Master Seminar in Intellectual Property LawLaajuus (10 cr)

Objective

The University of Lapland has established a collaboration for running a Msc research seminar in the field of intellectual property (IP) law with the University of Helsinki/Faculty of Law and the IPR University Center. This Msc course is therefore run jointly by the University of Lapland/Law and the University of Helsinki/Law. In practice, this means that there are joint lectures and sessions with students and supervisors from both institutions. Moreover, bi-lateral (student-supervisor) and specific sessions only with the ULap group will also be organised.

The course focuses on advanced issues of intellectual property law. It composes of an introductory lecture (2h), a set of dedicated thematic lectures given by experts on key up-to-date topics (10h), and a set of sessions for the 'dispositioseminaari' (nr of h depends on nr of students participating the seminar). Moreover, during the course there will be bi-lateral (student-supervisor) and ULap-specific reflection and check points between ULap students and supervisor.

Depending on students’ and teachers' needs, the sessions will take place either physically at the University of Lapland or/and the University of Helsinki (Porthania building), or in a hybrid mode, or fully online. However, the dispositioseminaari will be organised as physical meetings at the University of Helsinki. It will be possible to cover the travel expenses of ULap students upon need.

The working language for the seminar is Finnish and English. Students can write their thesis either in English or Finnish.

Content

The topic for the seminar will be: “IPR, Cooperation and Inclusiveness”.

The seminar will discuss issues related to the role of IPR as both possible enablers and obstacles to fostering cooperation, collaboration as well as inclusiveness and diversity in creative and innovation processes. The lectures will provide different concrete cases and examples on this topic, spanning from e.g. issues related to co-creation and open innovation, to technology transfer and capacity building, all the way to issues of diversity and inclusiveness in creative processes such as those in the context of (digital) cultural heritage.

Qualifications

Maximum 15 students from ULap can take part in the seminar. Selection of students will be done based on the following criteria:

1. Students should have already completed their BA degree;
2. Students should have gained at least a total of 200 ETCS by the time of registering into the Msc research seminar;
3. Students should have taken some course in IPR by the time of registering into the Msc research seminar.

Materials

Literature to support each of the thematic lectures will be sent later. Projektitentti: The projektitentti literature composes of about 1000-1500 pages literature that will be agreed between the teacher/supervisor and the student on an individual basis. The projektitentti will take place in Exam or in Moodle. The projektitentti can also be replaced by an essay of about 15 pages (to be agreed with the teacher). It is strongly recommended that the projektitentti is taken by May 2024 latest.

Further information

The course runs during Spring 2024.

The responsible teacher at ULap for the seminar is Prof. Rosa Maria Ballardini (rosa.ballardini@ulapland.fi). At the University of Helsinki the responsible teacher is Prof. Taina Pihlajarinne.