THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH

DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2017/2018

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Law : Law

Postgraduate Course: Intellectual Property Law: Industrial Property (LAWS11257)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Law CollegeCollege of Humanities and Social Science
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate)
Course typeOnline Distance Learning AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryThe 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 independent learning and student participation. 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.

It is emphasised that intellectual property law is a complex and broad-ranging subject and the reading lists that will be provided for each session 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 personal research for their assignments over and beyond the issues and materials discussed in the seminars.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements Please contact the distance learning team at escript.support@ed.ac.uk
Additional Costs Students must have regular and reliable access to the Internet.
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2017/18, Not available to visiting students (SS1) Quota:  None
Course Start Semester 2
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Seminar/Tutorial Hours 40, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 156 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) Contribution to weekly online discussions throughout the semester, assessed by way of participation portfolio and reflective statement (20%); one problem-based essay (80%). The problem-based essay will cover topics from across the whole module and will be issued after the conclusion of teaching at the end of the semester.
Feedback Students can expect to receive timely feedback on their assessments. There will also opportunities for informal feedback throughout the module on problem-based questions, to assist students in their preparation for the problem-based essay which forms the 80% summative assessment for this course.
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Identify the rights noted in the course description and explain the law on entitlement to protection, infringement and defences
  2. Critically assess the development of the law and how changes in the law affect different interests
  3. 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
  4. Analyse and apply the law to factual scenarios, and identify and critique how well the law responds to and deals with the underlying issues
Reading List
A list of key module readings will be available in advance of the module. Detailed reading lists are then available each week.

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 (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.
Additional Information
Course URL http://edin.ac/1M4wvrp
Graduate Attributes and Skills Students will develop their skills and abilities in:

1. Research and enquiry, through e.g. selecting and deploying appropriate research techniques;
2. Personal and intellectual autonomy, e.g. developing the ability to independently assess the relevance and importance of primary and secondary sources;
3. Communication, e.g. skills in summarising and communicating information and ideas effectively in written form;
4. Personal effectiveness, e.g. working constructively as a member of an online community;
5. Students will also develop their technical/practical skills, throughout the module, e.g. in articulating, evidencing and sustaining a line of argument, and engaging in a convincing critique of another's arguments and analysing/applying the law.
Special Arrangements This course is taught by online distance learning.
Additional Class Delivery Information This course is taught by online distance learning.
Keywordspatents,trade marks,passing off,confidentiality,IP,Intellectual property,industrial property
Contacts
Course organiserMr Gerard Porter
Tel: (0131 6)50 2023
Email: Gerard.Porter@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMs Clare Polson
Tel: (0131 6)51 9704
Email: Clare.Polson@ed.ac.uk
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