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Area of law

Intellectual Property

Protecting inventions, creative work, brands and confidential know-how.

Find schools with programsAll areas of law

What this area covers

Intellectual property law gives creators and companies rights in what they invent, write, design and name. Lawyers secure those rights, license them to others and enforce them in litigation.

Also called: IP.

Typical legal work

  • Securing patents, trademarks and copyrights
  • Licensing technology and creative work
  • Litigating infringement disputes

Common subareas

Copyright LawRights in writing, music, film, software and other creative work.Patent LawRights in inventions, from application to enforcement.Trade Secret LawProtecting valuable information that is kept confidential.Trademark LawProtecting the names and symbols that identify a business.

Where lawyers work

  • Law firms of every size
  • In-house legal departments
  • Universities and research institutions
  • Federal, state and local government

A setting is where you work; an area is what the work is about. The same area is practised in very different settings.

Schools with verified programs

A school is listed here only when its own website names a concentration, certificate, clinic, center or field placement in Intellectual Property or one of its subareas. Schools are in alphabetical order. The list is not a ranking, and a school that is absent may still teach the subject.

44 schools · 9 concentrations and specializations · 6 certificates · 32 clinics · 13 centers and institutes

Filter these schools in the directory

Program types counted as evidence: clinics, certificates, concentrations and specializations, centers and institutes, externships and field placements. Joint degrees and advanced degrees are described under Degrees & program types.

Sources

These references informed what the area covers. The description above is PreLaw Advisor’s own and does not reproduce their text.

  1. 1.American Bar Association. Section of Intellectual Property Law (opens in a new tab) Retrieved Sep 2026.
  2. 2.Law School Admission Council. Fields of Law (opens in a new tab) Retrieved Sep 2026.

Description reviewed Sep 2026. Each school program links to the page it was verified against.