Intellectual Property Law

Intellectual property (IP) is a significant area of legal study and a domain that plays a central role in regulating most modern economies. In order to understand intellectual property it is important to place this legal field within the broader historical, social and political framework within which it has developed over the past several centuries. This course provides that context and, in doing so, also provides a survey of intellectual property that covers the what, where, when and why of the different legal rights falling within this domain. The primary focus will be on copyright, trademarks, patents and registered designs, but we will also examine such things as data rights and database protections, passing off, geographical indications, confidential information, plant breeders' rights, and cultural property.

The course will focus on Australian legislation and caselaw, while placing this firmly within a contemporary international context. By the end of the course you will be able to speak to questions around what kinds of intangibles can receive protection and what those protections entail, as well as when these rights arise, who or what entities are assigned these rights, how they are enforced, and the conceptual basis for each type of right. 

Throughout decades of technological and scientific innovation, intellectual property has proved remarkably robust in adapting to and engaging with change; where change arises in diverse ways. For example, increasingly affordable internconnected communications technologies have brought forth novel issues in copyright law, whereas, changing scientific paradigms in biology trigger questions around subject matter under patent law. In this sense, intellectual property is a dynamic and engaging field of legal study. By successfully completing the course, a student will obtain a useful 'toolkit' upon which they can build in-practice expertise and/or the foundations for detailed future study.