Certificate in Intellectual Property Law

The Department of Commercial Law of the Faculty of Law, University of Colombo is to offer a Certificate Course in Intellectual Property Law for interested and suitably qualified applicants. The Certificate Course is to be offered in English, Sinhala and Tamil subject to the required minimum number of qualified applicants.

Intellectual Property Law is one of the fastest-growing and current areas of law not only in Sri Lanka, but all over the world. Intellectual property is a term that is used to describe property that is not capable of being physically possessed (like land, vehicles or jewelry) but rather, types of property that we cannot physically touch, but which have great economic value. Some of these areas include copyright, trademark, patent, industrial design, and geographical indications. In the modern day, there is not a day that passes without each of us having dealt in some way with intellectual property. When you purchase a product, the law of trademark governs whether or not that product is an original or a fake. When you listen to music, the law of copyright governs whether the composer and singer will be paid their dues, or whether someone else is illegally benefitting from it. When you purchase drugs from the pharmacy, the law of patent will regulate who has the authority to manufacture those drugs according to proper standards. Thus, the law of intellectual property has become something essential for the proper functioning of society.

However, the law relating to intellectual property was not taught in the traditional law school syllabus and has been studied only in recent times. Hence, it is seen that a large part of society has been unable to access knowledge relating to this part of the law. Considering this, the Faculty of Law has decided to introduce a certificate course in intellectual property law, to provide an opportunity to those who have been hitherto unable to study this subject, to do so in a practical manner.

The certificate course caters to both lawyers who have not studied this area before, as well as to non-lawyers who find that some of these topics have become essential in their professions or day-to-day activities. To this end, the teaching methods will combine theory with practical examples, descriptions of case law as well as the international legal framework that governs this area, in order to provide students with a contextual approach to the subject.

Applicants should possess a minimum of five credit passes in one and the same sitting of the GCE (Ordinary Level) examination with a credit pass in English. Prior knowledge in the subject of Law is not necessary.

The  deadline for  submitting the  applications for the CERTIFICATE IN PATENT LAW – 2024 has been extended until 20th April 2024.