IP: Trade Marks and Patents (LAWS3479/5179) – 88 HD | 529 Pages | Full Topic Notes + Patent Exam Scaffolds 2026

Description

These are my Intellectual Property: Trade Marks and Patents notes from Semester 1 2026 (USYD LAWS3479/5179). I scored 88 (HD) using this document. 529 pages. IP is a subject built almost entirely on case law, with the statutory tests doing comparatively little work on their own until you see how the courts have actually applied them. These notes are built around that reality. Every topic works through the full body of case law, not just the required (bolded) readings from the guide but the recommended readings too, so nothing examinable is missing because it wasn't formally starred. Every case has a full working case note (facts, issue, held, reasoning, principles), and cases and legislation are colour-coded throughout with detail set out in colour-coded boxes wherever a case or provision needs more than a passing mention, so the document is fast to navigate in an open-book exam. WHAT IS INSIDE Pages 1–460: Full topic notes Every topic from the reading guide, structured the same way the course itself is structured. Every doctrine is set out in plain terms before the case law, every required and recommended case is given a full case note, and legislation is broken down section by section in applied, colour-coded form so you know exactly how to use each provision rather than just what it says. Topics covered: Topic 1: Introduction to intellectual property (justifications for IP protection, natural rights and incentive theory, the constitutional basis for IP protection, the international treaty framework) Topic 2: The law of passing off (historical development, establishing goodwill and reputation, location and temporal limits on reputation, misrepresentation and consumer confusion, damages and remedies, the statutory action under s 18 ACL) Topic 3: The law of registered trade marks (rationale for trade mark protection, traditional and non-traditional signs, the registration and application process, the role of specification) Topic 4: Trade mark absolute grounds of refusal (distinctiveness under s 41, the ordinary signification test, acquired and lost distinctiveness, prohibited and prescribed signs, graphic representation, scandalous marks and marks contrary to law, deceptive and confusing connotation) Topic 5: Trade mark relative grounds of refusal (conflict with registered marks and earlier applications under s 44, substantial identity and deceptive similarity, honest concurrent use and prior use exceptions, marks with reputation under s 60, bad faith, ownership, false geographical indications) Topic 6: Trade mark infringement (the three categories of infringement under s 120, use as a trade mark, substantial identity and deceptive similarity at the infringement stage, well-known marks, defences including own name, prior use and parallel importation) Topic 7: Exploitation and loss of trade mark rights (assignment and licensing, authorised use, cancellation and rectification, removal for non-use) Topic 8: Introduction to patent law and the patent registration process (the quid pro quo justification, international and domestic patent regimes, patent application types, patent specification and claims) Topic 9: Patentable subject matter / manner of manufacture (the NRDC test, computer-implemented inventions, discoveries and products of nature, methods of medical treatment, combination and new use patents, exclusions from patentability) Topic 10: Patentability criteria (novelty, inventive step, utility, secret use, and the internal requirements of sufficiency of disclosure, best method, clarity of claims, and fair-basing/support) Topic 11: Ownership of inventions, exploitation of patent rights, and patent strategies (employee and academic inventorship, AI inventorship, assignment and licensing, pre- and post-grant strategy, evergreening and pay-for-delay) Topic 12: Infringement, defences and remedies (direct and contributory infringement, purposive construction and the Improver questions, statutory defences and exceptions, damages, account of profits, and injunctions) Topic 13: Alternative forms of protection (confidential information and trade secrets, the elements of breach of confidence, defences, comparative international regimes) What the notes give you: - Every doctrine set out with the applicable test before the case law, so you understand the principle before you see how it was applied - Full case notes for every case in both the required and recommended reading lists, not a one-line summary - Every relevant provision broken down section by section in applied, colour-coded form, cross-referenced against the case law that interprets it - Comparative material built in where the reading guide calls for it (UK, US, EU and other jurisdictions on computer-implemented inventions, gene patents, AI inventorship, and confidential information regimes) Pages 461–529: Patent exam scaffolds (copy/paste) Both the mid-semester assessment and the final exam for this offering were patent problem questions, so the scaffolds are a complete patent methodology rather than templates spread across the whole syllabus. A master directory routes every fact pattern to the correct module in seconds: a labelling step to identify what's actually being asked (patentable subject matter, novelty, inventive step, utility, secret use, internal requirements, infringement, defences, remedies, ownership, or confidential information), a decision tree fixing the run order, and a full facts-to-module lookup table so you can map an entire multi-claim, multi-patent problem before writing time starts. The scaffolds are built around the two moves that decide most of the marks in this subject: splitting every patent into its separate claims, and dating each claim so you apply the correct pre- or post-Raising the Bar test. Each module then gives the test, the copy/paste analysis with bracketed placeholders, and the exact cases and provisions to plug in. WHY IT IS HELPFUL - Genuinely comprehensive case coverage, both required and recommended readings are covered in full, colour-coded throughout for fast navigation - The patent scaffolds function as a complete exam methodology built specifically around how this offering was assessed (patent problem questions for both the hand-in and the final), not a generic template - Trade mark and passing off topics are covered in full case-note depth even without a matching scaffold, so you have everything you need to construct your own answer structure for that material - Built for a subject where the statutory test is only the starting point and the exam mark comes from knowing the case law cold