INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW - 2025/6

Module Overview

The module identifies the main types of intellectual property in terms of their subject matter, conditions for protection, duration and scope of protection and will examine their impact on the protection of creative endeavours. Intellectual property law is a specialised area of law, which is set on international law by way of minimum standards (TRIPS Agreement, Paris and Berne Conventions). The UK IP laws have seen not only international regulation but also extensive harmonisation in EU law (particularly trademark law and to a certain extent copyright law). This area of law grants exclusive rights to reward and/or incentivise creation and innovation in exchange for certain societal benefits (different for specific IP rights: the disclosure of inventions; the publication of works and the correction of market inefficiencies in the case of distinctive signs indicating commercial origin). Intellectual property law is a vibrant and rapidly evolving area of law and the knowledge and skills developed throughout this module will provide a good foundation for further exploration of more specific issues either in an academic or professional setting.

Module provider

Surrey Law School

Module Leader

ABBOTT Ryan (Law)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 6

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 2

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

Indicative content includes:

• The nature and importance of intellectual property law


• Forms of intellectual property and their subject-matter


• Justifications for intellectual property rights


• The influence of EU and international law


• IP remedies


• Patents


• Breach of confidence


• Copyright


• Design law


• Trademarks and passing off

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

N/A

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the key concepts introduced by the module, as well as professional skills and abilities developed throughout the module. The skills assessed include research, critical reasoning, synthesis of legal provisions, applying the law to the facts of different cases and argumentation. The assessment is also designed to prepare students for the SQE exams that are necessary for entering the legal profession as a solicitor. 

 

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:

• a 4-hour Online Examination during the examination period.
   

Formative assessment and feedback:

In order to enable constructive alignment between teaching and assessment (and between the summative and formative assessments), formal formative assessment is by a 1-hour Examination sat in-class in exam conditions.  Individual written feedback will then be provided to each student undertaking this assessment, together with their marks, and, generalised feedback on the formative assessment will be provided at the beginning of the next available full lecture to all students. This formative assessment will take place usually in Week 7, or otherwise at such a time to ensure that students receive timely feedback.
Students are also given the opportunity to seek in-person informal feedback on fully-written tutorial and past examination questions, before and after classes, and, during office hours. Questions can also be posted on SurreyLearn discussions and are available for all students to read, reply, or add follow-up
The assessment method for each module has been selected to test a variety of key skills, competencies and outcomes as required by QAA. As such, assessment method cannot be changed. Reasonable adjustment may be made on application subject to ALS approval AND only where such adjustment still allows for the required skills, key competencies and outcomes to be assessed at an equivalent level.

Module aims

• This module aims to emphasise the means by which intellectual property law seeks to protect inventive and creative activities through the grant of particular rights, and, at the same time balance the extent of these exclusive monopoly rights with the third party's interests and the public interest of society at large.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to:

Teaching is by lectures and tutorials and is designed to provide a layered approach to the acquisition of knowledge and its practical application in each topic.  Lectures will introduce the students to the subject areas and provide an overview to enable understanding of basic principles and underlying concepts. Tutorials will expose students to the complexities of each topic, evaluating and examining key principles and theories in more depth and through the application of knowledge to hypothetical scenarios, such as they might encounter in legal practice. During tutorials students will be expected to demonstrate a number of professional skills including their ability to apply their research to discuss given legal problems, to demonstrate self-direction and originality in tackling and proposing solutions to such problems, and to evaluate critically current research and advanced scholarship in relevant areas.

The teaching strategy is also designed to encourage independent study and research. Students will be provided with preliminary reading references but will be expected to undertake additional research into each topic under their own steam. Students will have the opportunity to use the research and reading skills they developed in their previous years of study, and in particular as part of the legal systems module. Independent study is meant to help students take change of their learning, and as a result enhance their resilience, particularly developing independence and proactivity. 

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: LAW3072

Other information

Surrey's Curriculum Framework is committed to developing graduates with strengths in Employability, Digital Capabilities, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Sustainability and Resourcefulness and Resilience. This module is designed to allow students to develop knowledge, skills and capabilities in the following areas:

Employability:

The module is designed to give students’ the opportunity to develop and improve key transferrable and professional skills, building on their experience from the previous years. Every tutorial includes a case study, so that students can improve their research, critical reading and case analysis skills. These skills are essential in their further studies as well as professional career. In addition, students will practice and be assessed on their problem-solving skills, argumentation, their ability to synthesise legal and non-legal authorities to produce logical conclusions and their ability to structure strong legal arguments. One particular professional skill emphasised in the module is the recognition of various intellectual property law restrictions applicable for different business scenarios. This understanding will help students to apply general intellectual property law concepts in practical situations with different and changing circumstances.

Global and cultural capabilities:

One important aspect of the module is introducing students to the variety of different cultural factors that play a role in determining countries different approaches to intellectual proprety restrictions. Students will be able to appreciate and critically engage in scholarly discussions regarding the relationship between the different intellectual property rights globally and situating the UK’s intellectual property law in the international context.

Resourcefulness and resilience:

The module is designed to enable students to work independently and to facilitate self-efficacy. Students can practice skills such as choosing to focus on important information, sorting through a large amount of information (for example legal contracts and court judgments) and comparing and collating information from various sources (academic, legal and business). The instructions relating to tutorial reading are less detailed incrementally to allow the students to develop their confidence, particularly in reading and analysing legal contracts. Tools are shared with students to allow them to develop sustainable study habits. Building on their knowledge and understanding throughout the module, students will be able to draw together ideas and competing principles. This requires perseverance and learning from feedback.

Digital capabilities:

Students are encouraged to utilise collaborative tools (Whatsapp, Teams, Zoom) to communicate. As with all modules, students are expected to engage with online material and resources via SurreyLearn, and other digital platforms. Students are especially encouraged to use legal databases such as westlaw and lexis, and legislation.gov.uk for finding and reading statutes. In addition, students will benefit from using global databases on the intellectual property law system such as WIPO.

Sustainability:

An important aspect of the module is the correct use of resources according to relevant intellectual property law restrictions. The module discusses issues of intellectual properties that are conducive to good intellectual property law practices and promotes best practices in using such resources.

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2025/6 academic year.