle.

Below is a list of possible paper topics. You may want to read a little about various topics to see which interests you most.

For topic selection, there will be a lottery in which you will draw numbers. The person who draws number 1 will have the first chance to choose his or her topic, number 2 the second chance, and so on. There are more possible topics than

seminar students so everyone will have some choice in the matter. After topics are assigned, we will give each of you

readings that supply background information on your topic and will help you begin to plan your paper.

There are many possible paper topics within each broad topic below. Once you have your general topic assignments, I will meet with you individually to help you determine precisely what legal or policy issues you would like to analyze. Our goal in assigning general topic areas is to save you time. When students choose topics on their own, it often takes 3-4 weeks to settle on a topic. Research and writing is time-consuming, and you will find that you need these weeks to begin researching and then drafting your paper.

【Seminar Paper Topics】

1. Artificial Intelligence Policy across the nation

2. AI and patent (inventorship)

3. AI and patent (eligibility)

4. AI and copyright (authorship)

5. AI training and copyright fair use

6. NFT and trademark

Teaching Assistant: Wyatt Wang (王佑軒)

E-mail: 112651049@g.nccu.edu.tw

1. Students will be required to:

(1) give a short presentation and lead a class discussion on their paper topic;

(2) distribute to the class one week before their presentation a two-page summary of the presentation and 3-5 questions for class discussion; and

(3) submit a first and final draft of their seminar paper.  All students will be expected to read other students’ two-page summaries and discussion questions and to participate in class discussions each week.  I will take attendance and deduct points for absences that are not excused.

2. Evaluation: 

• (1) Attendance and mandatory meetings: 20%


• (2) Two-page paper proposal: 10%


• (3) First draft: 20 %


• (4) Final draft: 50%

You may not submit any work generated by an AI program as your own. The use of generative AI tools is not permitted in this course for the following activities:

• Writing a draft of a writing assignment.


• Writing entire sentences, paragraphs or papers to complete class assignments.

3. All work submitted in this course must be your own. Contributions from anyone or anything else- including AI sources, must be properly quoted and cited every time they are used. Failure to do so constitutes an academic integrity violation, and I will follow the institution’s policy to the letter in those instances. Any plagiarism or other form of cheating will be dealt with severely under relevant NCCU policies.

1. Goldstein, International Intellectual Property Law (2d ed. 2008).

2. Graeme B. Dinwoodie & Rochelle C. Dreyfuss, A Neofederalist Vision of TRIPS: The Resilience of the International Intellectual Property Regime, Oxford University Press, 2012

3. In-class handouts