Module Identifier | LA32510 | |||||||||||
Module Title | INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW | |||||||||||
Academic Year | 2003/2004 | |||||||||||
Co-ordinator | Miss Allison Coleman | |||||||||||
Semester | Semester 2 | |||||||||||
Pre-Requisite | LA10110 or LA30110 or LA15710 | |||||||||||
Co-Requisite | LA15830 or LA35830 | |||||||||||
Course delivery | Lecture | 20 Hours Two one hour lectures per week | ||||||||||
Seminars / Tutorials | 4 Hours Seminar. Four one hour seminars during the semester | |||||||||||
Assessment |
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Professional Exemptions | Not Required for Professional Purposes |
Students will acquire a knowledge of the statutory provisions and case law relating to copyright, patents and trade marks and understand the policy issues behind any decision to protect intellectual property or consign it to the public domain. Students will also be able to describe and and evaluate the conflicting interests of the creators, the rights owners and the users of intellectual property.
Intellectual skills
Seminars and assessment methods focus on the skills of problem solving and policy evaluation, plus the assessment and interpretation of source material and its practical application.
Much of the information is available only electronically. Study of this module will enhance students? Information Technology skills particularly in terms of the use of electronic databases and the Internet.
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 pounds 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, databases and the internet.
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.
Lectures, seminars and the assessmment methods for this module focus on
? the key skills of statutory interpretation and problem solving,
? ensuring that students recognise and understand the policies underpinning the law at the national, European and international levels,
? the importance of Intellectual Property protection to industries such as sound recording, film, television, publishing and software engineering, and
? the public interest in the free flow of information in the digital age.
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
This module is at CQFW Level 6