Patents and patent litigation in the EU: a multidisciplinary approach

"The EU Patent Package: Multidisciplinary and International Perspectives" is the title of an event jointly organised by the University of Antwerp and the Centre for Intellectual Property Rights (CIR) at the University of Leuven. In the charming venue of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts (Academy Palace, Hertogsstraat 1, 1000 Brussels). According to the organisers:

The conference starts off with a presentation on the latest developments concerning the implementation of the Patent Package from the perspective of the EPO by Margot Fröhlinger (Principal Director Patent Law and Multilateral Affairs EPO) followed by an update on the progress regarding the Unified Patent Court by Paul van Beukering (Chair of the Preparatory Committee of the Unified Patent Court). These developments will then be examined critically from an economic perspective by Bruno van Pottelsberghe (ULB, former Chief Economist of the EPO), a legal perspective by Matthias Lamping (MPI) and a governance perspective by Ingrid Schneider (University Hamburg).

In the afternoon, the European patent reforms will be reviewed by two high-level international keynote speakers, Rochelle C. Dreyfuss (New York University) and Yoshiyuki Tamura taking into consideration the patent reforms in the US and Japan. Esther van Zimmeren (University of Antwerp) will focus on the international trend to establish specialized IP courts and the lessons to be drawn from other jurisdictions. This session will be followed by another critical feedback session with practitioners with an impressive track record from university, different industry sectors and legal practice: Nicole Antheunis, TTO Université de Liège, Emil Pot, ActoGeniX, David Laliberté, Microsoft, Bart Van den Hazel, GSK and Eric De Gryse, Simont Braun.

Even better news is that there will be ample time for discussion and extensive networking opportunities.

PhD students can register for just 150 euro, while everyone else pays 200 euro (inclusive of lunch and reception).

The organisers ask you to register online by 3 October here.

This blogger would only add that the multidisciplinary approach has much to commend it and he would like to see it extended to disciplines other than law and economics.  The psychology of litigation and dispute resolution would be one worthy topic, as well as the sociology of crowd behaviour in response to patent law challenges -- for example, the establishment of patent pools and the collective aggregation of defensive patents.   Let's go for it!