A new partnership between MIT and the Boston University School of Law aims to make it easier for student entrepreneurs to launch startups.
While MIT offers a number of resources to aid entrepreneurial-minded students, understanding the legal issues of starting a business can be daunting. The new collaboration will offer legal clinics covering a range of issues related to business and cyberlaw.
Through the Entrepreneurship and Intellectual Property Clinic, launched this month, eight BU law students will advise students from both institutions about business laws and regulations. The second half of the collaboration, the Technology and Cyberlaw Clinic, which will focus on laws related to data security and privacy, is expected to launch in 2016. Both clinics will be co-located at BU Law and the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship.
“The partnership between MIT and Boston University School of Law will benefit students at both institutions while advancing MIT’s culture of innovation and entrepreneurship,” Chancellor Cynthia Barnhart told MIT News. “This is an important step forward in our efforts to support all MIT students as they imagine, innovate, and create.”
The clinics were formed in response to a 2014 incident, when the MIT student creators of a bitcoin-mining hackathon project were subpoenaed by the New Jersey attorney general.
Learn more about the MIT-BU partnership at MIT News and BostInno.
Read more about the future of innovation in the Spring 2015 issue of MIT Spectrum.