Intellectual Property Law

The compulsory modules studied will give you an opportunity to:

• study the key principles and features, rules and court decisions concerning patents, copyright and trademarks
• examine the key cases that have shaped intellectual property rights law in the major legal jurisdictions
• discover other rights such as designs and geographical indications
• learn about how business acquires and deploys intellectual property rights.
  

These compulsory modules will also enable you to hone your legal research and writing skills, which you’ll be able to demonstrate in your dissertation – an independent piece of research on your chosen topic.

If you study with us, you’ll also benefit from our academic skills programme. This 10-week programme runs alongside your taught academic programme, and is specifically designed to meet the needs of home and international students in the School of Law. It allows you to refine and develop the academic and transferable skills to excel during your taught postgraduate programmes, as well as prepare for professional roles after graduation.

The wide-ranging list of optional modules means that you can explore a mixture of related subjects of interest to you.

As a part-time student, you’ll take four compulsory modules in your first year and two optional modules. In your second year, you’ll carry out your dissertation and study two optional modules.

Course structure

These are typical modules/components studied and may change from time to time. Read more in our Terms and conditions.

Modules Year 1

Compulsory modules

• Postgraduate Legal Research Skills 15 credits
• Trade Marks, Geographical Indications, Designs and Trade Secrets 15 credits
• Patent Law 15 credits
• Copyright Law 15 credits
• Dissertation 60 credits

Optional modules

• Cyberlaw: Regulation of Cyberspace 15 credits
• International E-Commerce Law 15 credits
• Intellectual Property Management 15 credits
• Digital Environment: Law, Technologies & Human Rights 15 credits
• International Governance of Intellectual Property 15 credits
• Contemporary Issues in Intellectual Property: Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Cultural Expressions 15 credits
• Contemporary Issues in Intellectual Property: Health, Food and Biotechnology 15 credits

For more information on typical modules, read Intellectual Property Law LLM Full Time in the course catalogue

Learning and teaching

Our compulsory and optional modules are taught through a range of weekly seminars, lectures and workshops.

You’ll need to prepare for your seminars and lectures, undertaking any exercises that might be prescribed in advance. Independent study is integral to this programme – not just to prepare for classes but to develop research and other critical skills.

Assessment

You’ll be assessed using a variety of methods but for most modules you’ll be required to write an essay at the end of each module. You’ll also be expected to write a final dissertation.