Self-Paced Online Course

Patents & Intellectual Property

How patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets are won, asserted, defended, and sometimes invalidated — the legal protections at the heart of every high-technology business.

  • Self-Paced
  • 25 Study Hours
  • 14 Sections
  • Certificate of Completion
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Course Introduction

About This Course

Turning innovation into protected property

This course gives you a working understanding of patents, the patenting process, trademarks, copyrights, and the other forms of protection that make up intellectual property. Patents are essential components of the high-technology business landscape, and these materials explain how and why patents are issued, how they are asserted against infringers, and how they can sometimes be challenged and invalidated.

Beyond patents, the course covers trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets, so you can tell which form of protection fits a given business asset. It then follows a patent through its full life — from patentable subject matter and claim drafting, through prosecution, to validity challenges, pre-litigation, trial, and the remedies available when rights are infringed.

A certificate of completion is awarded when you successfully complete the course.

Learning Objectives & Outcomes

What you'll be able to do

  • ✓Define the essential rights associated with patents, trademarks, trade secrets, and copyrights — and tell which form of protection fits a given business asset.
  • ✓Explain how and why patents are issued, and the policy rationale behind granting inventors a limited monopoly.
  • ✓Navigate the patent prosecution process, and prepare and file a patent application.
  • ✓Determine whether an invention falls within patentable subject matter and meets the requirements for protection.
  • ✓Read and interpret patent claims — the language that defines the legal boundaries of a protected invention.
  • ✓Distinguish trademarks and copyrights from patents, and recognize when each is the right tool to use.
  • ✓Identify the grounds on which an issued patent can be challenged and potentially invalidated.
  • ✓Understand the pre-litigation steps and strategic considerations that precede a patent dispute.
  • ✓Follow how a patent case proceeds through litigation, including the role of the jury in a patent trial.
  • ✓Identify the remedies available for infringement, including injunctive relief and damages.
  • ✓Align business strategy with a patent portfolio, applying the right approach at every stage of the patent process.

Course Sections

Fourteen sections, in sequence

  1. 01Introduction to Intellectual Property
  2. 02Trademarks
  3. 03Copyrights
  4. 04Understanding Patents
  5. 05Patentable Subject Matter
  6. 06Patent Claims
  7. 07Patent Prosecution
  8. 08Challenges to Validity
  9. 09Patent Pre-Litigation
  10. 10Patent Litigation
  11. 11Remedies in IP — What Are Remedies?
  12. 12Remedies in IP — Injunctive Relief
  13. 13Damages
  14. 14Role of the Jury in a Patent Trial

Goes Well With

Round out your IP toolkit

Patents rarely stand alone. These SVBS courses round out the legal and strategic picture for technology professionals:

Ready When You Are

Start the Patents & Intellectual Property course today

Self-paced, 25 study hours, included with your SVBS subscription alongside the full course library and Prof, your AI course tutor — and you earn a certificate of completion when you finish.

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