LAWS330-25S1 (C) Semester One 2025

Intellectual Property Law

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 17 February 2025
End Date: Sunday, 22 June 2025
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Sunday, 2 March 2025
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Sunday, 11 May 2025

Description

An introduction to intellectual property law in New Zealand, including copyright, registered trade marks, passing off, and patents.

This 36-hour course is designed as an all-round, practice-oriented, introductory
course to IP law. It starts by giving an overview of the regulatory and economic
underpinnings, as well as the international governance of IPRs to provide students
with a holistic understanding of the subject. Building on these foundations, it then
introduces many of the key areas of IP law, including copyright, registered trade
marks, plant variety rights, and patents. While the aim is to give as comprehensive
as possible of an overview of this fascinating area, given the extent of IP law and the
single-semester length of this course, only selected areas—like copyright or plant
variety rights—are addressed in more depth, while others are merely introduced at
a high-level. The topics addressed in the course may vary. The assessments have a
strong practical touch and are designed to train key legal and other skills sought after in
law graduates (e.g., writing a legal opinion, team work, and negotiation skills).

All information here is tentative and to be confirmed in the first week of lectures.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Acquire a holistic understanding of IP law, including its regulatory and economic
foundations.

2. Describe and explain selected principles of IP law and identify their legal
sources.

3. Identify and critically analyze IP issues in relevant factual situations and
apply the law to such issues.

4. Gather experience in drafting legal documents (e.g., barrister legal opinion).

5. Develop skills valued by prospective employers such as legal analysis, critical
reasoning, team work, and basic negotiation skills.

Co-requisites

Timetable 2025

Students must attend one activity from each section.

Lecture A
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Tuesday 11:00 - 13:00 Rehua 103 Project Workshop
17 Feb - 6 Apr
28 Apr - 1 Jun
Lecture B
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Wednesday 12:00 - 14:00 Rehua 101 Lectorial
17 Feb - 30 Mar

Timetable Note

The lectures will be recorded, but some of the assessments require regular interaction within teams and/or physical presence in the classroom. More information will be provided in the first lecture.

Course Coordinator

Olivia Erdelyi

Lecturer

David Jefferson

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $946.00

International fee $4,850.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see Faculty of Law .

All LAWS330 Occurrences

  • LAWS330-25S1 (C) Semester One 2025