Annual National Law Students Workshop on Rethinking Intellectual Property Rights

Inter University Centre for IPR Studies (IUCIPRS) under School of Legal Studies, Cochin University of Science and Technology is organizing “Annual National Law Students Workshop on Rethinking Intellectual Property Rights” from January 12 -14, 2012. The theme of 2012 is “Indian Patent Law: The Social Overtones”..Speaking to Bar & Bench, T.G. Agitha, Research Officer, HRD Chair on IPR, Cochin University of Science and Technology said, “Prof. N. S. Gopalakrishnan, the Director of the Centre, will be the lead resource person. Throughout his academic career was always sensitive to the socio-legal implications of IP. The larger aim of the Annual Workshops is to inculcate in participating students an urge for looking at IP from our national perspective. A perusal of the feedback of students about last year’s version of the Workshop itself will evince this”..There will be technical sessions on the following five sub themes: (i) Preserving Public Domain: Role of patentability standards (ii) Promotion of Innovation: Limitations of exceptions to patent rights (iii) Public Health: Limitations of Compulsory Licensing and Parallel importing (iv) Traditional Knowledge: New Challenges to Patent Law (v) Rethinking patent right: Should it be Individual Private Property or Collective Property?.There will be at least three invited talks on the various sub themes of the workshop including (i) Protecting Innovation: The Social Realities (ii) Access to Medicine: The Social Problems (iii) Open Source Drug Discovery – The Challenges..The resource persons include Prof. N.S. Gopalakrishnan, HRD Chair Professor on IPR, Cochin University of Science and Technology; Mr. Shamnad Basheer, Professor, HRD Chair on IPR, National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata; Mr. Lawrence Liang, Alternate Law Forum, Bangalore; Dr. T.G. Agitha, Research Officer, HRD Chair on IPR, Cochin University of Science and Technology; Mr. Yogesh Anand Pai, Assistant Professor, National Law University, Jodhpur; Mr. Benoy K. Kadavan, Advocate, High Court of Kerala; Mr. Feroz Ali Khader, Advocate, High Court of Madras; Mr. Shanmugham D. Jayan, Advocate, High Court of Kerala; Ms. Prabha S. Nair, Research Fellow, IUCIPRS, CUSAT; Ms. Seleena K. B, Assistant Professor, Christ Law College, Christ University, Bangalore..Any law student willing to write a paper on any of the sub-themes can register with an abstract (of maximum 350 words) on or before August 15, 2011..Selected students have to submit the paper (maximum of 4000 words) on or before September 30, 2011. Final list of selected students will be published on October 15, 2011. Final draft of the paper by the selected students, with modifications, if any, suggested by the selection committee, shall be submitted on or before November 30, 2011. The papers will be published by IUCIPRS as workshop papers. From the selected papers, two best papers on each sub theme will be allowed to be presented in the workshop..There is no registration fee. IUCIPRS will take care of food and accommodation..Online Registration is available here..More details on the workshop is available here.