Tuesday Wonders

October is here, and with it, new events and opportunities for the IP community!

This Kat's favourite plant for the month of
October is, of course, the pumpkin!
Image from Pixabay.

People, Plants, and the Law lecture series

This online lecture series returns for another year to explore the special role of the law in shaping how people engage with plants, whether in farmers’ fields, scientific laboratories, international markets, or elsewhere. The next three lectures have been announced, with the first taking place next week. Please make sure to check the time zones as the lectures are hosted from Brisbane, Australia.

• Dr. Kelly Bannister (University of Victoria). 8 October 2024, 9-10am (AEST). "People-Plant Interrelationships and the Law – But Whose Law? Expanding the Conversation through Ethnobiology and Biocultural Ethics"
• Prof. Rachel Wynberg (University of Cape Town) and Dr. Sarah Laird (University of Kent). 12 November 2024, 5-6pm (AEST). "Rethinking Biodiversity-Based Economies for Justice and Conservation"
• Prof. Uma Suthersanen (Queen Mary University of London). 10 December 2024, 6-7pm (AEST). "WIPO Treaty on TKGR 2024: Constructing Guidelines for Disclosure and ABS". IPKat will recall our previous coverage of the new WIPO Treaty on Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge here.

The recordings of past lectures and further details about the upcoming lectures can be found on the Centre for Plant Success website.

INTA Annual Meeting 2025

The 147th Annual Meeting of the International Trademark Association (INTA) will be held in San Diego, California, on 17-21 May 2025. Registration will open in January. In the meantime, readers can find further details about the meeting here.

Artificial Intelligence and Copyright Law

For readers in London, the LSE Law School is hosting a seminar next week on the comparative challenges in the UK and Germany regarding copyright law issues related to the training of generative models. The chair is Prof Susanne Baer, FBA (LSE/Humboldt) and the speaker is Dr Anna Bernzen (University of Regensburg), joined by discussants Dr Luke McDonagh (LSE), Dr Alina Trapova (UCL), Mr Garret Edwards (Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa), and Dr Enrico Bonadio (City Law School). 

The seminar will take place in the Moot Court Room from 6:00-7:30pm, Monday 7 October, no registration required. More details here.

Events at IViR

The Institute for Information Law (IViR) of the University of Amsterdam has several events coming up this month that may be of interest:

• IViR and the Law Centre for Health and Life (UvA) are hosting a lecture by Leonardo Cervera Navas entitled "Artificial Intelligence and Data Protection, a view from the European Data Protection Supervisor" on Friday 18 October 2024, from 15:30-16:45 CET. Attendance available in person or via Zoom. Details and registration here.
• IViR and the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society (TILT) are hosting a one-day conference on Thursday 24 October entitled "The Impact of the New EU Data Governance Legal Framework at the Local Level". Registration closes on Monday 7 October, see details here.
• The European Privacy Law Scholars Conference will take place on 24-25 October 2024. The programme and registration details are available here. 

Consultation on Craft and Industrial GIs

A reminder that the European Commission's public consultation closes next week: 10 October. The consultation seeks views on the communication, promotion and the international dimension of craft and industrial GIs under the new Regulation (EU) 2023/2411. Details on how to make a written contribution are on the website.

UK Plant Breeding News

There have been some recent updates for the plant breeding sector. The United Kingdom has confirmed that Plant Variety Rights Office will start using the UPOV e-PVP Admin Module from 2025, which is a digitalised system for PVP offices to manage applications and grants, communicate with applicants and holders, and to publish information and transmit data to UPOV's PLUTO Database. 

While not technically IP news, the UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs announced yesterday that it will introduce new laws to support precision breeding technology (i.e. gene editing techniques such as CRISPR). Although some research trials have already started following the adoption of the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023 (which is an England-only Act), the new laws intend to simplify the authorisation process, which is particularly expected to benefit small and medium enterprises. Readers will recall that the proposed EU legislation to relax the regulation of gene-edited plants has not seen much progress since the European Parliament introduced amendments to ban patents for gene-edited plants (see IPKat coverage here). This Kat is curious to see what the future holds for these law reform proposals and, rest assured, will keep IPKat readers up to date.