Intellectual Property Law

The Intellectual Property Law programme is comprehensive and covering a variety of areas of professional activities in the field of law, business or administration. The aim is to give the doctoral students an extensive offer of courses to help them study their preferred area(s) of interest, as broad and deep as possible.

The programme is based on common philosophic and methodologic grounds, whereas legal pragmatism provides for core methodology and information philosophy serves as substantive philosophical fundament. On this basis, there are developed relatively independent courses in main areas of intellectual property law that should provide for complex understanding of dominant regulatory phenomena of Intellectual Property law – namely copyrights, patents, trademarks and designs.

After successfully completing his/her studies the graduate is able to:

• understand and creatively analyse philosophical and methodological background of intellectual property
• understand and develop fundamental concepts of intellectual property incl. fundamental rights
• critically analyse legal regulatory framework of creative markets
• critically compare fundaments of intellectual property in dominant legal cultures of the world
• critically analyse the influence of technological and societal development on intellectual property
• understand and resolve conceptual links of intellectual property to other regulatory areas
• valuably contribute on state-of-the-art national and international publication and academic projects in intellectual property law
• independently resolve highly complex legislative and interpretive issues in copyrights, patents and trademarks
• independently resolve and present complex legislative and interpretive issues in industrial and utility designs, as well as the sui generis protection of databases
• successfully formulate and argue towards learned audience complex interpretive conclusions regarding intellectual property law

Intellectual property law is a well-established area of legal practice. Thus, it is likely that graduates of this doctoral programme will mostly aim at high-profile positions namely in professional legal service (soliciting or in-house practice) in national or multinational commercial establishment as well as in the specific administrative bodies dealing with the intellectual property law related issued (Industrial Property Office).

Nevertheless, there is a significant academic and scientific agenda in this field as well, so it is the primary aim of the programme to generate fully qualified academics and researchers and motivate them to engage in further academic work in the field of intellectual property law.

The study programme of Intellectual Property Law does not (cannot) replace professional preparation for regulated occupations (patent attorney, attorney-at-law, notary, judge etc.).

Practical training is not envisaged as explicit part of this programme.

It is very likely that students of this programme will have actual practice in intellectual property law during their studies.

Students of combined form of this programme will most likely be engaged in professional legal practice related to IP in law firms, business units or at courts. Students of full-time will very likely engage in IP-related contracted research at one of participating institutions (Masaryk University or the Academy of Sciences) or undertake other practical tasks in IP as a part of their university assignment (e.g. by working at the MU Technology Transfer Office).

Completing a doctoral thesis is a prerequisite for all students as the work is a key component of the Ph.D. Program.

Content of the dissertation thesis: Dissertation thesis is original scientific work that contains results of research conducted according to approved study schedule. The content of the thesis shall demonstrate that the student has undeniably mastered given scientific assignment including its respective theoretical and methodological aspects. The text shall also demonstrate the ability of the student to work with relevant foreign scientific literature and to independently formulate and argue complex scientific opinions. The thesis must contain original and published results or results accepted for publication.

Technical requirements of dissertation thesis: The thesis is presented exclusively in English. The minimum range of the dissertation is at least 261.000 characters including spaces. This includes the abstract (the usual range is 500-600 characters including spaces) with a list of keywords (the usual range of the list is 5-10 words), which is placed on a separate sheet (at the beginning of the work, after the student's statement).

Citations format: The citation is governed by the Dean's directive (Faculty of Law, Masaryk University No. 4/2013 (Quotations Directive)

Submission of the thesis: The thesis is submitted electronically through IS MU (archive of the qualifying thesis) and in three printed copies. The Doctoral Board can determine the possibility of submitting the thesis only electronically

Conditions for submission of the application for defence: The precondition for filing the application is a successful completion of the state doctoral examination or the concurrent submission of the application for the state doctoral examination - in which case the defence and state doctoral examinations are held in one day.

Dates: Deadlines for submission of applications for the defence of the dissertation are set for the spring semester on January, 31 of the preceding autumn semester, and for the autumn semester on June, 30 of the preceding spring semester.

Abstract of dissertation thesis: The dissertation thesis abstract is also submitted along with the thesis. Its range is 18.000 characters and includes the characteristics of the topic, the definition of the purpose of the work and the methods used in the process, the characteristics of the content of the work (especially the key chapters) and the conclusions reached by the author. The contents of the thesis and the list of used sources are also parts of the dissertation thesis abstract. The list of used sources is not counted in the 10 pages limit.

Requirements for publication of the dissertation thesis results: The dissertation must contain the original and published results and the results accepted for publication. The list of published results must be enclosed with the application for defence. The dissertation is considered to be published if at least one of the following methods of publication of the results is fulfilled:

- publishing the entire dissertation or its acceptance for publication,

- an expert paper (article, study) published in a peer reviewed journal,

-a paper published or provably accepted for publication in a reviewed proceedings,

including an electronic version,

-a chapter in a monograph.