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Unit Synopsis
Intellectual property concerns legal rights over creativity and innovation. In Australia statutory rights exist in relation to Copyright, Patents, Designs, Trade Marks, Plant Breeder's Rights as well as rights relating to confidentiality, passing off and unfair competition. Intellectual property transcends national and international boundaries and is truly global in context. This unit will explore complex policy issues including: international trade; information technology; revolutions in agriculture, medicine and biotechnology; personality rights; creative commons; and the protection of traditional knowledge and culture. Intellectual Property is as dynamic as it is controversial.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 2 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 4 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Prerequisites: LAWS11057, LAWS11059, LAWS11061, LAWS11062, LAWS11063, LAWS11064, LAWS11060, (LAWS11065 or LAWS12055) Co-requisite: LAWS12065 Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2019
Term 1 - 2019 Profile
Term 1 - 2021 Profile
Term 1 - 2022 Profile
Term 1 - 2023 Profile
Term 1 - 2024 Profile
Term 1 - 2025 Profile
Term 2 - 2026 Profile
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Presentation and Written Assessment | 50% |
| 2. Written Assessment | 40% |
| 3. Group Discussion | 10% |
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site.
No previous feedback available
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Source: SUTE data T1/2024
This was a great unit. We were provided with a lot of information and resources that assisted with our learning. AJ provides students with a range of different learning aids that are invaluable to neurodiverse students and those who are juggling their study commitments whilst working and young kids. AJ is inclusive and supportive of every student and committed to providing us with a valuable experience. Her individual assessment feedback assists with understanding how we can improve. I particularly enjoyed the last assessment in this unit. At first I found it challenging with needing to decide on one of three the options. However, once I started, I really enjoyed the opportunity to consider how the changes in government policy have effected innovation in Australia. I had not had an assessment like this and I found it gave me a greater understanding of our system as a whole. We are commonly taught how the judicial and justice system operate and not how the government system and policy impacts society.
Retain topic on innovation policy.
Retain topic on innovation policy.
Source: SUTE data T1/2024
I thoroughly enjoyed the unit and would commend it to any student. Some extra time issue spotting problems with example IP Agreements may be useful. Additionally, the exposure to real world Australian competition law improved my understanding and is something that could possibly be adopted in other units. The lecturer's enthusiasm and energy provided enormous inspiration. The opportunity for feedback was outstanding and I always felt encouraged and supported each week of the term.
Retain topic on competition law. Consider expanding the IP agreement clause weeks.
Retain topic on competition law. Students in T1/2025 were less engaged with the clause drafting topic.
Source: SUTE data T1/2024
This subject was hard. I really struggled with it in general but the AI side of the assessments I found really difficult. Trying to understand the principles then which ones do not apply to AI I really struggled with. I know AI is a new challenge but I think I would have struggled less in this class having taken it earlier in my degree when this was not discussed.
Emphasise to students that the work on foundational IP principles in the first 6 weeks will be critical to both their mid-term and end of term assessments, and advise they need to keep up with their readings and clarify any queries on the way through, rather than trying to catch up at the end of the unit.
Early in term emphasis was placed on the critical nature of the first six weeks' learnings to the subsequent topics in this unit. No student comments around degree of difficulty for T1/2025.
Source: Student evaluations
The content was excellent and real world relevant, particularly the Licensing modules. A text covering the fundamentals of IP (not just commercialisation) would be good but sounds like it doesn't exist. Sometimes the Business Law book wasn't available from max users in the library online.
Content continues to remain real-world relevant. There is no text that will cover the fundamentals of IP in an introductory fashion that is up to date, so the study guides continue to be the best option. Consider putting the Graw/Business Law relevant chapters into an e-Reading list.
In Progress
Source: Student evaluations
Feedback given on Assessment 2 was dismal. The marking criteria for the last assessment was not made available.
The casual marker will not be engaged again for this unit. There is no formal marking criteria for the final assessment, because the students are allowed to choose their own topics, and in addition to these 'design your own' final assessments, there are a mix of problem and essay questions for the students to choose from and complete. For next iteration, I will provide a general rubric framed around the learning objectives for the unit to provide some assistance, but a detailed rubric is not possible for this particular assessment given the disparity in topics and formats which change each time the unit is offered.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Identify and apply legal principles relating to confidential information, copyright, patents, designs, trade marks, plant breeder’s rights, unfair competition and the protection of business reputation.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the legal and practical steps needed to ensure that intellectual property rights remain valid and enforceable.
- Demonstrate a capacity to identify, apply and assess ownership rights and marketing protection under intellectual property law as applicable to information, ideas, creativity and innovation.
- Critique intellectual property protection for indigenous knowledge and culture, information technology especially biotechnology and international trade.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Presentation and Written Assessment | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | ||
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | • | • | • |
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | • | • | • |
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | • | |||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |
| 1 - Presentation and Written Assessment | • | • | • | ||||||||
| 2 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • | |||||||
| 3 - Group Discussion | • | • | • | • | |||||||