Module description
Intellectual property law looks at the legal protection of new ideas and new products. It is an area where law is constantly responding to technological change.

Intellectual property is used by us all. Coca Cola Co. has a trade secret in its formula for Coke and a multi-billion pound trade mark. They pay #148,000 per day to the inventor of the ring pull on drinks cans for the use of his patent. Bambi and Snow White were released on video so that Walt Disney Co. could maximise revenue from the copyright in the film before it expired. Students generate copyrights in all their written work and make constant use of the copyrights of others in books, journals, software and databases.

The aim of this course is to study the legal framework of patents, copyrights and trade marks; their exploitation in the market place; and the extent to which their use is restrained because of factors such the free flow of information and competition policies. It is hoped that it will also increase awareness of the economic importance of cultural property and technological advances.

Aims
An appreciation of the role of intellectual property in business and in the cultural life of the community; the role of the public interest in the creation and control of intellectual property rights; the desirability of both domestic and international protection of intellectual property rights and of the means by which they are achieved.

Module objectives / Learning outcomes
To give students the skills to advise on the package of intellectual property rights appropriate to any given product and the limitations thereof

Syllabus
1. Patents

1.1 Patents Act 1977 and European Patent Convention

1.2 Patentability

1.3 Animal Patents

1.4 Patentability of Computer Software

1.5 Novelty

1.6 Inventive step

1.7 Industrial application

1.8 Employee inventions

1.9 Patent application

1.10 Foreign filings

2. Copyrights

2.1 Copyright, Patents and Designs Act 1988

2.2 Copyright works

2.3 Ownership of Copyright

2.4 Duration

2.5 Primary and secondary infringement

2.6 Permitted acts

2.7 Assignment and licensing

2.8 Moral rights

2.9 Plagiarism in music

2.10 Digital sound sampling

2.11 Copyright and Computer Programs and Digitised Information

3. Trade Marks

3.1 Registered trade marks

3.2 Registered service marks

3.3 Community trade mark

3.4 Reform of English law

4. Passing Off

4.1 Common law rights

4.2 Warnick requirements

4.3 Extensions of rights in drinks cases etc.

4.4 Foreign plaintiffs - goodwill v reputation

4.5 Character merchandising