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  3. Copyright and Designs

Copyright and Designs (LAWS90074)

Graduate courseworkPoints: 12.5On Campus (Parkville)

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Overview

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Semester 1
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Copyright protection is the law’s primary mechanism for providing incentive for the generation of creative subject matters (such as works of literature, art, music and film), and for regulating the use of such subject matters by others. Design registration is the law’s primary mechanism for providing proprietary rights over the appearance of a mass-produced object. This subject explores in detail the law, policy and practice of the copyright regime, of the design registration system, and of the relationship between the two. The principal topics considered include:

  • The international framework for protection of creative subject matters and designs;
  • The subject matters capable of protection by copyright;
  • The requirements for copyright protection to arise;
  • The exclusive rights granted by copyright;
  • The infringement, and the defences to infringement, of copyright;
  • The subject matter of, and requirements for, design registration;
  • The scope of protection provided by design registration; and
  • The regulation of dual protection under copyright and design registration.

Intended learning outcomes

A student who successfully completes this subject will be able to:



  • Demonstrate an advanced and integrated understanding of the nature and policy roles within private law of the legal regimes providing for copyright protection and design registration;
  • Manifest detailed and advanced knowledge of the principles that inform categorization of subject matters within those legal regimes;
  • Demonstrate an advanced understanding of the legal principles that determine the scope of rights in those subject matters;
  • Apply that understanding to complex problems that require resolution of legal and policy ambiguities and critical analysis and synthesis of information, so as to develop reasoned conclusions as to likely outcomes in judicial proceedings informed by a sophisticated and detailed understanding of the public policy issues that are implicated by the legal regimes; and
  • Interpret and transmit that analysis to others.

Generic skills

A student who successfully completes Copyright and Designs will have developed a capacity to:

  • Assess the nature and role of the legal regimes providing for copyright protection and design registration within broader economic and moral context;
  • Evaluate those regimes against defined policy objectives;
  • Analyse judgments, statutes and secondary materials which relate to those regimes; and
  • Write legal assessments of particular scenarios in which copyright law and design law issues are implicated, including being able to comment on the desirability of the application of the law.

Last updated: 10 October 2024