Copyright and trademark law were once the bailiwick of boutique law firms and in-house lawyers for book publishing houses. Legal issues centered on hand-copying and plagiarism, or, at worst, the photocopying of multiple pages. Much has changed.
The body of law now labeled intellectual property (IP) has become front-page news. Stories about the rise of the digital age, computers and the Web, Napster and its successors, DVD encryption, and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act pervade the news and entertainment media. The ability to make a perfect copy without any decrease in quality is status quo for an entire generation of people. Battles over IP can mean millions of dollars to inventors, entrepreneurs, and, increasingly, to those who exploit the work of others without compensating them.
Few places better reflect this shift in legal practice—or better prepare IP lawyers—than Columbia Law School, where IP has been an area of teaching and scholarship since long before current trends began to emerge.
