CEIPI's Newsletter n° 36 - February 23, 2017

The Centre for International Intellectual Property Studies (CEIPI) of the University of Strasbourg is pleased to announce that the Centre has been selected by IP Key (www.ipkey.org) for implementing a knowledge sharing program for Chinese IP judges.

The Advanced Program for Chinese Judges on Intellectual Property Court Practice will take place in Strasbourg, from 18 to 30 March 2017.

The two-week program will focus on intellectual property rights enforcement and validity through peer-to-peer exchanges with experienced intellectual property European judges and senior experts. It will include field visits to specialized intellectual property chambers of French courts, comparative law sessions, practical exercises and a mock trial, adopting peer-to-peer, interactive and practical approach.

For further information: http://www.ipkey.org/en/component/flexicontent/16-criminal-law-procedures/4143-ip-judicial-training-with-the-supreme-peoples-court-in-the-eu

On Tuesday, 22^nd November 2016, the Centre for International Intellectual Property Studies (CEIPI) of the University of Strasbourg organized, jointly with the European Audiovisual Observatory, a conference at the Council of Europe, Strasbourg, on the topic of “Copyright Enforcement in the Online World”. The conference was held in the context of the 11^th edition of the “Rendez-vous européens de Strasbourg” by the Pôle européen d’administration publique (PEAP) in Strasbourg (22-26 November 2016).

During this event, Mr. Andrus Ansip, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Single Digital Market, addressed the issue from the perspective of the ongoing copyright reform in the EU.

The other high level speakers included for example: Mr. Pavel Svoboda, Member of the European Parliament and Chair of the Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI); Ms. Julia Reda, Member of the European Parliament; Mr. Robert Spano, Judge at the European Court of Human Rights, Council of Europe; Mr. Christophe Geiger, Professor of Law, Director General and Director of the Research Department of the CEIPI; Ms. Susanne Nikoltchev, Executive Director of the European Audiovisual Observatory; and many other distinguished representatives from the Council of Europe, academia, industry and media dealing with copyright online.

Among the topics debated during this conference were the policies and mechanisms of digital copyright enforcement, the ongoing EU copyright reform and its implications for copyright enforcement on the Internet, and the impact of the currently prioritized enforcement strategies on online intermediaries and human rights.

Click on the image to download the program.

Link to the pictures gallery.

The video recording of the conference below.

For further information:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2805572

The CEIPI is happy to announce the publication of the volume “The Intellectual property system in a time of change: European and International perspectives, 50 years of CEIPI anniversary volume”, edited by Professor Christophe Geiger, Director general and director of the Research Department of CEIPI, Lexis Nexis, CEIPI’s Collection N^o64 (2016).

Over the past decades the intellectual property system has witnessed significant changes due to new patterns of innovation and novel forms of creation. The challenges posed by the spread of new means of communication, the growth of international trade, the rise of development agendas related to global environmental, cultural and health concerns, have deeply influenced various areas where intellectual property matters.

In order to adapt the intellectual property regime to this new context, important initiatives are underway at the European and international level, calling for collective reflection and debate.

This book presents reflections of high-ranking intellectual property officials and representatives of public institutions, renowned scholars in law and in economics, professionals and representatives of intellectual property rights intensive industries on the ways for future development of the European and international intellectual property systems in a globalized world. This volume of the books series results from the international conference celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the Centre for International Intellectual Property Studies (CEIPI), organized in Strasbourg on the 27 and 28 November 2014 at the Council of Europe.

Contributors to the book include: Geoffrey Bailleux, Lionel Bently, Dan Burk, António Campinos, Trevor Cook, Jérôme Debrulle, Graeme Dinwoodie, Josef Drexl, Christoph Ernst, Christophe Geiger, Francis Gurry, Raimund Lutz, Elise Petit, Bruno van Pottelsberghe, Julia Reda, Pedro Roffe, Elke Van Rysselberge, Jens Schovsbo, Thierry Sueur, Antonius Tangena, Antony Taubman, Pierre Véron, Michel Vivant, Lanfen Wu, Conghui Yin, Xiang Yu.

To order the book, please download the form below:

• Bon_deccommande_LexisNexis_Juillet_2016-1_01.pdf  
• Encart_publicitaire_Lexis_septembre_2016_01.pdf  

The Centre for International Intellectual Property Studies (CEIPI) is very pleased to announce the publication of the third issue in the CEIPI/ICTSD series on Global Perspectives and Challenges for the Intellectual Property System, produced jointly with the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD). The new issue, “Intellectual Property and Access to Science and Culture: Convergence or Conflict?”, edited by Professor Christophe Geiger, Director General and Director of the Research Department at the CEIPI, explores the relationship between intellectual property (IP) rights and the right to science and culture.

This topic has recently served as the basis for an increasing body of legal scholarship and reports from international organisations, including two well-noted reports in 2014 and 2015 issued by the United Nations Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, which shed some light on the complex interactions between IP regimes and access to science and culture, but also generated further discussion. The volume includes papers authored by prominent scholars from both the intellectual property and human rights fields, including an introduction by the former UN Special Rapporteur, Farida Shaheed, herself.

The CEIPI/ICTSD publication series provides high quality academic and policy-oriented papers dealing with topics that are of global relevance because of their normative pre-eminence, economic relevance, and socio-economic impact.

Click here to download the volume.

Further issues of the series can be consulted at:

www.ceipi.edu/en/library-and-publications/library-and-documentary-resources/ceipi-ictsd-publication-series/

We are pleased to announce the publication of the 9^th edition of Wolters Kluwer's “Die europäische Patentanmeldung und der PCT in Frage und Antwort”. This book, co-authored by Mr. Gérard Weiss, Legally qualified member of the Boards of Appeal of the EPO and regular tutor at CEIPI, presents in the form of questions and answers the different segments of the procedure of patent granting, opposition and limitation, as well as the appeal procedure. It is an important reference work for learning European patent law and is a bibliographical reference highly appreciated by German-speaking candidates who start intellectual property.

To order the book, click here.

With the aim of creating a copyright guide for consumers, the European Union Intellectual Property Office (the EUIPO), acting through the European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights, commissioned a study in order to provide ‘answers to the most frequently asked questions (FAQs) average consumers have in relation to copyright for all twenty-eight EU Member States’. For that purpose, 28 renowned national copyright experts were asked to respond to these basic consumer questions against the background of their respective jurisdictions, under the supervision of Prof. Christophe Geiger, Director General, and Franciska Schönherr, Researcher at the Center for International Intellectual Property Studies (University of Strasbourg), who coordinated the study and authored the summary report of the project based on the replies of national experts.

This report has just been published on the EUIPO website: https://euipo.europa.eu/ohimportal/en/web/observatory/news/-/action/view/3423769

According to its Executive summary, the main findings of the study are summarized as following: “Copyright law throughout the EU does not give unanimous answers to Consumers’ most Frequently Asked Questions. While international and EU law have approximated the different copyright traditions to a certain extent, a closer look reveals that divergences still prevail. These might relate to the fact that even in areas that have already been the subject of harmonization measures, Member States have often not implemented provisions of EU secondary legislation in a uniform way. Moreover, some key aspects of copyright law have not been harmonised so far. The result is the following: even if a few common basic principles can certainly be identified, the exceptions to these principles as well as their implementation vary significantly”. Therefore, the report concludes by stating that “overall, it appears that the copyright framework in the EU is fragmented to a significant extent. Certain basic principles of copyright law appear to be valid across borders. It should therefore be possible to explain the general functioning, purpose and value of a copyright system to consumers in simple terms. Nevertheless, the overall analysis of the information provided by the national experts suggests that many questions related to ‘everyday’ uses of copyrighted works in the online world currently still lack a clear and straightforward answer as regards their legality”.

Ms. Asako Wechs Hatanaka, Senior Lecturer at Ritsumeikan University (Kyoto, Japan), received on 2 December 2016 the thesis prize of the Research federation “L’Europe en mutation” for her thesis defended on 26^th September 2016 within CEIPI’s Research Department “Mediation and intellectual property law. A European and comparative perspective”, written under the supervision of Prof. Christophe Geiger, Director General and Director of the Research Department of CEIPI.

This thesis prize was created in 2012 in order to recognize the outstanding works of a PhD student from a member research organization, whom thesis topic correspond to the European dimension of the Research Federation and to its main research axis. Three PhD candidates from CEIPI’s Research Department obtained the prize in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

- from 1^st September 2016 to 31^st August 2017, Mr. Sean O’Connor, Director of the Center for Advanced Study and Research on Innovation Policy (CASRIP), Faculty Director, Cannabis Law & Policy Project, Chair, UW IP Management Advisory Committee, University of Washington, USA. His research project focuses on the topic “The Methodology and Means of Innovation”.

- from 12 June 2016 to 30 November 2017, Mr. Tsukasa Aso, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Design, Kyushu University, Japan. His research project focuses on the following topic “The International harmonization of design law”.

In the context of the lecture series “(Re)thinking Intellectual Property, Fundamental Questions and New Perspectives”, the CEIPI had the pleasure of welcoming on Tuesday, 10 January 2017,  Prof. Daniel Gervais, Vanderbilt University, Director of the Vanderbilt Intellectual Property Program, Faculty Director, LL.M. Program and visiting Professor at the CEIPI. His public lecture focused on the topic “Intellectual property, international investment protection and public health: lessons from the Eli Lilly vs Canada case”.

The discussion was chaired by Prof. Christophe Geiger, Director General of CEIPI.

In the context of the lecture series “(Re)thinking Intellectual Property, Fundamental Questions and New Perspectives”, the CEIPI had the pleasure of welcoming  on 28 November 2016, Mr. John M. Golden, Professor of Law, University of Texas, Austin, School of Law. His public lecture focused on the topic “Principles for Patent Remedies and Lessons for Intellectual Property Design”.

The debate was moderated by Prof. Christophe Geiger, Director General of CEIPI.

The opening lecture for the 2016-17 academic year of the CEIPI double degree program on IP Law offered in cooperation with Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje (Macedonia), and in partnership with the EIPIN members, took place on 17 November 2016, in the premises of the Justinianus Primus Faculty of Law of Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje.

Mr. Stefan Martin, Member of the Boards of Appeal of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the Board of Appeal of the Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO), gave an opening lecture on the topic “Parody of trademarks: The tension between European trade mark law and freedom of expression”.

This innovative initiative offers a high-level program in the Balkan region of Europe focusing mainly on international and European perspectives on IP Law (European patent law, trademarks, copyright, neighbouring rights, competition law, geographical indications and other related disciplines). Classes are taught by teachers from CEIPI and its partners from the EIPIN network, Law Faculty of Skopje and from the neighbouring countries (Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia).

The CEIPI/WIPO/INPI Advanced Training Course on Intellectual Property, Technology Transfer and Licensing will take place from 12 to 23 June 2017 in Strasbourg. This training course is jointly organized since 1978 by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the Centre for International Intellectual Property Studies (CEIPI) and the French National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI). Like in the past edition, the present course touches upon the legal and economic aspects of technology transfer and licensing. 

The training is addressed to technology transfer professionals, including professionals working in university technology transfer offices, national and regional intellectual property offices and science and technology ministries. With an integrated and practical approach, the CEIPI/WIPO/INPI Advanced Training Course on Intellectual Property, Technology Transfer and Licensing will be also of the interest of lawyers and economists

Participants will benefit from the expertise of specialists from several international organizations, prestigious research institutes and universities, and renowned experts, while interacting with professionals coming from all over the world. The interest of the program for developed, emerging and developing economies makes it a unique forum to exchange experiences and share opportunities.

The 2017 program will be available soon on CEIPI’s website.

Click on the poster to download the 2016 program.

For further information, please contact Ms. Alexia Philipp for administrative questions/registration (philipp.alexia@ceipi.edu) or Xavier Seuba for questions related to the academic content of the program (xavier.seuba@ceipi.edu).

Organised on 19, 20 and 21 October 2016, this first edition of the CEIPI executive IP management days have discussed the consequences of new tends like Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0 including the digital transformation of business models throughout different industries, products and services with detailed and comprehensive cases of successful IP strategies and their implementation.

This workshop’s aim was to provide insight into IP strategy development within the new paradigm of digital business models and service industries with practical issues in systematic synthetic invention, IP protection of perceived customer benefits and sustainable organizational change in companies.

This training course, led by the Professor Alexander Wurzer, Adjunct Professor at CEIPI and Director of Studies of the Master in IP Law and Management (MIPLM) was mainly addressed to IP professionals coming from all over Europe, but also to graduate students interested in these topics.

The framework was designed for inspired discussions and networking.

This European Master's program is designed especially for European patent attorneys, lawyers and other experienced IP professionals. Its ultimate objective is to qualify experienced IP professionals to act as IP managers with the practical skills and knowledge to deal with the new challenges of wealth creation and profit generation. Participants acquire first and foremost a new understanding of how intellectual property works in business models and are conveyed the necessary skills to achieve the systematic alignment of IP management and business objectives.

This Master addresses students and practitioners with a minimum of three years’ experience in the Intellectual Property field.

Click here for further information.

In November 2016, CEIPI has organized seminars preparing for the pre-examination and for papers A, B and C of the EQE main examination. The seminar for papers A and B has taken into account the new format of these papers as from 2017. Therefore, the training material and the papers used for the explanation of the methodology and for the mock examinations have been adapted or even completely redesigned for the needs of the seminar. Most of the courses have been taught in pairs of tutors from each of the former technical fields Chemistry and Mechanics/Electricity.

From 9 to 13 January 2017, CEIPI organized seminars preparing for paper D of the EQE 2017. As the other preparation courses for the EQE, this seminar took place in Strasbourg and was taught in the three official languages of the European Patent Office: English, German and French. In order to give further candidates the opportunity to prepare for paper D of the EQE, a second seminar D took place from 23 to 27 January 2017, in English language.

In late January, intensive last-minute courses preparing for the pre-examination and for papers A, B, C and D of the EQE 2017 took place either in Paris or in Munich.

After having acted for several years as CEIPI coordinator for the courses and seminars preparing for paper C of the EQE, Mr. Hugo Meinders, until the end of November Chairman of a Technical Board of Appeal at EPO, is handing the coordination activity over to Mr. Giovanni Pricolo, Chairman of a Technical Board of Appeal at EPO and CEIPI tutor.

The CEIPI takes this opportunity to warmly thank Mr. Meinders for his involvement and the excellent quality of his cooperation, which have been essential for the success and the quality of our training courses. Mr. Meinders remains CEIPI tutor for paper C and with William Chandler co-author of the C-book edited by Wolters Kluwer.

In the framework of their new partnership, CEIPI of the University of Strasbourg and the Law School of the Vanderbilt University (Nashville, Tennessee) announce the creation of a special scholarship meant for a CEIPI student for obtaining an LLM in USA. This scholarship of 30 000 $ is going along with a position (remunerated according to the application rates) of research assistant on intellectual property (the exam period won’t be paid) under the supervision of Prof. Daniel Gervais. This scholarship is available for academic year 2017-2018 (beginning of the courses in August 2017). A similar scholarship will be provided each year.

The LLM degree of Vanderbilt allows students to take the Bar exams, especially the New York’s one. About sixty students from Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa are accepted into the LLM programme each year. The LLM programme is fully integrated into the JD (Juris Doctor degree or Doctor of Law degree) programme and enables students to register to the same courses. An intensive and optional legal English course is also provided in July.

The scholarship recipient will be chosen jointly by CEIPI and Vanderbilt.

For more details regarding enrolment:

http://law.vanderbilt.edu/prospective-students/llm-program-/llm-admissions-process.php

(CEIPI’s candidates won’t be asked to pay the 50 $ required to enroll).

The applications in English including:

- detailed CV

- cover letter

- last transcript of records

- proof of proficiency in English (IELTS, TOEFL, etc.; a minimum score of 100 is required on the TOEFL and 7.5 on the IELTS)

will have to be sent to asandulesei@ceipi.edu (copy ceipi-dg@ceipi.edu).

Deadline for enrolment: 28 February 2017.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     For more information, please contact:

Ionela ASANDULESEI

03 68 85 80 57

asandulesei@ceipi.edu

On February, 9 2017, The "Fédération de recherche l'Europe en mutation" and the research library had the pleasure of welcoming Mr. Franck Macrez, Associate Professor at CEIPI within the context of the "Matinales de la bibliothèque". 

Mr. Macrez spoke on the topic: "L'exploitation numérique des livres indisponibles".

Click here for furher information.

On Wednesday 8 February 2017, Xavier Seuba, Senior Lecturer, Academic Coordinator and Judicial Training Manager at CEIPI, will participate in the symposium “Finalizing the Unitary Patent Package: Challenges and Ways Forward”, organized in Brussels by Public Policy Exchange. In that symposium, he will introduce CEIPI’s judicial training activities, and how they relate to the topic of Panel I, “Encouraging Unifying Progress: The Unitary Patent & The Unitary Patent Court”.

Click on the poster to download the programme.

The 18^th EIPIN Congress entitled “The New Data Economy between Data Ownership, Privacy and Safeguarding Competition” took place from 26 to 28 January 2017 at the Queen Mary University of London, UK.

Prof. Christophe Geiger, Director General of CEIPI, chaired and commented the panel titled: “Intellectual Property, Big Data, and Personalised Medicine”.  Ten selected CEIPI’s students participated in this congress, which involves an upstream research work and the preparation of a collective paper within a team of students from the partner institutes.

The second part of the congress will be held in Munich from 6 to 8 April 2017.

Click here to download the programme of the congress.

On 10-11 December 2016, Mr. Giancarlo Frosio, Senior Researcher and Lecturer at CEIPI, participated to the 2016 Internet Law and Policy Conference jointly organized by Oxford University, Peking University and Stanford University in Shenzhen, China.

Mr. Frosio was presenting the topic “Global Intermediary Liability Trends: Lessons from the World Intermediary Liability Map (WILMap)”.

For further details:

http://pcmlp.socleg.ox.ac.uk/news/events/?q=news%2Fevents%2F&event_id1=69

Mr. Franck Macrez, Associate Professor at CEIPI and Mr. Sean M. O'Connor, Boeing International Professor, University of Washington (Seattle, United States) and visiting Professor at CEIPI, participated in the symposium organized by the “Centre de Recherches Juridiques (CRJ), Université Grenoble Alpes” on the topic “La propriété intellectuelle en dehors de ses frontiers” that took place on 2 December 2016, at the auditorium of the museum of Grenoble.

Mr. Macrez and Mr. O’Connor spoke on the topic « Divergences des législations nationales sur la titularité des créations informatiques ».

From 25 to 28 October 2016, Mr. Christophe Geiger, Professor at the University of Strasbourg and Director General of CEIPI, delivered a series of presentations in the United States.

His presentation at the University of San Diego in the framework of the Faculty colloquium, California (USA), was on the topic "Rethinking copyright as a vehicle for cultural participation and social progress" (October 25).

He also delivered a presentation at the Center for Intellectual Property Law, Whittier Law School, Costa Mesa California (USA), on the topic "Conceptualizing the interactions between Human Rights and Intellectual Property: Lessons from Europe and another, at the Conference  “Intellectual Property and Human Rights” organized by the University of California Irvine School of Law, Irvine, USA. M. Geiger spoke on the topic: “Freedom of Artistic Creativity and Copyright: A Compatible Combination?”

On 14 September 2016, Christophe Geiger, Professor at the University of Strasbourg and Director General of CEIPI, gave a public lecture at the Applied Research Centre for Intellectual Assets and the Law in Asia (ARCIALA), Singapore Management University, School of Law, on the topic “Moving the Intellectual Property System out of its Legitimacy Crisis: What Human Rights Can Add to the Debate”. Prof. Geiger was appointed Visiting Professor by the SMU where he gave various lectures from 11 to 18 September 2016.

For further information: http://law.smu.edu.sg/node/28076?newsletter