Postgraduate Course: Intellectual Property Law, Innovation and Creativity (LAWS11370)
Course Outline
| School | School of Law |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Intellectual Property laws are often associated with the aims of promoting 'innovation' and 'creativity'. But how do Intellectual Property laws impact upon innovation and creativity? Do they promote or hinder them? What is the relationship between Intellectual Property Laws and the variety of activities that they are designed to affect in everyday life? Are there gaps between what Intellectual Property laws aim to achieve and actually achieve? Why do these gaps exist and how can they be filled? How should Intellectual Property policy be formulated? This course will explore these questions in order to examine the nature of Intellectual property from a law and society perspective. |
| Course description |
The course will build on the legal knowledge acquired by the students from existing courses on the legal and international aspects of IP law and will provide a complementary inter-disciplinary perspective to the subject. It will do so by introducing various studies and enquiries which have used, amongst others, historical, legal & economical, socio-legal and anthropological approaches to question and critique important concepts and policy questions within Intellectual Property law. It will centre on several existing empirical studies to enable the students to gain an awareness of the perceptions and implications of IP law in the real world. These examples will give some insight into the application and role of IP law for the various stakeholders, i.e. creators, rights owners, users, the general public and the public interest, and will serve as case studies for the students to develop their own critical and empirical research.
The course will require the students to address a real or hypothetical question in the field of IP law using any one or more of the above approaches. This will give them hands-on experience to examine IP law in society by relying on secondary or primary source materials from non-legal areas and relating them to legal materials.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | To enrol in this course students must have knowledge of the core elements of Intellectual Property Law including patents, trademarks, copyright and design rights. This knowledge can be either acquired through undertaking the Intellectual Property 1 and 2 courses or demonstrated through any earlier knowledge, training or experience that students may have. |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2017/18, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 4,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
172 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
1) A mid-semester assignment. This may take the form of a short essay; a poster; a response to a policy consultation; or other form of assessment designed to meet topical subjects arising during the currency of the course. The assignment will be worth 20% of the final mark.
2) Students will be able to choose between the following 80% assessment options:
a) a written essay at the end of term worth 80% of the final mark
b) a written report and oral presentation of the report undertaken at the end of the term worth 80% of the final mark. The written report and presentation will each be worth 50% of the total mark. Due to the nature of this assessment (please see course description) team work will be encouraged. |
| Feedback |
There will be two formative feedback opportunities for this course. Student presentations during the course and a group exercise towards the end of the course. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- An awareness of the role and importance of the law and society perspective for IP law in addition to the doctrinal approach, in understanding many key questions and concepts.
- An appreciation of how such perspectives contribute to an evaluation of IP policy and practice.
- A deeper understanding of the concepts and normative questions permeating IP law.
- A practical understanding of policy questions in IP law through carrying out a piece of non-legal research and setting it appropriately within its legal context.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
(a) communication skills, oral and written
(b) intellectual skills in identifying a non-legal approach to address a legal problem, the ability to gather and engage
with non-legal materials, organise, evaluate and present them
with relevant arguments
(c) Managing time and taking responsibility for their work
(d) team work skills |
| Keywords | Intellectual Property Law,Law and Society,Socio-legal studies |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Smita Kheria
Tel:
Email: |
Course secretary | Mr David Morris
Tel: (0131 6)50 2010
Email: |
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