The Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law (IISTL) recently hosted the inaugural Framing IP Rights Conference. The primary aim of this was to integrate further the IISTL’s work on commercial and IP law by bringing together IP and tech law scholars to discuss IP’s engagement with newly emerging issues.
Over two days, 21 presentations focused on IP and technology, welfare, culture, biotechnology, and dispute resolution. These presented a great opportunity for participants and delegates to debate; providing a fruitful environment for academic engagement.
Those presenting included not only senior figures such as Professors Johanna Gibson and Professor Jonathan Griffiths of QMU, London, but also other rising and prominent figures in academia and practice, notably Dr Basak Bak (Reading University), Lawrence Cullen (Deputy Director of the UK Intellectual Property Office), and Pranav Narang (Centre for Trade and Investment Law).
Also playing a large part were PhD students from QMU, Queen’s Belfast, NOVA IPSI, University of Edinburgh, and Swansea University, who were joined by IISTL members; Drs Lowri Davies, Ogulcan Ekiz, Aygün Mammadzada and Alicia Mckenzie.
Commenting on the event afterwards, Professor Soyer, Director of the IISTL, said:
“You have to remember that IP Law is part of our DNA. For many years we ran the IP Wales project that brought significant benefits to SMEs in Wales by assisting them to commercialise their IP rights.
This most recent event shows that we are now prepared to embrace any new challenges in this field; cross-cutting themes such as IP, tech, human rights and dispute resolution are now very much our bread and butter.
I am enormously grateful to our members, Drs Davies, Ekiz and Mammadzada, for taking this event and running with it. We look forward to taking the discussions carried out in the course of these two days a great deal further in future."