Pitt School of Law to Hold the Distinguished Intellectual Property Lecture March 24

PITTSBURGH—The University of Pittsburgh School of Law will feature Dan L. Burk, Chancellor’s Professor of Law and founding faculty member at the University of California-Irvine School of Law, delivering Pitt’s annual Distinguished Intellectual Property Lecture at 4 p.m. March 24, Room 107, Barco Law Building, 3900 Forbes Ave., Oakland. 

Burk’s free public lecture, copresented by Pitt law’s Innovation Practice Institute, is titled “Virtual Worlds, Virtual Property.” With the rising popularity of online computer games that have created virtual economies, game developers are increasingly turning to copyright and other intellectual property laws to police behavior in these virtual worlds. In his lecture, Burk will discuss the emerging relationship of copyright to computer games and the texts that accompany them. 

An internationally prominent authority on issues related to high technology, Burk lectures, teaches, and writes in the areas of patent, copyright, electronic commerce, and biotechnology law. He is the author of numerous papers on the legal and societal impact of new technologies, including articles on scientific misconduct, the regulation of biotechnology, and the intellectual property implications of global computer networks. Burk’s most recent book is The Patent Crisis and How the Courts Can Solve It (University of Chicago Press, 2009), coauthored with Stanford Law Professor Mark Lemley. 

For more information, visit www.law.pitt.edu/events/2011/03/virtual-worlds-virtual-property. This program has been approved by the Pennsylvania Continuing Legal Education (CLE) Board for one hour of substantive CLE credit. The cost for CLE credit is $25. 

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