Masters Degrees in Property Law, Ireland

On the LLM (Intellectual Property and e-Law) you will study the close connection between the fields of intellectual property (copyright, patents and trademarks) and e-law (Internet regulation, electronic commerce and cybercrime). You will discuss novel and dynamic issues concerning social networks, music and video copyright, regulation of electronic contracts and data protection.

Applicants for the LLM (Intellectual Property and E-Law) Degree also have the option of registering for a Postgraduate Diploma in Intellectual Property and E-Law. Students take 60 credits of taught masters’ modules from those on offer for the LLM (Intellectual Property and E-Law). The Postgraduate Diploma can be completed over 9 months full-time or 18 months part-time. Those who wish to apply for the Diploma should contact [email protected] for application details.

This shorter programme may be attractive to legal professionals and others who may prefer not to make an initial commitment to a full master’s programme. Graduates of the Postgraduate Diploma may further progress their studies by completing a 15,000 word research dissertation and graduating with a Masters in Law (LLM).   

Credits

Students complete 90 credits over 12 months full-time or 24 months part-time. Students take 60 credits of taught modules and a dissertation on a subject of their choice in the area of IP and/or E-Law as approved by their supervisor. The dissertation is worth 30 credits and is normally 15,000 words in length. 

Please visit the School of Law website here for up to date information on the programme. 

Programme regulations are available in the College Calendar 

Please see the Book of Modules for a more detailed description of programme modules.

Additional Teaching Mode Information

The part-time option will be taught during weekday working hours over 2 years.

Course Practicalities

LLM classes are in seminar format. This participative and interactive format of teaching is suitable for postgraduate level. Students receive advance reading lists and/or materials for each seminar. 

Seminars take place in 2 hour blocks between 9:00am and 6:00pm, Monday to Friday. 10 credit modules run for 12 weeks and 5 credit modules run for 6 weeks.

Assessment

You will be examined by continuous assessment throughout the year and your dissertation must be submitted in September. To view individual module assessments in the Book of Modules .

Who teaches this course?

The School of Law has many expert and committed lecturers with expertise across a wide range of areas. You can view the full list of teaching staff on the following link here 

Why choose this course

The LLM in Intellectual Property and E-Law reflects the close connection in legal research and practice between the fields of Intellectual Property (copyright, patents and trademarks) and E-Law (internet regulation, electronic commerce and law of cybercrime). 

This specialised LLM builds upon the Law School’s considerable research and teaching expertise in the fields of Intellectual Property and E-Law. Students can choose from a range of intellectual property, commercial, information law and e-law modules and further specialise by writing a dissertation on any one of the modern challenges presented by the practice of intellectual property law in the electronic age.  

The LLM includes a unique IT Law Clinic module, where students provide legal information to startups on issues such as copyright, data protection and selling online. The clinic is the first such clinic in any Irish university and provides an opportunity for students to apply their knowledge of these dynamic legal areas to real-life problems faced by businesses. The clinic website is at https://www.ucc.ie/en/lawsite/currentstudents/it-law-clinic/ .   

UCC Law School is the Irish Partner in the global Creative Commons movement and a member of the iLINC European Network of Law Incubators, which aims to facilitate provision of legal information and advice to ICT entrepreneurs and start-ups. We organise major conferences on Intellectual Property and E Law, e.g. “Regulating Cloud Computing: Clear Skies Ahead?” in 2012.   

For information on I.P. and e-Law at UCC see http://www.ucc.ie/law/lawonline/elaw/ .

Placement or Study Abroad Information

For information on the School of Law vacation placements programme see link http://www.ucc.ie/en/lawsite/currentstudents/placements/

Skills and Careers Information

Graduates of the LLM in Intellectual Property and e-Law have excellent legal research and writing skills. They can pursue careers as solicitors, barristers or in-house lawyers, as well as other roles in technology businesses or in the public sector

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This programme will give you specialist and in-depth knowledge of increasingly important and fastmoving areas of law. By dealing with intellectual property and information technology law together, you will obtain a deeper understanding of the interrelationship between these topics.

See the website http://www.ucd.ie/law/graduateprogrammes/llminipanditlaw/

Your studies

Modules available on this programme include: Patent Law; Trade Mark Law; Principles of Copyright Law; Innovation Law and Policy; Information Technology Law; Media Regulation; Online Regulation; and, a general Intellectual Property Law course. You will also have an opportunity to complete modules from other UCD Graduate Schools. You will complete a supervised dissertation and will have international exchange opportunities during the programme.

On completion of this programme, students will be able:
- to understand and think critically about various facets of Information Technology Law, Intellectual Property Law and their inter-relationship;
- to apply their knowledge and understanding of Information Technology Law and Intellectual Property Law to real and hypothetical factual situations; and,
- to conduct independent research and write coherent, well-structured papers.

Studying abroad

The School affords its students the opportunity to spend a semester abroad as part of the Comparative, International and European Law (CIEL) Graduate exchange programme with our partner Universities in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain. Students participating in the programme will have their dissertations jointly supervised by staff in UCD and in the institution which they are visiting. Successful completion of the semester abroad will lead to the award of a Certificate in Comparative, International and European Law.

Your future

This programme will allow you the opportunity to receive the knowledge, skills, and capacity required to work in the area of intellectual property and information technology law. You will be enabled to work domestically or internationally, as a practising lawyer, in house legal adviser, policy maker or researcher.

Features

The Sutherland School of Law offers a wide range of modules for the Masters programmes. Modules of especial interest to those undertaking this programme include:

- Digital Investigations and the Law deals with the legal framework governing the activities of persons involved in Information Technology security and forensics, for example, the role of digital evidence in litigation.

- Innovation Policy and the Law explores the relationship between law and innovation theory and policy considering a variety of important issues attendant upon this relationship such as the economics of IP law and the WIPO development agenda..

- Online Regulation considers the legal, regulatory and technical framework within which internet activities take place and examines how particular areas fit within that framework.. It will also examine the growth in technological responses which may bypass the legal system.

- Patent Law covers issue such as novelty and inventive step; industrial application and excluding subject matter; construction and infringement; transactions in patents, including compulsory licences; and, patent prosecution at the European Patent Office.

CIEL

Any student admitted to an LLM programme in the Law School also can apply on a competitive basis to spend their second semester at one of our sister Law Schools:
- University of Antwerp
- Maastricht University
- The University of Mannhein
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona
- Universite de Toulouse 1 – Capitole

Students must score 6.5 in IELTS or 90 in the internet TOEFL exams in the relevant language of instruction (English, French or German). Spaces are allocated on a competitive basis. Students who are accepted onto this programme graduate with an LLM and are awarded a certificate in International and Comparative Law (CIEL).

Careers

The aim of this programme is to equip graduates with the knowledge, skills and capacity to work in the area of information technology and intellectual property law, whether domestically or internationally, as a practising lawyer, in-house legal adviser, policy maker or researcher.

We have an excellent Careers Development Centre here at UCD, designed to help you with information regarding future employment or studies. UCD hold a number of graduate events throughout the year including a dedicated law fair at which at which many of the big Law firms will be in attendance. The School of Law has a dedicated careers advisor on it’s Academic staff, Dr. Oonagh Breen, and a staff member from the careers office will be in attendance at the School of law on a number of occasions throughout the academic year. To see the full range of services offered by the careers office go to http://www.ucd.ie/careers/

See the website http://www.ucd.ie/law/graduateprogrammes/llminipanditlaw/

Find out how to apply here http://www.ucd.ie/law/graduateprogrammes/llminipanditlaw/apply,80083,en.html

Scholarships

The University and UCD Sutherland School of Law have a list of scholarships that are open to Irish, EU and International applicants.
For further information please see http://www.ucd.ie/scholarships
International students may wish to visit: http://www.ucd.ie/international

Why you should choose UCD

In the state-of-the-art UCD Sutherland School of Law, graduate students engage in advanced study with internationally renowned specialists to develop the transformative potential of law.

The School is ranked by the authoritative QS World University Rankings as Ireland's number one law school and amongst the world's 100 leading law schools. Students benefit from the School’s strong links with university partners; businesses; NGOs; and, domestic, EU and international governments.
We place particular emphasis on the quality and breadth of our graduate programmes across Diploma, Masters and Doctoral levels. Our graduate degrees are available on a full-time or part-time basis, beginning in either January or September.
We also offer part-time Diploma programmes and single subject certificates with the possibility of securing CPD points and building study up to achieve diploma or masters awards.

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The LL.M. is directed at well-qualified graduates in law and related disciplines. It seeks to promote critical analysis of, and reflection on, different aspects of national, European and international law. This programme is delivered over one academic year. Students are examined in six modules and complete a research dissertation of up to 25,000 words over the academic year on an approved theme relating to some aspect of International and/or European intellectual property law. The modules offered might typically include the following: Advanced European Union Law, Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution, Chinese Legal System in Comparative Perspective, Comparative Product Liability, Common Law, EU and US Perspective, Copyright and Innovation, Online, Corportate Governance, Creative Works and Intellectual Property, EU Competition Law, EU Consumer Law, EU Copyright, Patents and Design Law, EU Trademark Law, Freedom of Expression and Intellectual Property, Online, Intellectual Property Law and Sport, International and Comparative Trade Mark, and Unfair Competition Law, International Dispute Resolution, International Economic Law, International and European Tax Law, International Trade Law, Law and Bioethics, Principles of Corporate Insolvency and Rescue. The Law School reserves the right to vary the above list and, in particular, the right to withdraw and add courses. Note that timetabling considerations may also restrict choice. Further information on the precise modules available in a given year is available on the LLM website.

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