Contract Law, Tort andIntellectual Property

Douglas Wilhelm Harder, M.Math. LELDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering

University of Waterloo

Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

ece.uwaterloo.ca

dwharder@alumni.uwaterloo.ca

© 2013 by Douglas Wilhelm Harder. Some rights reserved.

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Outline

An introduction to the engineering profession, including:– Standards and safety– Law: Charter of Rights and Freedoms, contracts, torts, negligent

malpractice, forms of carrying on business– Intellectual property (patents, trade marks, copyrights and

industrial designs)– Professional practice

• Professional Engineers Act• Professional misconduct and sexual harassment

– Alternative dispute resolution– Labour Relations and Employment Law– Environmental Law

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Introduction

The balance of the course will look at common and statute law as it applies directly to the practice of professional engineering:– Contract law– Tort– Intellectual property

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Introduction

In each case, we will see that there are aspects of statute law and common-law precedence that must be understood to properly understand how one is expected to abide by law– Recall: simply following statutes (acts of either the federal or

provincial parliaments) is not sufficient to understanding all aspects of law

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David Hume

Recall that David Hume gave three fundamental laws of justice:1. Stability of possession

2. Transference of possessions by consent

3. Performance of promises

This contrast’s with John Rawl’s principles of justice:4. The principle of equal liberty

5. The difference principle

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Promises and Property

Never-the-less, the concepts of promises and property are of significant interest to professional engineers

The balance of the course will look at how these are embodied in Canadian law:– A contract is a legally enforceable promise– Causing unintentional harm to another in the practice of

professional engineering is dealt with through tort law– Intellectual property

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References

[1] D.L. Marston, Law for Professional Engineers, 4th Ed., McGraw Hill, 2008.

[2] Julie Vale, ECE 290 Course Notes, 2011.

[3] Wikipedia, http://www.wikipedia.org/

These course slides are provided for the ECE 290 class. The material in it reflects Douglas Harder’s best judgment in light of the information available to him at the time of preparation. Any reliance on these course slides by any party for any other purpose are the responsibility of such parties. Douglas W. Harder accepts no responsibility for damages, if any, suffered by any party as a result of decisions made or actions based on these course slides for any other purpose than that for which it was intended.

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