The University of Hong Kong

Department of Law

Academic Year of 2019-2020

Examiner’s Report

[This report will be posted onto intranet immediately after the release of exam results]

Coursecode: Course title: Intellectual Property Protection in China: Law,

LLAW_JDOC_6212 Politics and Culture
Report prepared by: Ken Shao Date: 12 June 2020

I have truly enjoyed teaching this group of students whose performances have been
examined through class participations/activities, group presentations (30%) and the final
academic paper (70%).

The class participations/activities and group presentations (30%) show an overall good
quality of student learning and engagement. The presentations are consistently of good
quality throughout. Some are particularly top-quality. Overall, they demonstrated a wide
range of valuable interests and focuses, excellent research and presentation skills,
energetic teamwork, and good knowledge in the relevant sectors.

The students’ final papers can be broadly divided into three different areas:

1. Cutting-edge topics such as AI, big data, patent linkage and Fan fiction issues:
These are new and emerging topics that are attracting leading experts’ attentions. I
have found student submissions in this area are overall of top quality. Students who
decided to choose these challenging and new topics seem to have already had a
good foundation of them.

2. Case studies and comments: The qualities of student submissions in this area vary.
Some write excellently with others provide general analysis without a more analytical
and critical engagement. This is a traditional area for legal writing so it is expected
that students achieve differently in this area.

3. Theoretical topics such as economic analysis of IP laws and comparative and

international focuses of global IP norms: Again, the qualities of student submissions
in this area vary, depending on the extent to which students had engaged and
understood existing literature in the relevant sector and how well they navigated the
discussions. It usually requires academic writing skills higher than those needed for
case studies and comments.

In addition to the above, there are some other issues common to student writing
regardless of the subjects of law. They include typos and the poor use of references and
literature. A few students had very limited references/footnotes and this cannot warrant a
solid academic submission.

Overall, this group of students is of high quality and their performance demonstrates a
fruitful and accumulated learning process.