Postgraduate Course: Intellectual Property Law 2: Industrial Property (LAWS11129)
Course Outline
| School | School of Law |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The purpose of this course is to consider the laws relating to patents, trade marks, passing off, and breach of confidence. Noting the international framework and context, the focus will be on European and UK law.
Recent years have witnessed an expansion in the scope of these intellectual property rights. This course will examine in detail the law on subsistence/entitlement to protection, infringement and defences for all of the relevant rights, alongside discussion of wider policy, economic and other considerations.
The sessions will also highlight areas of particular topicality. |
| Course description |
The purpose of this course is to consider the law relating to the specific IP rights outlined in the description above. As such, the course focusses on the substantive law in relation to such IP rights and students are expected to read and fully engage with doctrinal/black letter law (primary materials in the form of statutes, directives case law) in addition to legal scholarship in the area.
This course is taught at Masters level and the emphasis is on student participation. The format for each session is the same: the students are provided with reading materials in advance of the class which they should have read and thought about before attending. During teaching sessions, students are expected to contribute to discussions and to take responsibility for their own learning. The reading materials which are referred to are by no means exhaustive and students are encouraged to undertake independent research.
The seminars will involve discussion and contribution by students and a significant level of preparation, research and contribution is expected.
While assessments will normally reflect the topics covered in seminars, it is your responsibility to undertake independent research to enhance and deepen your learning. Merely studying the materials covered in seminars is unlikely to result in a high mark.
It is emphasised that intellectual property law is a broad ranging subject and the reading lists that will be provided with each sessions's handouts will only represent a fraction of the material that is available on any topic. Students undertaking the course will be expected to carry out independent work for their assignments over and beyond the issues and materials discussed in the seminars.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2017/18, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 25 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Assessment will be by way of one 100% problem-based essay. The assessment will cover topics from across the whole course and will be issued after the conclusion of teaching at the end of the semester. |
| Feedback |
There will be opportunities for formative feedback throughout this course in the form of exercises, involving problem-based questions, during a number of the seminars for the course.
Feedback provided through these exercises will assist students in their preparation for the problem-based essay which forms the 100% summative assessment for this course. The problems will be provided in advance. Feedback will be provided on both the relevant legal and critique, as well as issues of technique and approach.
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| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- identify the rights noted in the course description and explain the law on entitlement to protection, infringement and defences
- critically assess the development of the law and how changes in the law affect different interests
- be aware of current developments in the law and be able to contribute in an informed manner to the ongoing debate as to the proper role of these rights
- analyse and apply the law to factual scenarios, and identify and critique how well the law responds to and deals with the underlying issues
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Reading List
The prescribed text for this course, which will be referred to in all the reading lists for this course, will be C Waelde et al, Contemporary Intellectual Property: Law and Policy (3rd/latest edition) by Oxford University Press.
If you have a law degree from outside the European Union or if you have a non-law background, and as such you are not familiar with law and legal process in the European Union, then please read relevant parts on European Community law in I, McLeod, Legal Method, Palgrave Macmillan Law Masters, 9th edition, 2013; and, also refer to brief guides like Andreas Staab, The European Union Explained, Indiana University Press, 2nd edition, 2008.
The teaching on this course will assume that all students are familiar with the functioning and basics of European Union law, as well as the interaction between EU and domestic national legal systems.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Students will develop their skills and abilities in:
a) Research and Enquiry, through e.g. selecting and deploying appropriate research techniques;
b) Personal and Intellectual Autonomy, e.g. developing the ability to independently assess the relevance and importance of primary and secondary sources;
c) Communication, e.g. skills in summarising and communicating information and ideas effectively;
d) Personal Effectiveness, e.g. working constructively in preparing and contributing to seminar discussions;
Students will also develop their technical/practical skills, throughout the course, e.g. in articulating, evidencing and sustaining a line of argument, and engaging in a convincing critique of another's arguments.
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| Keywords | intellectual property; industrial property; patents; trade marks; confidentiality; IP |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Mr Gerard Porter
Tel: (0131 6)50 2023
Email: |
Course secretary | Mr David Morris
Tel: (0131 6)50 2010
Email: |
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