Monday Miscellany

With the end of the year rapidly approaching (including this TechieKat’s favourite holiday, the Day of the Dead), IPKat brings news of the latest IP events and opportunities!

Events

Liability for AI-generated outputs under copyright law.

The Law, Rationalism, and Complexity and the InfoSoc Working Groups of the European University Institute will host a lecture with our very own PermKat Eleonora Rosati (Stockholm University). Tomorrow's hybrid session (29 October 2024) will address AI issues from an international and comparative copyright perspective. More information here.

10th session of the WIPO Conversation.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) will hold the tenth session of the WIPO Conversation on Intellectual Property and Frontier Technologies on 5 and 6 November 2024. The theme is ‘Generative AI-IP and Outputs’. The programme will address inter alia the current copyright landscape, how the IP system adapted to new technologies in the past, and the interplay between training data, generative AI and copyright infringement. More information is available here.

34th IPA Congress.

The International Publishers Association (IPA) will hold the 34th International Publishers Congress from 3 to 6 December 2024 in Guadalajara, Mexico. The Mexican Publishers Association (CANIEM) hosts the bi-annual congress in collaboration with the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and in coordination with the Guadalajara International Book Fair. The programme will cover inter alia opt-out mechanisms in light of the EU AI Act and Article 4 of the DSM Directive, regulating GenAI and copyright, exceptions and limitations in the international framework, and online copyright enforcement. More information here. 

Geographical Indications Conference ‘Safeguarding our Heritage, Cultivating our Future’.

The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), in collaboration with the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) and the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI), will hold the Geographical Indications (GI) Conference ‘Safeguarding our Heritage, Cultivating our Future’. The hybrid event, taking place on 28 and 29 January 2025, will address the latest developments and challenges in geographical indications for craft and agricultural products. Further details are available here.

Opportunities

Director of the Intellectual Property, Government Procurement and Competition Division at WTO.

The World Trade Organization seeks to recruit a new Director of the Intellectual Property, Government Procurement and Competition Division (IPD). The selected candidate will advise senior management on legal, policy, trade and diplomatic issues related to the TRIPS Agreement, IP and public policy issues. The deadline for applications is 3 November 2024. Further details are here.

Legal Officer in the Traditional Knowledge Division at WIPO.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) seeks to recruit a Legal Officer in the Traditional Knowledge Division. The selected candidate will provide legislative and policy advice on the WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources, and Associated Traditional Knowledge (GRATK Treaty). The deadline for applications is 6 November 2024. Further details here.

ATRIP 2024 Essay Competition.

The International Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research in Intellectual Property (ATRIP) is seeking submissions for the 2024 Essay Competition for Young Researchers in Intellectual Property, sponsored by the International Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys (FICPI). Papers in French or English covering any topic related to IP law may be submitted no later than 21 February 2025. More information here.

Other developments

Entry into force of the 2025 version of the twelfth edition of the Nice Classification.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) announced that the 2025 version of the twelfth edition of the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks (Nice Classification) will enter into force on 1 January 2025. A notice on the practice followed by the International Bureau of WIPO for the examination of applications for international registration during the transition period to the new edition was also released. More information is available here.

EUIPO-Europol report ‘Uncovering the Ecosystem of Intellectual Property Crime: A Focus on Enablers’.

The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) released the report ‘Uncovering the Ecosystem of Intellectual Property Crime: A Focus on Enablers’. The report highlights how counterfeit and pirated goods risk consumers’ health, safety, and the economy in the European market, including examples of mechanisms and consequences of IP crimes. Review the report here.

UK IPO has launched a campaign to highlight the dangers of counterfeit vehicle parts.

The Intellectual Property Office of the United Kingdom has launched the ‘Fake Always Breaks’ campaign to highlight the dangers of counterfeit vehicle parts. A survey conducted for the IPO also revealed that 58% of motorists purchased knowing the part was counterfeit, with the lower price a significant factor among those intentionally buying a fake part. The guidance on counterfeit vehicle parts was also updated in collaboration with the motoring industry. More details here.

IViR and Kluwer Law International have launched an online archive of the Information Law Series.

In collaboration with Kluwer Law International, the Institute for Information Law (IViR) has launched an online archive of the Information Law Series. The first ten volumes are freely available in PDF format on the IViR website, including works by Jacqueline Seignette (on authorship and copyright ownership), Sebastian Pinckaers (on the right of publicity), Lucie Guibault (on copyright exceptions and contract law) and Lee Bygrave (on personal data protection). More volumes will continue to be added in due course. Consult the archive here.

Image by RociH from Pixabay.