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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2019/2020

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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 Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
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. 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. Areas of particular topicality will also be highlighted.
Course description The purpose of this course is to consider the law relating to patents, trade marks, passing off and breach of confidence, focussing on European and UK law.

The course aims to equip students to understand, apply, analyse and critique the law pertaining to patents, trade marks, passing off and breach of confidence in the UK and at a European level. 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 and 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, 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 week 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 each week.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements Please contact the online learning team at law.online@ed.ac.uk
Additional Costs Students must have regular and reliable access to the Internet.
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2019/20, 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) One short written assignment (20%, up to 1000 words); one problem-based essay (80%, up to 4000 words).

The short written assignment may take different forms from year to year: examples might include drafting a case note, client memorandum, consultation submission for a stakeholder group or position paper on a point of particular topicality.

The problem-based essay will consist of one set question covering topics from across the whole module and will be issued after the conclusion of teaching at the end of the semester.

Requirements for all course assessments will be outlined to students within the individual courses at the start of each semester.
Feedback Students will have the opportunity to obtain formative feedback over the course of the semester. The feedback provided will assist students in their preparation for the summative assessments.

Details of the School's feedback policy will be available at the start of the course.
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Demonstrate a critical understanding and knowledge of the framework and law pertaining to patents, trade marks, passing off and breach of confidence, including subsistence, scope, duration, infringement, exceptions and limitations;
  2. Apply the knowledge and understanding of patents, trade marks, passing off and breach of confidence to real world scenarios;
  3. Apply critical analysis to the law pertaining to patents, trade marks, passing off and breach of confidence and identify and evaluate the key challenges facing these rights and their role and functions in the wider policy context;
  4. Exercise substantial autonomy and initiative in undertaking reading, research and formulating independent positions.
Reading List
A detailed list of key resources will be available at the start of the course.

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 course, 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 learning.
Additional Class Delivery Information This course is taught by online learning.
Keywordspatents,trade marks,passing off,confidentiality,IP,Intellectual property,industrial property
Contacts
Course organiserMs Jane Cornwell
Tel: (0131 6)50 2012
Email: Jane.Cornwell@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMs Clare Polson
Tel: (0131 6)51 9704
Email: Clare.Polson@ed.ac.uk
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