General Course Information
1.1 Course details
| Course code: | LLAW6212 / JDOC6212 |
| Course name: | Intellectual Property Protection in China: Law, Politics and Culture |
| Programme offered under: | LLM Programme / JD Programme |
| Semester: | Second |
| Prerequisites / Co-requisites: | No |
| Credit point value | 9 credits / 6 credits |
| Cap on student numbers: | 30 |
1.2 Course description
Intellectual property (IP) protection in China has drawan world-wide attention since China opened its door to economic and social reforms in the early 1980s. Rampant piracy and counterfeiting activities have made IP protection a primary concern for many multinational companies to do in doing business in China. On the other hand. IP is largely seen as crucial to economic, social and cultural development in the knowledge age. Against this backdrop, many IP experts and policymakers have been debating about the ways in which IP can be used as a tool for transforming China into a knowledge-intensive economy.
Given the increasingly important role IP plays in China, this course will introduce students to the Chinese law that governs the legal protection of copyrights, patents and trademarks. It will focus on the basic legal principles and rules concerning the protection of these three core forms of IP rights. Each area of study will be followed by an examination of the cutting-edge issues at the frontier of IP and technological developments. For example, we will study the topics of copyright protection and digital technology, which will primarily include the right of making available to the public, secondary liabilities of Internet service providers, legal protection of the technological measures used by copyright holders. Moreover, we will closely examine a series of major cases to understand the latest developments in the judicial application of IP laws. Most of these cases involve multinational companies such as Ferrari, Google, Louis Vuitton, Pfizer, and Starbucks.
1.3 Course teachers
| Name | E-mail address | Office | Consultation | |
| Course convenor | Haochen Sun | haochen.sun@hku.hk | CCT 307 | By email |
Learning Outcomes
2.1 Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) for this course
CLO 1 Be familiar with the basic principles and rules of Chinese intellectual property law.
CLO 2 Be able to understand the provisions in the intellectual property statutes we will cover in the lectures.
CLO 3 Be able to apply the principles and rules in Chinese intellectual property law to handle intellectual property cases.
CLO 4 Be competent in thinking critically and reflectively about the major predicaments of improving intellectual property protection in China.
2.2 LLM and JD Programme Learning Outcomes (PLOs)
Please refer to the following link:
LLM – https://course.law.hku.hk/llm-plo/
JD – https://course.law.hku.hk/jd-plo/
2.3 Programme Learning Outcomes to be achieved in this course
| PLO A | PLO B | PLO C | PLO D | PLO E | PLO F | |
| CLO 1 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 2 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 3 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 4 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Assessment(s)
3.1 Assessment Summary
| Assessment task | Due date | Weighting | Feedback method* | Course learning outcomes |
| Class participation | N/A | 10% | 5 | 1, 2, 3, 4 |
| Case commentaries and research essay | TBC | 90% | 3 | 1, 2, 3, 4 |
| *Feedback method (to be determined by course teacher) | |
| 1 | A general course report to be disseminated through Moodle |
| 2 | Individual feedback to be disseminated by email / through Moodle |
| 3 | Individual review meeting upon appointment |
| 4 | Group review meeting |
| 5 | In-class verbal feedback |
3.2 Assessment Detail
To be advised by the convenor(s).
3.3 Grading Criteria
Please refer to the following link: https://www.law.hku.hk/_files/law_programme_grade_descriptors.pdf
Learning Activities
4.1 Learning Activity Plan
| Seminar: | 3 hours / week for 12 teaching weeks |
| Private study time: | 9.5 hours / week for 12 teaching weeks |
Remarks: the normative student study load per credit unit is 25 ± 5 hours (ie. 150 ± 30 hours for a 6-credit course), which includes all learning activities and experiences within and outside of classroom, and any assessment task and examinations and associated preparations.
4.2 Details of Learning Activities
To be advised by course convenor(s).
Learning Resources
5.1 Resources
| Reading materials: | Reading materials are posted on Moodle |
| Core reading list: | TBA |
| Recommended reading list: | TBA |
5.2 Links
Please refer to the following link: http://www.law.hku.hk/course/learning-resources/