Wednesday Whimsies

Vacancy Announcements

The Motion Picture Association is looking for a Brussels-based Copyright Policy Legal Advisor to advise the EMEA policy team on copyright law matters in the region comprising Europe, the Middle East and Africa, with a particular emphasis on European affairs. Job description and application procedure may be found here.

The Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition is in search for a Junior Research Fellow to undertake academic work in a research project on the protection of geographical indications (with the possibility of an independent doctorate), comparative legal analysis of EU-wide and foreign regulations on the protection of geographical indications and their connection to trade marks, as well as market-related questions (e.g. competition and consumer law), and collaboration on empirical studies and data evaluation. Application documents (letter of application, a detailed CV with publications list, and proof of qualification for foreign languages) should be submitted by 31 May to bewerbungen@ip.mpg.de. 

Education and Training

OxFirst Academy invites readers to a two-day, fully CPD accredited intensive course entitled “Intellectual Property Wealth Generation”, which will be held at Oxford University. The program is designed to enable the inventors to align IP strategy with the goals they have for their inventions, grasp core concepts of invention valuation and target novel markets for the commercialisation of the inventions. Details about the course modules, moderators and registration are available at OxFirst Academy website here.

Beautiful Padova

The Innovation and Technology Law Summer School invites professors, graduate students, research scientists, and professionals, who are interested in the intersection of law and innovation, to Padova on 18-23 June. The session program will focus on the emerging issues in the field of technology law, in particular exploring the interface between computer science and law and the significant role that law plays in promoting innovation. The Summer School is subsidised, with registration limited to 30 applicants. More details here.

The Institute for Information Law, affiliate of the University of Amsterdam, will hold its annual Summer Courses on International Copyright Law and on Privacy Law and Policy. The courses are held simultaneously from 2 to 6 July and will take place in the city center of Amsterdam. Both courses are aimed at private sector lawyers, government officials, NGO staff, academics, PhD students and others involved in matters of copyright law. Enrollment is limited to 25 participants.

Events

European Copyright Society is organising an international conference - “EU copyright, quo vadis?”. The event will take place on the 25 May at Université Saint-Louis, Brussels. It aims to engage a fruitful debate with the European Commission and the audience on the reform of copyright. This debate will also take into account the looming challenges that artificial intelligence poses to various key notions of copyright. Full programs, speaker list and the logistics are here.

The Good, the Bad, and the Unknown

London Craft Week will feature an event on 9 May: Protecting design - what exactly is "artistic craftsmanship"? A multi-disciplinary panel of experts, including designers, curators, commentators and legal experts (see details here), will address this question from a number of viewpoints.  They will also attempt to get to the essence of what it means to put artistic objects into the world today and to try to decipher what exactly we should consider to be ‘artistic craftsmanship’. Sign up here and join the discussion at the Simmons & Simmons London offices in Moorgate.

On 7-8 May in Alicante, the EUIPO will hold its second IP Case Law Conference. The event will be dedicated to substantive and procedural issues surrounding trade mark and design registration. This conference will bring together users of the international IP systems, practitioners, judges, national and international institutions for the two-day event. Click here for programme and registration.

The 9th GRUR meets Brussels Workshop will be dedicated to artificial intelligence, robotics and IP. Join the free event on 5 June from 12.00 to 20.00 at the Representation of the State of North-Rhine Westphalia to the European Union, Brussels. Early registration is highly recommended.

In 2017 and 2018, the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society has organised a workshop series in cooperation with the Haus der Kulturen der Welt to discuss the pressing issues concerning music and copyright law in the digital society. The series is part of the ‘100 years of copyright’ programme of the HKW and it aims to examine copyright law in an interdisciplinary fashion. The events address topics such as the role of collecting societies, the classification of sampling as transformative art or copyright infringement, issues around hosting- and streaming platforms and fair remuneration of authors. More information is provided here.

Image credits: Luca Argalia and Emily Limna