The UCL Institute of Brand and Innovation Law recently announced its courses for Winter and Spring 2020. They will all be held at the UCL Faculty of Laws, Bentham House, 4-6 Endsleigh Gardens, London, WC1H 0EG, and early bird tickets are available for all of the events until 21 days before the course. You can find further details on each of the events in the links below:

• Tuesday 11 February 2020, 9:30am-5pm: Drafting and negotiating clinical trial agreements
• Tuesday 18 February 2020, 9:30am-5pm: Drafting and negotiating contracts with universities
• Tuesday 3 March 2020 or Tuesday 2 June 2020 (both from 9am-5pm): Contract Drafting Skills Workshop
• Monday 20 April - Friday 24 April 2020: IP Transactions: Law and Practice 2020. Note that the course application deadline is Friday 28 February 2020, and only a few places remain.
• Tuesday 12 May 2020, 9am-5pm: Drafting and negotiating IP terms in research contracts
• Tuesday 19 May 2020, 9:30am-5pm: P Licensing: An advanced level drafting workshop
• Tuesday 26 May 2020, 9am-5pm: Introduction to Contracts
• Tuesday 9 June 2020, 9am-5pm: Drafting "legal" clauses in commercial contracts

Bucerius IP Lecture Series
On 25 February 2020 at 7:00 pm, Bucerius Law School in Hamburg will host a lecture delivered by The IPKat's own Eleonora Rosati, on the topic of 'Brexit through the Lens of UK Copyright'. Here's the abstract:

On 31 January 2020, the United Kingdom formally left the European Union, though Brexit will not display its real effects until IP Completion Day, that is 31 December 2020. As things currently stand, after that date and among other things, UK courts will in principle no longer be bound by decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), nor will they be able to refer new cases to the CJEU. This apparent freedom might translate in a different approach of UK legislature and courts to key IP issues. By using UK copyright as a case study, this talk will consider to what extent this is however likely to be the case, especially in the absence of a major overhaul of the relevant statute.

If you wish to sign up, click here.

Bird & Bird's Triple Book Launch

In celebration of the launch of 3 major books (all published by Sweet & Maxwell) from the Bird & Bird life sciences, internet and data protection teams, Bird & Bird will be holding an event on 27 February 2020, from 6 - 9pm, at its London office at 12 New Fetter Lane, London, EC4A 1JP. The books launched include:

• Life Sciences and Intellectual Property: Law & Practice (1st Edition) by Patrick Kelleher;
• Internet Law and Regulation (5th Edition) by Graham Smith; and
• Data Protection Strategy: Implementing Data Protection Compliance (3rd Edition) by Ruth Boardman and Richard Morgan

CIPIL 15th Annual Intellectual Property Lecture

Professor Arti K. Rai (Elvin R. Larry Professor of Law, Duke Law School) will deliver the fifteenth annual intellectual property lecture on 10 March 2020 on 'Patents and Trade Secrecy in AI: The Case of Health'. This is an invitation-only event - if you would like an invitation, please contact the CIPIL Administrator at cipil@law.cam.ac.uk.

BPIP Annual Conference 2020
This year's 'Best Practices in Intellectual Property' Conference 2020 (held on 23 and 24 March 2020) will bring global decision makers and international IP stars to Tel Aviv to ensure you are updated on the IP global issues, trends and legislation that affect your company's IP. Master classes will also be held, covering topics including Big Data and AI and litigation financing for patent suits. It will be held at the Sheraton Hotel in Tel Aviv, and you can find further information here.

... That's a lot of IP events to sink your teeth into...

EPO Search Matters 2020
The European Patent Office is organising its annual event 'Search Matters', where attendees (patent search professionals from business, academia and IP firms) can meet EPO examiners to gain an insight into how they tackle the complex task of searching the ever expanding prior art. This year's Search Matters conference aims to deliver workshops and lectures with a special focus on disruptive technologies such as 3D printing/additive manufacturing, AI and CII (computer-implemented inventions). Additionally, during their popular “at-the-desk” sessions, a limited number of pre-registered participants will have the opportunity to talk to examiners individually and gather first-hand information about their search strategies in specific technical areas.

The event will be held from 11-13 May 2020, at The Hague, Netherlands, and you can find further information, including programme details and how to register (in the side bar), here.


Call For Papers

Call for Papers - 12th Annual Conference on Innovation and Communications Law
The Center of IP, Media and Innovation Law (Danube University Krems) and the IT | IP Law Group (Vienna University of Economics and Business) will jointly host and organize the 12th Annual Conference on Innovation and Communications Law (CICL) on 7 and 8 May 2020 at venues in Vienna and Krems (Austria). (Note that for speakers, the social program is complementary and there will be no conference fee for academics.)


Extended Deadline - Call for papers - International Conference celebrating the 40th Anniversary of CRIDS: "Time to Re-shape the Digital Society"
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of CRIDS (Centre de recherche information, droit et société - Information, Law and Society Research Centre), is organising an international conference: "Time to Re-Shape the Digital Society" which will take place on Thursday 2nd July and Friday 3 July 2020; as well as an international summer school to take place on Tuesday 30 June and Wednesday 1 July 2020. (This will be held in Namur, Belgium, and you can find out how to register here.)

As part of the conference, which will assemble those from all over the world and from different disciplines to reflect on a future framework for the development of a better digital society, many slots are open to researchers and practitioners through this call for papers. Cutting-edge papers, delivering vision and insight, are welcome from all fields covered at the CRIDS and the NADI: law; communication and digital media education philosophy and ethics; computer sciences; and management.

Abstracts should be submitted by 15 March 2020, and you can read further information here.


IP News

The Intellectual Property Office updates IP guidance ready for the transition period to 31 December 2020
The UK Intellectual Property Office has updated its guidance for when the UK departs from the EU on 31 January 2020. The guidance, entitled 'Intellectual Property and the Transition Period', will be available not view on the IPO website here, and you can find an overview of the guidance here.

It's a Monday, it's 2020, and of course the events and opportunities keep on coming! Here are all of the latest for you to put in your diaries.

EUIPO IP Case Law Conference 2020
Following the resounding success of the previous two colloquiums in 2016 and 2018, the EUIPO Boards of Appeal, together with EUIPO’s International Cooperation and Legal Affairs Department and the EUIPO Academy, will host the 3rd IP Case Law Conference on 21 and 22 May 2020 in Alicante. Covering substantive and procedural issues of trade mark and design dispute resolution, the conference will draw on a wide range of intellectual property law expertise for the two day forum of debate and discussion. Further details here.

AIPPI UK: The Cofemel decision - What has the CJEU done now?

AIPPI UK is delighted to announce that the Director of the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Law at the University of Cambridge, Professor Lionel Bently, will be speaking on the Cofemel decision, concerning the designs of t-shirts and jeans sold by G-Star Raw. The event will be held on 23 January 2020 from 6pm to 8pm at Bristows LLP, 100 Victoria Embankment, EC4Y 0DH, London. To sign up, click here.

The University of Geneva will be holding a conference looking into the recent developments in the era of big data and blockchain, and the present and future challenges of intellectual property law form an international, European and Swiss perspective. The all-day session will be held on 5 February 2020 in Room MR080, University of Geneva, Bd du Pont d'Arve, 1211 Genève 4. You can register and find further details here.

Fashion, Law and Business is hosting a Winter Fashion Law Masterclass on 20 February 2020 from  10am to 4pm at the Condé Nast College of Fashion & Design, 16-17 Greek Street, Soho, W1D 4DR, London. Designed to help participants understand the law as it applies to the business of fashion, this one-day event will offer a practical understanding of the law of intellectual property and will explore the essential legal issues faced by a fashion business as it grows from a start-up to a luxury fashion phase. You can register here and find further information here.

In its Annual Spring Conference (chaired by Lord Justice Richard Arnold), the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Law's conference will bring together practitioners, scholars and policymakers to examine the latest decisions, research and political developments in the field of intellectual property and health. The event will be held on 7 March 2020 from 9:30am to 5:50pm, at the Faculty of Law, 10 West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DZ. Topics will include, amongst others: the implications of non-obviousness for follow-on medical innovation (e.g. drug repurposing) after the UK Supreme Court's 2019 decision in Actavis v ICOS; the current and future roles of competition law in controlling drug prices, including an update on Flynn and Pfizer; and the potential effect of Brexit on the trade of medical products. You can sign up here, find further information here, and the conference programme here.

CIPIL 15th Annual Intellectual Property Lecture
Professor Arti K. Rai (Elvin R. Larry Professor of Law, Duke Law School) will deliver the fifteenth annual intellectual property lecture on 10 March 2020 at 5:30pm at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Further details will be uploaded here when they are available.

UCL Institute of Brand and Innovation Law (IBIL) and MARQUES, the European Association of Trade Mark Owners, invite you to meet and question some of the judges that are or were until recently deciding our trade mark disputes. The Rt Hon Sir Robin Jacob will be posing questions to: Emma Himsworth QC (Appointed Person), Judge Ian Forrester (General Court, Court of Justice of the European Union), and The Rt Hon Lord Justice Arnold. The event will be held on 11 March 2020 from 6pm to 8:30pm at UCL Faculty of Laws, Bentham House, Endsleigh Gardens, WC1H 0EG, London, and you can find further details here.

UCL IBIL - IP Transactions: Law and Practice
In addition to understanding relevant provisions of IP law, IP practitioners need to be familiar with a wide range of commercial law subjects, including personal property, contracts, competition, insolvency, and employment. Each day of UCL IBIL’s 5 day course focuses on a different market or practice area, provides instruction on legal and commercial topics relevant to IP transactions in that area, and gives an introduction to the IP agreements in the media and consumer goods sectors. The course will be held from 20-24 April 2020, with deadline for applications on 31 January 2020. More details can be found here.

As an avid follower of the 1709 Copyright Blog, this InternKat was sad to find out that this blog would not be joining us in 2020. The blog - founded 300 years after the Statute of Anne created the first purpose-built statute law in 1709 (or was it 1710?) - has been posting fascinating copyright articles and insights for the past 10 years. We wish the team all of the best in the future and thank them for their contributions to the IP blogosphere! You can find the 1709 Blog’s last post, an in-depth and comprehensive recap of the copyright highlights of 2019, here.

A reminder to vote for your favourite IP Book of the Year, in The IPKat Book of the Year Awards 2019! You can find the link to the survey here.

The UCL Institute of Brand & Innovation Law has brought together a distinguished panel to explore the proper role of the functionality exclusions in trade mark law. The talk will be held on 12 February 2020, from 5:30pm to 8:15pm at the Deny Holland Lecture Theatre (UCL Laws), Bentham House, Endsleigh Gardens, London, WC1H 0EG. To sign up and find further details, see here.

Could you be infringing copyright law without knowing it? IPKat's very own Special Kat Hayleigh Bosher (Brunel University, London) will be presenting a webinar on 18 February 2020 at 3pm, exploring the remit of social media, how copyright works on it, and improving understanding of the rules for sharing content over social media. You can sign up for the webinar here.

For the students! Gateley plc (a legal and professional services group) will be hosting the UK Sports Law competition (UKSLC) on 28 February 2020 from 9:30am to 5:30pm at the iconic Etihad Stadium, home of Manchester City Football Club. Students will compete in teams of two and tested on their ability to think commercially when faced with a fictional topical legal problem within the sports industry. Prizes include experience in the Gateley Legal business, as well as being a great networking opportunity for students. You can find further information and book tickets here.