LAW48415: Art and Intellectual Property Law

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• Explore the foundational principles governing the ownership and exercise of IP rights within the context of art and creative industries.
• Investigate the criteria involved in the granting of IP rights and analyze the post-grant landscape, considering the implications for creators and creative industries.
• Facilitate the development of students' analytical skills by engaging them in real-world scenarios and case studies within art and IP law.
• Introduce students to the dynamic discussions surrounding art and IP, encompassing legal, moral, social, and political dimensions. This exploration will illuminate the diverse perspectives that shape the scope of rights.

• A comparative copyrights and moral rights of civil law and common law in subject matters, moral rights and exceptions.
• An introduction to creative industries: music and fashion.
• IP law with visual arts .
• IP law in museums and libraries.
• The importance of the public domain in fostering art and creativity.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Students will gain an in-depth knowledge of how IP law regulates art.
• Students will develop an understanding of the key legal concepts, principles and doctrines which underpin IP law and its tension with art.
• Students will develop a critical understanding of the policy issues and the methods of interpretation and application of national and regional IP law.

Subject-specific Skills:

• Students will be able to identify and use the leading primary and secondary sources relevant to a given legal issue in art, and be able to use them to reach informed and reasoned conclusions on points of law relating to IP.
• Students will be able to critically analyse the jurisprudence in IP law.
• Students will be able to identify the legal issues relevant to a specific problem relating to IP.
• Students will be able to analyse and evaluate the existing law in the light of the legal, social, political and moral questions raised.

Key Skills:

• Students will be able to critically review existing law and/or practices about art-related aspects of IP law.
• Students will be able to write a substantial and well-researched piece of work on art-related aspects of IP law.

• The teaching will be based on a combination of lectures and seminars. The Lectures will introduce the topic and the seminars, supported by substantial but targeted reading assignments before each seminar, will provide a deeper understanding of the issues. The readings are selected from both established doctrinal sources as well as cutting-edge scholarship in the area. The lectures will work from a basic level of doctrinal knowledge and build on that foundation into discussions of more difficult and controversial issues within the seminars. This will encourage students to learn the material and develop the ability to discuss it and understand where each aspect of the reading fits in with the relevant debates.
• The assessment supports the aims of the teaching methods. The assessment will consist of two elements: a poster and an essay. While a poster allows students to design an art-related topic in IP, the essay will assess the ability of the students not only to analyse the subject material, but to perform research in the discipline, and present a structured, articulate argument on the subject. Students will be provided with guidelines for producing the poster.

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