LAW414

Prior enrollment in at least one of the following: Intellectual Property, Statutory: IP, Copyright, Trademarks and Unfair Competition, or Patent Law.

This course will focus on comparison of intellectual property laws, primarily between the civil law system of continental Europe, especially the law of the European Union, and the common law system in the US, UK and other common law countries. Developments in other countries such as China, India, and Japan also be discussed. The course methodology consists of review, comparison and discussion of specific legal concepts and norms from the above-mentioned countries. The discussion will emphasize challenges brought about by technological developments and globalization. The ultimate goal is to provide students with an understanding of intellectual property from a global perspective, including national IP laws, their role within the international intellectual property area, and their interplay with international conventions governing IP law. This course will start out with a general discussion of international conventions in the area of intellectual property rights and basic principles of private international law. These introductory concepts will be followed by a more detailed discussion of the creation, scope and enforcement of copyright, patent, trademark, and industrial design rights, highlighting some of the most significant substantive differences between the intellectual property rights in the systems examined.