Intellectual Property Institutions and Adjudication
Full course description
Different from how intellectual property – or law in general – is taught, this course does not look at domestic laws and individual provisions, but at:
Institutions: Who or what are the institutions that administer, govern and drive intellectual property law?
Principles: Which are the major principles that govern international intellectual property law?
Adjudication: How do national and international enforcement mechanism influence behaviour and compliance?
Teaching Method and Grading:
The course is taught in a Socratic manner and encourages and requires students to actively participate. The course is graded based on a written exam only.
Course objectives
This course should enable students to understand at what – or who-has driven the international development of intellectual property law in the last 150 years. The course makes students understand that the fabric of intellectual property law has been a continuously evolving process dominated by certain actors and driven by certain principles. Thereby, students get a better understanding as to why intellectual property has become a field of law that from a niche existence has pervaded so much of our daily lives. At the end, students should be conversant with the politics, the actors and the principles that drive intellectual property law.
When the course is taught, students will already have become familiar with the basic framework of European intellectual property law. This is the ideal stage to raise - in a Socratic format – critical awareness about underlying assumptions (“Is more IP better?”; “Should IP be likened to property?”) and about at first glance extraneous factors that have an impact on the behaviour of individuals and States (private enforcement structures; investor-state disputes). Students will internalise these points and be able to critically reflect and discuss the intellectual property developments and their impact on society.
Students are assessed on their basis of their written and oral presentations in regard of course modules or the final mock trial. Importance is attached to structure, content and skills in oral presentation which will enable the instructor to verify whether the intended outcomes have been achieved.