LAW5346 - Design law and practice - 2017

This unit provides a detailed study of the Australian registered designs system. It includes coverage of international conventions and design protection in other countries, the origins and rationales of design protection, its relationships with other regimes that protect products of the innovative process, requirements for registration, the registration process and Designs Office practice, the examination of the registered rights (including their enforcement, maintenance and exploitation), and the relationship between designs and copyright protection. It also considers other forms of protection for designs.

This unit has been designed tomeet the requirements of the Professional Standards Board for Patent and Trade Marks Attorneys in relation to Designs (topic group I).

Students who have successfully completed this unit will:

• demonstrate and apply knowledge, and understanding of the following with creativity and initiative to new situations in professional practice:
  1. the law relating to the registration of designs and the scope and enforcement of associated rights ii. other legal regimes that offer protection for designs

  iii. the international aspects for protection of designs

  iv. the skills necessary to apply for registration, prosecute the application and maintain registration of a design;

• investigate, analyse and synthesise complex information in relation registered designs protection in Australia and situations where a registered design and other intellectual property rights may co-exist in relation to the same subject matter;
• conduct research in designs law based on knowledge of appropriate research principles and methods; and
• use cognitive, technical and creative skills to generate and evaluate at an abstract level complex ideas relevant to the limitations of Australian designs protection and proposals for reform.

Take home exam (3,750 words): 50%

Research assignment (3,000 words): 40%

Class exercise: 10%

24 contact hours per semester (either intensive, semi-intensive or semester long, depending on the Faculty resources, timetabling and requirements)

Dr Warwick Rothnie Personal ProfilePersonal Profile (http://law.monash.edu/staff/postgraduate/sess-wrothnie.html)