Postgraduate Course: Hardware and the Law: intellectual property, safety, sustainability and sovereignty for tech devices (LAWS11540)
Course Outline
| School | School of Law |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The course explores the regulatory frameworks applicable to innovative technical devices such as computer microchips, solar panels, batteries or medical implants. The aim is to engage with all the legal and regulatory protections and obligations relevant to the financing, invention, deployment and commercialisation of such tech devices. |
| Course description |
Tech devices such as microchips, solar panels, batteries or medical implants are the engines of the digital and data revolutions. As such, the way in which they are regulated has a significant impact on the nature and function of the technology available to society. Also, innovation in technology both shapes and enables policy goals such as economic growth or sustainability. The course will tackle all the main applicable principles of an increasingly holistic regulatory framework. We will tackle innovation (mostly through the protection afforded by Intellectual Property, mainly patents and trade secrets), safety (and security, including in the context of health), sustainability (including the right to repair and the prevention of planned obsolescence) as well as sovereignty/industrial policy issues (how states attempt to regulate the creation and access to innovation, notably through subsidises and export controls).The course will start and finish with sessions on the past, present and future of the regulatory frameworks for tech devices. The course will be structured around of few cases studies where legal themes and regulatory frameworks will be explored through the lifecycle of particular devices.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | Spaces on this course are allocated to students based on their chosen programme pursuant to following priority list:
LLM in Innovation, Technology and the Law (On Campus)
LLM in Law (On Campus)
All other eligible On Campus LLMs (check the course selection for your LLM programme to see whether this course is listed) |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate an understanding of the substantive European Intellectual Property, sustainability and safety regulations and standards applicable to the design and deployment of innovative technology devices.
- Explore the wider themes of competition in technology both between private entities but also between states, through the analysis of the laws for strategic investment and export controls
- Think critically about the rules and regulation applicable to the design of innovative devices
- Participate in the contemporary debates surrounding the regulation of hardware
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Reading List
| Reading lists will be made available in due course on a weekly basis. |
Additional Information
| 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. |
| Keywords | Innovation,Intellectual Property Law,Engineering,Patent Law,Trade Secrets,Sustainability |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Mr Nicolas Jondet
Tel: (0131 6)51 4528
Email: nicolas.jondet@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Hannah Ackroyd
Tel: (0131 6)50 2008
Email: hackroyd@ed.ac.uk |
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