Courses / Module

Intellectual property is concerned with creations of the mind, including songs, books, inventions, and logos. Intellectual property rights grant the owner an exclusive right which allows them to prevent others from using or copying these creations. Intellectual property laws attempt to balance these exclusive rights with the benefits that these creations provide to society.

Continuously, advancements in technology have raised difficult questions around this balance in all fields of intellectual property. Whether the current systems can and should adapt because of these developments is a crucial question.

In this module, you will engage with and critically analyse key advanced debates in the field of patents, trade marks and copyright law. For example, in patent law, we will encounter debates on access to medicines. In trade mark law, we will investigate the question of NFTs and trade mark infringement in the Metaverse. In copyright law, we will consider the impact of developments in artificial intelligence. These debates, as well as other advanced issues in intellectual property law, will challenge you to reflect critically on the regulation of creation, and whether the law can adapt to keep pace.