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Version Notes and FAQ

Why this book?

When I started teaching trademark at Northwestern, I discovered Barton Beebe's excellent free casebook on that subject. I loved the freedom of having a free pdf for both myself and my students. In contrast, I have repeatedly been embarrassed to ask my students to spend hundreds of dollars (over 300 for the leading casebook) for privacy class materials. This was particularly a problem when I was offering a short course or workshop, where I would only use a portion of a full book. So I resolved to write my own open-access materials. 

Why me?

Being able to write this book required a certain amount of knowledge and experience, a large amount of free time, and a willingness to do a lot of work for very little money or credit. People who fit these criteria generally find their free time filled with service opportunities very quickly, and I could not readily find someone else who was not already committed to some other equally worthy and time-consuming project. This left me.

Why these topics?

For the first edition, I took my existing syllabus and used that as a model for what I would cover. In 2024, I taught biometrics and I did not teach the Video Privacy Protection Act. So biometrics got good coverage and the VPPA got very little. I am extremely open to including more topics in future editions. If there are particular statutes, cases, or supplemental materials you would like to see in a future edition, please email me.  Once there is a future edition, this page will include a list of added and removed cases and topics.

I found an error!

Please email me. I would prefer to fix errors. The advantage of this model of textbook distribution is that I can fix typos whenever I want.

I think my paper is relevant. Will you cite it?

Maybe, especially if it has a descriptive or social science element. I think students benefit from learning about papers that help describe the shape of the world or the state of legal practice. 

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Matthew B. Kugler is a Professor of Law at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. 

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