00229 - Industrial Law

Learning outcomes

The course is aimed to let students have a specific knowledge and skill in industrial property law, namely patents and models.

Course contents

The syllabus is focused on patent law from mechanical to biotech inventions (transgenic plants or animals, DNA modifications on the human body, clonation, syntetic proteins or viruses, etc.). Plant Varieties, Utility Models and Know-how & Trade Secret Protection shall also be inclusive part of the program.

The contents (included readings and teaching tools) are the same for Erasmus students.

Students who attended the Course in the past academic years but who still didn't undertake the exam, may choose between the new and the previous syllabus.

Integrative contents shall be determined by the teacher for students who must fulfill credits from other courses/exams, according to the rules of the School of Law.

Prerequisites for Internal DSG Students: having passed the exams of Constitutional Law, Private Law and Commercial Law.

Erasmus and Overseas Students are allowed to oral exam witout the above indicated prerequisites if the Course has been included and approved in their learning agreement.

Readings/Bibliography

MUSSO, Brevetti per invenzioni e modelli di utilità, Zanichelli, Bologna, 2013.

Footnotes are not requested for the exam, being only useful for possible dissertations.

Students who attended the Course in the past academic years but who still didn't undertake the exam, may choose between the new and the previous syllabus/readings.

Teaching methods

Attendance to lectures is not compulsory.

Nonetheless the attendance of the lessons will be valuable to reach a deep understanding of the subject matter and it will constitute a reason of priority – together with the result of the exam – when assigning a thesis in Intellectual Property Law.

Lectures shall deal with the analysis of the main provisions of the subject-matter, dialogically commented with scholars' constructions and main case law.

Assessment methods

For both attending and non-attending students, the exam takes place in oral form, and consists of 3-4 open questions on the entire program.

The program is the same for both internal and Erasmus, Overseas, etc, Students.

Students attending the Course, on their option, may accept questions on topics that the textbook does not particularly deal with, but that were extensively examined during the lessons. In any case, no discrimination between students attendant and not-attendant will be done.

Nonetheless the attendance of the lessons will be valuable to reach a deep understanding of the subject matter and it will constitute a reason of priority – together with the result of the exam – for a final dissertation.

The evaluation of the test will be carried out taking into consideration the knowledge of the legal institutes, the ability to analyze the different interpretative guidelines, the ability to make connections between the different parts of the program, the ability to develop critical arguments, the articulation of exposure, the exposure accuracy.

By way of example, the following criteria will be used to assess the final mark (that will be out of 30/30):

• sufficient or barely sufficient knowledge on the programme, limited reasoning ability, some difficulties in using technical and legal language → 18-21/30;
• fairly good knowledge of the programme, adequate critical reasoning ability, sound use of technical and legal language → 22-25/30;
• comprehensive knowledge of the programme, notable reasoning ability, good command of technical and legal language → 26-29/30;
• extensive knowledge of the programme, very good reasoning ability, and ability to fully master technical-legal language → 30-30L/30.

Examinations are only available trough the "AlmaEsami" System by booking the exam in due time (as a rule, one week before the exam is the last deadline).

No requests of exams will be accepted out of the Almaesami System or if not booked in due time.

Exams shall be also fixed in the periods lawfully determined by the Dept. windows of time. Therefore, the first exams for this course shall be fixed during the week 23-27 May 2022: the exact date, also depending on the rooms availability, shall be communicated on the Almaesami Platform as well as at lesson around next March or April.

Please, avoid to make requests for unofficial "pre-exams" before the regular dates, since all the students (including Erasmus, Overseas, etc.) are requested to stay in Bologna the time necessary to attend the course and to have their regular exams. Unless exceptional and documented cases of necessary return back for foreing students - approved by the International Dept. Office - no request of such kind shall be taken into consideration.

Teaching tools

An updated Civil Code with Complementary Laws, including the new Italian Intellectual Property Code (legislative decree no. 30 of 10 February 2005), as amended in particular by legislative decree no. 131/2010, by Article 4 of Public Law, Nov. 3, 2016, No 214, (ratification of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court, done in Brussels, Feb. 19, 2013) and by Legislative Decree, May 11, No 63, on know-how & trade secrets.

The normative sources pointed out in the syllabi are normally included in the appendix to many editions of the Italian Civil Code with Complementary Laws. An updated version of the normative sources is also available over the Internet.

Students who, due to disability or specific learning disorders (DSA), need compensatory tools shall communicate to the teacher their needs so as to be directed to the relevant persons and agree on the adoption of the most appropriate measures.

Office hours

See the website of Alberto Musso