Intellectual Property & Patents

What you will learn

• Explain the historical origin of intellectual property and how it moved from local privileges to an international system.
• Distinguish the branches of intellectual property and the characteristics of its rights: intangible, exclusive, territorial and temporary.
• Explain the principles of the Paris Convention, national treatment and priority, and those of the Berne Convention and TRIPS.
• Identify the requirements for patentability and the types of patents in the United States, the Andean Community and the European Union.
• Explain what a trademark is, how it is registered and how a likelihood-of-confusion dispute is analyzed.
• Recognize other distinctive signs, trade secrets and unfair competition.
• Explain how copyright and related rights arise, what they include and how long they last, and the role of collective management.
• Analyze current issues: digital music, entertainment law and works made with artificial intelligence.
• Solve a practical case with arguments and sources.

Before you start

No prior training in intellectual property is needed. It helps to have taken Legal English (L101), whose week 11 covers the terminology of trademarks, patents and copyright, to read Spanish comfortably and to handle email and the basics of the virtual classroom (Moodle).

Syllabus

Tap each week to see its topics.

1. Week 1The origin of intellectual property

   From the privileges of Florence and Venice to the Statute of Anne, the U.S. Constitution and the first French patent law.

2. Week 2What intellectual property protects, and its branches

   Intangible, exclusive, territorial and temporary assets; the public domain; industrial property and copyright.

3. Week 3The international system

   WIPO, the Paris Convention, the Berne Convention and TRIPS; the offices of the United States, the Andean Community and the European Union.

4. Week 4Patents I: the patentable invention

   Novelty, inventive step and industrial application; what cannot be patented.

5. Week 5Patents II: types of patents and the application process

   Utility, design and plant patents in the United States; the utility model; the European patent and the PCT.

6. Week 6Industrial designs and other creations

   Designs, plant varieties and integrated circuits. First practical case: patents and designs.

7. Week 7Trademarks I: what a trademark is and how it is registered

   Distinctiveness, classes and registration; in the United States rights arise from use, in the Andean Community from registration.

8. Week 8Trademarks II: disputes and likelihood of confusion

   Opposition, cancellation and international registration. Second practical case.

9. Week 9Other signs, trade secrets and unfair competition

   Trade names, slogans, geographical indications and appellations of origin; confidentiality agreements. Third practical case.

10. Week 10Copyright

    The work and its originality, moral and economic rights, duration, registration in the United States and fair use.

11. Week 11Related rights and collective management

    Performers, phonogram producers and broadcasting; collective management organizations and digital music. Fourth practical case.

12. Week 12Entertainment law and artificial intelligence

    Human authorship, works made with AI and entertainment contracts. Final integrative case.

Materials

• Readings and links the professor sends after each class.
• Recommended, free and in Spanish: WIPO, Principios básicos de la propiedad industrial and Principios básicos del derecho de autor y los derechos conexos (2016).
• Recommended, free: James Boyle and Jennifer Jenkins, Intellectual Property: Law & the Information Society, 6th edition (Duke University, 2024).
• Official sources: the USPTO, the U.S. Copyright Office, WIPO, the Andean Community (Decisions 486 and 351), the EUIPO and the European Patent Office.
• U.S. Supreme Court decisions on patents, trademarks and copyright, in edited versions.
• In the virtual classroom: presentations, practical cases, quizzes and recordings of every class.

How you are assessed

Your grade comes mainly from the practical cases: at the end of each unit the professor poses a legal problem that you solve in writing and submit by email within a few days. Attendance and participation also count, as does a final integrative case. What is assessed is how you argue and with what sources. At the start of the course you receive the syllabus, with the weight of each part.

When you pass the course, you receive a NAFA certificate of completion.