Face-to-face , first term, 30 hours of theory.

First term
Thursday from 15:45 to 17:45 at 43 Botanique 6
Thursday from 15:45 to 17:45 at 43 Botanique 5

The course is taught in English. All the course documents are also in English.

The course has two main objectives:
- to initiate students to the reasoning method specific to intellectual property law. By the end of the course, the student should (i) know the main components of the studied protection systems (subject matter, conditions, effects, prerogatives and exceptions, duration, etc.), (ii) be able to identify the applicable texts and jurisprudences (learning to manipulate legislative texts and put jurisprudential texts to good use) and (iii) analyse a concrete situation (how to best protect this or that creation?).
- to highlight some general issues encountered in intellectual property law (enforcement) as well as questions of public interest (relation between intellectual property law and freedom of expression, challenges posed by the internet, etc.).

For the Bachelor in Law :

None

Intellectual property (IP) is an area of law that has long be framed by supra-national rules. This course thus focuses on international, European and comparative law aspects of IP and is based on international and European legal instruments (international Treaties, EU Regulations and Directives). [For a presentation of the Belgian law on intellectual property, see the course “Droit de la propriété intellectuelle”.]

After some introductory sessions on IP in general (overview of the basic features of IP, rationale, international sources, etc.), the next sessions serve to present the building blocks (subject matter, conditions of protection, scope of protection and exceptions, ownership, duration, etc.) of the most common IP rights: copyright, trademark, patent and design.

Other sessions are used to study and discuss selected issues, which usually raise public policy questions and/or relate to other bodies of law (IP and freedom of expression, overlap of protection, etc.). These issues will be discussed on the basis of court decisions or other documents.

The students are requested to carry out preliminary readings. For almost each session, the agenda handed out to students at the beginning of the term includes reading materials. The textbook used for the course is : Paul A.C.E. van der Kooij and Dirk J.G. Visser, EU IP Law. A short introduction to European Intellectual Property Law, Nov. 2014, v. 4.0, 146 p. (available on Moodle).
The lecture is based on many examples, including from the news. Practical questions, sometimes based on elements taken from concrete cases, are submitted to the students to make the course more interactive.
Students are also invited to participate by posting brief answers to questions presented on www.ipdigit.eu .
Substantive issues (e.g. how to combine freedom of expression and protection of creations) will also be discussed during the sessions devoted to selected issues.

Different course materials are prepared for the students: (1) a collection of texts (mainly court decisions that the students should prepare for the course), (2) a collection of legislation, (3) computer presentations for each session.
A bundle with the court decisions and the legislation is available at the service Reprographie. The materials including the powerpoint presentations are made available to students via Moodle.

Students are assessed through a written exam (out of 17 points). There is also a continuous assessment throughout the semester: the student participation to sessions and their answers to questions via the www.ipdigit.eu, account for 3 points out of 20.
For the written exam, the students can use the collection of legislation and decisions (but no other supports such as the commentaries or powerpoint presentations).

The students who choose and are selected to participate to the Oxford IP Moot Court, which requires to prepare a paper of 3000 words for December 2018 (see https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/centres-institutes/oxford-intellectual-property-research-centre/oxford-intellectual-property-moot ) must not present the written exam.

- Required reading : Paul A.C.E. van der Kooij and Dirk J.G. Visser, EU IP Law. A short introduction to European Intellectual Property Law, Nov. 2014, v. 4.0 (available on Moodle).

- Students are also invited to read and prepare for the exam by using : A. Kur and Th. Dreier, European Intellectual Property Law, Text, Cases and Materials, Edward Elgar, 2013.

In addition, some general works in English can be useful:
- F. Abbott, Th. Cottier and F. Gurry, The International Intellectual Property System, Commentary and Materials, Kluwer, 1999
- L. Bently and B. Sherman, Intellectual Property Law, Oxford UP, 4th ed., 2014.
- G. Dinwoodie, W. Hennessey, S. Perlmutter & G. Austin, International Intellectual Property Law and Policy, LexisNexis, 2d ed., 2008.
- W. Cornish, D. Llewelyn & T. Aplin, Intellectual Property: Patents, Copyrights, Trademarks and Allied Rights, Sweet & Maxwell, 9th ed., 2018.
- P. Goldstein & M. Trimble Landova, International Intellectual Property Law : Cases and Materials, Foundation Press, 3rd ed., 2012.