THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH

DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2020/2021

Information in the Degree Programme Tables may still be subject to change in response to Covid-19

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Law : Law

Postgraduate Course: Contemporary Issues in Exploiting Intellectual Property (LAWS11383)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Law CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryIntellectual Property (IP) is of fundamental importance in the modern economy. In certain sectors, IP rights - whether copyright, trade marks, design rights, or patents - can be the most valuable asset a business owns. Such value is realised through successful exploitation of those IP rights.

This research-led, but practice-focussed, course will examine important contemporary issues in exploitation of IP. The course will be highly responsive to legal and policy developments in both the commercial context and other contexts such as the cultural sector.

Due to the nature and focus of the course, the teaching content and programme will be flexible and may change substantially from year to year, as topical issues are resolved and new issues emerge.
Course description This course will touch upon contemporary issues relevant to exploitation of IP rights such as (but not limited to) issues in the identification, audit and ownership of IP rights, maintaining confidentiality, commercial transactions in IP rights, compulsory licensing, collective rights management, enforcement and remedies or exploitation of IP in a changing European landscape (post-Brexit).

The aim of the course is to focus on a small selection of topics, examining them in depth over a longer period of time per topic than in other courses. The specific topics covered will vary from year to year. Topics covered in previous years were:

» Generating Intellectual Property
» Intellectual Property Enforcement and Remedies
» Copyright and Contract Law
» Protection of Geographical Indications

The primary jurisdictional focus of the course will be the UK and Europe, although specific practices or considerations from jurisdictions will be drawn upon, as per suitability on a given issue.

This course will be taught at Masters level and the emphasis is on student participation. Students will be expected to contribute proactively to discussion and other learning activities, and to take responsibility for their own learning. The reading materials which are referred to will be by no means exhaustive and students will be encouraged to undertake independent research.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements To enrol in this course students must be studying or have knowledge of core elements of intellectual property law including in relation to patents, trade marks, copyright and design rights. This can be demonstrated through undertaking the 'Intellectual Property Law 1: Copyright and Related Rights' course (LAWS11125) and/or 'Intellectual Property Law 2: Industrial Property' course (LAWS11129), or through any earlier knowledge, training or experience that students may have.
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2020/21, Not available to visiting students (SS1) Quota:  25
Course Start Semester 1
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 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) Formative assessment (not included in overall mark):
To be detailed further in the course guide.

Summative assessment:
The course will be assessed by way of an ongoing blog exercise consisting of a total of three blog posts (total 4500 words) and a short reflective element (500 words).
Feedback Feedback on the formative assessment may be provided in various formats, for example, to include written, oral, video, face-to-face, whole class, or individual. The course organiser will decide which format is most appropriate in relation to the nature of the assessment.

Feedback on both formative and summative in-course assessed work will be provided in time to be of use in subsequent assessments within the course.

Feedback on the summative assessment will be provided in written form via Learn, the University of Edinburgh's Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Appreciate contemporary issues in exploitation of Intellectual Property (IP) rights;
  2. Explain and discuss IP considerations relevant to businesses in a changing European landscape; and,
  3. Identify and critically appraise commercial considerations in IP and related topical policy initiatives relevant to exploitation of IP.
Reading List
Indicative reading list:

A Brown, S Kheria, J Cornwell, M Iljadica, Contemporary Intellectual Property: Law and Policy, 5th edn, 2019, OUP, Chapter 21.

Cornwell, J. 'Injunctions and monetary remedies compared: the English judicial response to the IP Enforcement Directive', EIPR 2018, 40(8), 490-500

Wilman, F.G. 'A decade of private enforcement of intellectual property rights un-der IPR Enforcement Directive 2004/48: where do we stand (and where might we go)', EL Rev 2017, 42(4), 509-531

J Marshall, 'Employee compensation for patented inventions', EIPR 2018, 40(7), 421-428

J Pila, 'Who owns the intellectual property rights in academic work? EIPR 2010, 32(12), 609-613

S Wolk, 'Remuneration of employee inventors - is there a common European ground? A comparison of national laws on compensation of inventors in Ger-many, France, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom' IIC 2011, 42(3), 272-298

Copinger and Skone James on Copyright, Part VIII - Exploitation and Control of Rights (available through Westlaw)

H Jones and C Benson, Publishing Law, 2011, Routledge

L Guibault and C Angelopoulos, Open Content Licensing: From Theory to Practice, 2011, Amsterdam University Press

A Harrison, Music: the business - the essential guide to the law and the deals, 2011, Random House

M Kretschmer et. al, 'Relationship between Copyright and Contract Law' SABIP, Report 2010 (04)

S Corbett, 'Creative commons licences, the copyright regime and the online community: is there a fatal disconnect?' [2011] 74(4) M.L.R. 503

W Cornish, 'Authors in Law' [1995] 58 Modern Law Review 1

W Cornish, 'The Author as Risk-Sharer' [2003] 26(1) Columbia Journal of Law and the Arts 1
Kal Raustiala and Stephen Munzer, 'The Global Struggle over Geographic Indications,' (2007) 18:2 European Journal of International Law 337.

Irene Calboli and Wee Loon Ng-Loy (eds.), Geographical Indications at the Crossroads of Trade, Development, and Culture: Focus on Asia-Pacific (Cambridge University Press, 2017 - chapters 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 14, and 16)
Dev Gangjee (ed.), Research Handbook on Intellectual Property and Geographical Indications, (Edward Elgar, 2016)

Blogging Guide. ENGAGE: College of Humanities and Social Sciences blogging community http://www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk/guide/
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Students will develop their skills and abilities in:

» Application of knowledge, skills and understanding, through e.g. development of legal and other critical analysis skills, selecting and deploying appropriate research techniques;

» Personal and intellectual autonomy, through e.g. developing the ability to independently assess the relevance and importance of primary and secondary sources and practical considerations in exploitation of IP;

» Communication, e.g. skills in summarising and communicating information and ideas effectively in written form, articulating, evidencing and sustaining a line of argument, and engaging in a convincing critique of others' arguments;

» Personal effectiveness, through e.g. organising personal study and participating in class activities.
KeywordsIntellectual Property,IP,Law,LLM,Level 11,Rights,Exploitation
Contacts
Course organiserMs Jane Cornwell
Tel: (0131 6)50 2012
Email: Jane.Cornwell@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMs Ruth Johnston
Tel: (0131 6)50 9094
Email: Ruth.Johnston@ed.ac.uk
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