What’s up in Europe? Current Trends and Developments in European IP Law

Date: February 16, 2015 (Monday)

Time: 12:30pm-1:30pm

Venue: Room 723, 7/F, Cheng Yu Tung Tower, HKU

Speaker: Prof. Annette Kur, Senior Research Fellow, Head of Unit, Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition

Abstract:
IP, as we know, is a multifaceted, fast-moving area of the law, making it difficult for courts and legislatures to keep abreast with current developments. The problems are exacerbated in a region like Europe, with its ambition to create more uniform law in a commonwealth of 28 countries that have, after all, their own legal traditions and particular economic interests. Another characteristic feature of the European landscape is presented by the peculiar role played by the Court of Justice (CJEU), whose decisions have often remained enigmatic or were straightforwardly contested. The talk will offer a brief tour d’horizon on the current state of harmonization and the focal points of legal discussion in all fields of IP, and it will focus in particular on the controversy over the legal qualification under copyright of acts of communication on the internet.

Biography:
Professor Kur is a senior member of research staff and Head of Unit at the Max-Planck-Institute (MPI) for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law. She is affiliated professor University of Stockholm and honorary professor at the University of Munich (LMU). She teaches also at Munich Intellectual Property Law Center (MIPLC), and is a member of foreign faculty, Santa Clara University (CA). She was a visiting professor (Hauser Global Law School Program) at NYU, New York, in autumn 2006 and spring 2009, as well as at several European universities and at the National University of Singapore (NUS). She was President of the International Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research in Intellectual Property (ATRIP) for the term 2007-2009.
Professor Kur is the author of books and numerous articles in the field of national, European and international trademark, unfair competition and industrial design law as well as international jurisdiction and choice of law.