Dr Ben Farrand has been awarded funding to run a Jean Monnet module in conjunction with the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.

When asked how he felt about the award, Ben said, “being awarded the funding is a testament to the quality of teaching provided at the University of Warwick - I was absolutely ecstatic to find out the application had been successful.”

The module will be offered to incoming postgraduate students from October this year, as an option on the Law School’s LLM programmes. It will be split into two parts taught across the autumn and spring terms.

“The two modules are designed to complement each other, LA9F6: European Intellectual Property Law and Policy covers the substance of EU IP laws and policies, ensuring that students have excellent understanding of the relation between the EU legal regime and international norms in the field of IP protection, as well as how EU level actions have affected national regimes.”

“The second module LA9FD: Developing Intellectual Property Law and Policy in the EU and Beyond allows students to take what they learned in the first term and apply it in advocacy, negotiation and drafting exercises, helping them to develop a range of professional skills.”

This postgraduate teaching seeks to bring together legal and political education concerning the EU’s actions in the field of intellectual property law and prepare students for a range of different employment opportunities.

Intellectual property law is often taught in a national context, with references to the necessity of implementing international and EU-based obligations. However, these modules make the EU dimension the core focus of legal study, thereby providing a holistic account of the development of the EU’s approaches to copyright, patents, trademarks, geographical indications of origin and trade secrecy, and how they have both been shaped, and in turn shape the national and international arenas.

Ben says “the EU, along with the US, has been instrumental in defining the current laws, norms and trade agreements applied internationally in the field of intellectual property law. By focusing on the EU specifically, students can gain a better understanding of where those laws come from, how they are agreed upon, and how the EU exports them to the rest of the world.”

The modules will include lectures, seminars and formal training in advocacy, negotiation and legislative drafting. They will allow students to gain a deep, proactive knowledge of EU intellectual property laws and policies, and develop the ability to advocate reforms of the existing system from a range of different stakeholder perspectives. There will also be additional opportunities available including the chance to write blog posts or attend related conferences.

Ben is looking forward to welcoming a new group of students onto the module in October and is excited to see what they will bring to the class discussions…

“The diverse student body at Warwick means that debates over the role of the EU in shaping international norms are truly international. Students from major trading partners of the EU such as China and India not only learn about how the EU has been influential in shaping their legal frameworks, but can help us to understand the views of those countries as growing economic powers."

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