Patents and Trade Marks

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 7
• Convenor and tutor: Henrique Carvalho
• Assessment: a 1000-word formative essay plan (0%) and 4000-word research essay (100%)

Once a marker of heresy, innovation has been transmuted into the ticket for personal self-determination, business success and societal development. But what is innovation? Who makes it? And who benefits from it? These seem grand questions, but intellectual property law has over time developed specific techniques to address them for the purposes of ascribing rights and obligations in relation to technical objects, and marketing assets.

This module is designed to equip you to understand the technicalities of what used to be called industrial property and to stimulate engagement with contemporary topics in patent law and trade mark law dealing with: access to healthcare, biotechnology, social distinction, global division of labour and much more. This option is aimed at students on the LLM International Intellectual Property who lack a background in UK intellectual property law; but is equally open to any students interested in the intersection between law, technology, global justice and political economy.

Indicative module syllabus

• Registration and intellectual property: historical origins and contemporary relevance
• Patent law: justifications; reading patent specifications; subject matter; requirements of patentability; ownership; infringement
• Trade mark law: understanding registration; subject matter; ground for refusal of registration; infringement and defences

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• read patent specifications and trade mark registration documents
• demonstrate a solid understanding of core concepts and legal doctrines in patent law and trade mark law
• demonstrate a theoretically informed understanding of contemporary debates in patent and trade mark law
• critique the allocation of resources engendered by contemporary patent and trade mark law.