This unit introduces you to the innovation ecosystem and the place of intellectual property (IP) within that ecosystem. In the first half of the unit, you will learn about Australia’s statutory IP rights, including copyright, patents, designs, and trademarks, and the associated international IP conventions and treaties. You will also consider other rights regarding confidentiality and passing off. IP is an important business asset, and in the second half of the unit, you will investigate the commercialisation of IP. To set the scene, you will look at the regulatory context – how government incentivises innovation and commercialisation. You will then consider the foundational components of commercialisation, including the concept of IP due diligences, business structuring and funding issues, negotiations, and options to monetise IP. You will spend the final two weeks of the unit investigating IP licensing, which lies at the heart of IP commercialisation. Major licensing terms, and the associated risks of anti-competitive conduct will be canvassed. Students will have the option to design their own end-of-term research assessment to cater for their particular interests, or to complete a set final paper.

Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.

Feedback from Student evaluations

The content was excellent and real world relevant, particularly the Licensing modules. A text covering the fundamentals of IP (not just commercialisation) would be good but sounds like it doesn't exist. Sometimes the Business Law book wasn't available from max users in the library online.

Content continues to remain real-world relevant. There is no text that will cover the fundamentals of IP in an introductory fashion that is up to date, so the study guides continue to be the best option. Consider putting the Graw/Business Law relevant chapters into an e-Reading list.

Feedback from Student evaluations

Feedback given on Assessment 2 was dismal. The marking criteria for the last assessment was not made available.

The casual marker will not be engaged again for this unit. There is no formal marking criteria for the final assessment, because the students are allowed to choose their own topics, and in addition to these 'design your own' final assessments, there are a mix of problem and essay questions for the students to choose from and complete. For next iteration, I will provide a general rubric framed around the learning objectives for the unit to provide some assistance, but a detailed rubric is not possible for this particular assessment given the disparity in topics and formats which change each time the unit is offered.