Conference on IPR Protection over New-Age Technologies by GNLU & GLC Viluppuram [April 25]: Register Now

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22 Apr 2022

About the Organizers

Gujarat National Law University (GNLU) is the statutory university established by the Govt. of Gujarat under the Gujarat National Law University Act, 2003 . The University is recognized by the Bar Council of India (BCI) and the University Grants Commission (UGC) (2f & 12B).

DPIIT IPR Chair GNLU: The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) under the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, officially selected Gujarat National Law University for the establishment of DPIIT IPR Chair, under the Scheme for Pedagogy & Research in IPRs for Holistic Education & Academia (SPRIHA).

National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy, 2016, a vision document promotes a holistic and conducive ecosystem to catalyze the full potential of intellectual property for India’s economic growth and socio-cultural development.

One of the several objectives of the Policy is to strengthen IP Chairs in educational institutes of higher learning to provide quality teaching and research, develop teaching capacity and curricula and evaluate their work on performance-based criteria. Among few eligible Institutions, Gujarat National Law University has been accorded approval to set up the IPR Chair to promote Intellectual Property (IP) education and foster IP research.

GLC, Viluppuram: Government Law College, Viluppuram is functioning under its administrative department of Directorate of Legal Studies affiliated to the Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University.

Concept Note for the Conference on IPR Protection

“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.”–Albert Einstein

Technology always finds a way to amaze us. It has never failed to hold humanity in awestruck. There used to be a time when the internet was believed to be purely a connectivity tool for connecting one computer to another for sharing files.

Today in 2022, it has become a persistent and intrusive part of everyone’s life, taking us for a never-ending run on the information superhighways. It had even exceeded George Orwell’s imagination of the future when he wrote his 1984. Orwell might have been delighted and amazed to see how his imagination is taking form in the present if he was here today.

Historically, science has always preceded the law. As new technology makes its way into the lives of people every day, there arises a need to have a law for it. With the recent advent of the new emerging technologies (viz. Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Big Data, cryptocurrencies, advanced robotics, BigData, NFTs, Internet of Things), we are under the requirement to make effective laws for them. These emerging technologies will have to be studied and covered by the Intellectual Property Law.

One of the recent questions posed by these emerging trends is who will have ownership of Intellectual Property that has been created by an artificial intelligence entity. Blockchain, which has made recording a ledger related to a digital entity attached to it easier, poses a question before us whether it could be used to detect copyright infringement or plagiarism. If yes, how feasible will that be?

The development of advanced robotics has ignited the debate on whether AI-enabled software used in these devices is patentable or has to be solely a subject of copyright. Big Data software, specifically the ones harvesting and processing the user data, apart from raising privacy concerns, poses a question of ownership of the data collected. Whether the data must be a trade secret or just a copyrighted asset needs to be determined.

The ‘National Conference on IPR Protection over New-Age Technologies’ is being organized to discuss such questions and determine possible answers. The participants will gain valuable insights into the emerging technologies and IPR from the subject experts. Every session will be followed by a Q&A round. The focus shall discuss the new-age technologies and advancements in science and their impact on the IP regime.