October 3-4, 2008
Bern, Switzerland

As for the previous conferences (2006 in Münich and 2007 in Lund), the 2008 EPIP Annual Conference will address topics of general interest in the area of <strong>Intellectual Property Rights</strong>, such as:

• National and European legal regime's evolution
• Incentives and organisation of patent offices
• IPR litigation and enforcement
• University patenting
• Patents in new technological fields
• The governance of IPR systems
• The impact of IPR on competition and innovation
• The new methods and tool for the management of intellectual assets.

Because of the close geographical proximity of the conference location to WIPO, WTO, WHO and UNCTAD (all based in Geneva), emphasis will be given this year to the challenges encountered by developing countries in the context of the TRIPS (trade related aspects of intellectual property rights) regime.

Keynote speakers:

Ashish ARORA (Carnegie Mellon University), James E. BESSEN (Boston University), Alison BRIMELOW (EPO), Roland GROSSENBACHER (Swiss Federal Institute of IP), Dominique GUELLEC (OECD), Francis GURRY (WIPO), Reto M. HILTY (Max Planck Institute for IP), Ciaran McGINLEY (EPO), Mark SCHANKERMAN (London School of Economics).

Additional information:

--> Program
--> Registration (until August 31)
--> Conference website

The EPIP 2008 conference is organised by the Chair of Economics and Management of Innovation, EPFL (Switzerland), with the support of the European Patent Office and the World Intellectual Property Organisation.

The EPIP association:

EPIP stands for "European Policy for Intellectual Property". It is an international, independent, interdisciplinary, non-profit association of researchers that grew out of a network financed by the European Commission from 2003 to 2005.

The central concern of this association is the various challenges and policy issues that are raised by the evolution of the IP institutions in the context of the new knowledge-based economy.

Contact:

Tea Danelutti - tea.danelutti<at>epfl.ch