Course level

Postgraduate Coursework

Faculty

Science

School

Chemistry & Molec Biosciences

Units

2

Duration

One Semester

Delivery mode

Internal

Class hours

1 Tutorial hour
4 Contact hours

Prerequisite

Permission of Director, Biotechnology Program

Recommended prerequisite

Restricted

Quota of 10 (in total)

Assessment methods

Assignments

Course enquiries

Prof Ross Barnard & A/Prof Michael West

Current course offerings

Course offerings Location Mode Course Profile
Semester 1, 2024 (19/02/2024 - 15/06/2024) St Lucia In Person Course Profile

Please Note: Course profiles marked as not available may still be in development.

Course description

Study of cases in intellectual property (IP) in biotechnology. Criteria for patentability. Breadth of claims, reduction to practice, fair basing. Process and product patents. Terms of patent in biotechnology. Differences in patent rules between countries. Plant breeders rights. Prohibitions/exclusions from patentability in biotechnology. Compulsory licensing. Illustrative Case studies in biotechnology IP: The GTG patents, the PCR patents, Taxol patents, Neem patents, Turmeric patents, rice patents, Affymetrix patents, "Southern" patents, EST patents, sequence patents, stem cell patents. Strategies for managing biotechnology IP Analysis of the parts of a patent and a critical examination of a patent in the context of prior art. Preparation of a case study in IP conflict, dispute or debate in biotechnology.

Due to a limited number of places available in this course, there will be a selection process for enrolment with places being allocated based on the results from the prerequisite course and merit using the student's overall GPA as the criterion.

Archived offerings

Course offerings Location Mode Course Profile
Semester 1, 2023 (20/02/2023 - 17/06/2023) St Lucia In Person Course Profile
Semester 1, 2023 (20/02/2023 - 17/06/2023) External External Course Profile
Semester 1, 2022 (21/02/2022 - 21/06/2022) External External Course Profile
Semester 1, 2021 (22/02/2021 - 19/06/2021) External External Course Profile
Semester 1, 2020 (24/02/2020 - 11/07/2020) St Lucia Internal Course Profile
Semester 1, 2019 (25/02/2019 - 22/06/2019) St Lucia Internal Course Profile
Semester 1, 2018 (19/02/2018 - 23/06/2018) St Lucia Internal Profile unavailable
Semester 1, 2017 (27/02/2017 - 24/06/2017) St Lucia Internal Course Profile
Semester 1, 2016 (29/02/2016 - 25/06/2016) St Lucia Internal Course Profile
Semester 1, 2015 (02/03/2015 - 27/06/2015) St Lucia Internal Course Profile