TOPIC 4 : ADJUDICATING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN INVESTOR - STATE DISPUTE SETTLEMENT PROCEDURES: FUNCTIONING AND CHALLENGES

M. Robert Howse

Professor, New York University School of Law, United States of America

M. Pilar Montero

Professor of Commercial Law and Director, Magister Lvcentinvs, University of Alicante, Spain

M. Xavier Seuba

This panel will review new challenges raised by the adjudication of IP disputes in investor-state tribunals. In particular, it will give an overview of the functioning and principles guiding investor-state arbitrations and highlight potential issues that can arise for the intellectual property regime. This panel will also address the issue of jurisdictional conflicts in the light of recent cases on IP and investment protection.

TOPIC 5 : THE ENFORCEMENT OF IP BY THE WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION PANEL: COMPARATIVE VIEWS

Hannu Wager

Counsellor, World Trade Organisation, Geneva, Switzerland

Mme Rochelle Dreyfuss

Professor and Co-Director, Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy, New York University, United States of America

M. Enrico Bonadio

Senior Lecturer, City University, London, United Kingdom

M. Xavier Seuba

This panel will discuss how the World Trade Organisation Dispute Settlement Body is adjudicating IP cases under trade law. The panellists will focus on cases involving IP with the aim of comparing the disputes at the World Trade Organisation with other international disputes on similar matters. The speakers will address the question of potential multiplication of the same or similar disputes in front of different dispute settlement mechanisms, and the issue of forum shopping that can arise.

TOPIC 6 : WHAT ROLE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND ETHICS IN IP, INVESTMENT AND TRADE DISPUTES?

M. Tuomas Mylly

Professor, University of Turku, Finland

M. Thomas Cottier

Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Bern, Switzerland

M. Giancarlo Frosio

Senior Lecturer and Researcher, CEIPI, University of rasbourg, France

This panel will deal with challenges for human rights resulting in the treatment of IP as an investment. For example, trademarks have been used in the context of investment disputes with an aim to constrain public health regulation (Philip Morris). Therefore, some of the questions that will be addressed in this panel include: Have arbitral tribunals taken human rights considerations (e.g. public health, non-discrimination, due process) into account when adjudicating IP-related cases? How can the tensions between IP and human rights law be resolved in the context of investment law proceedings? Are investment tribunals well-suited to resolve IP / human rights tensions ?

TOPIC 7: THE COMPLIANCE OF INVESTMENT PROTECTION MECHANISMS IN FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS WITH EU LAW (INCLUDING THE COMPETENCY OF THE EU AND AUTHORITY OF THE CJEU) AND POSSIBLE CONSEQUENCES FOR IP PROTECTION

Szilard Gaspar-Szilagyi

Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Oslo, Norway

M. Rainer Geiger

Of Counsel, Sybarius Avocats, Brussels, Belgium

Mme Ana Ramalho

Assistant Professor of Intellectual Property Law, Maastricht University, Netherlands

This panel will focus on three closely connected issues. First, the compliance of investment protection mechanisms included in recent Free Trade Agreements, such as CETA or TTIP, with EU primary law will be scrutinized. In this sense, the panel will also address the possible implications for IP laws in Europe derived from the IP provisions of those agreements. Second, the scope of competence of the EU to enter into negotiations and be party to the agreements will be assessed: does the EU have exclusive competence or is the competence shared with the Member States? Third, the authority of the CJEU and its recent decisions regarding the free trade agreements including investment protection will be analysed.

TOPIC 8 : TOWARDS AN INVESTMENT COURT SYSTEM FOR THE EU : CURRENT PROPOSALS AND POSSIBLE IMPLICATIONS FOR IP ENFORCEMENT

Mme Catherine Kessedjian

Professor Emeritus, University Paris II - Panthéon Assas, and Arbitrator/Mediator, France

Kamalinne Pinitpuvadol

Executive Director, International Institute for Trade and Development (ITD), Bangkok, Thailand

M. Josef Drexl

Director, Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Munich, Germany

This panel provides an overview of the current state of affairs in relation to the establishment of a permanent court in the EU to hear investment disputes. In particular, the court’s potential strengths and weaknesses will be assessed in light of the EU’s commitment to include the investment negotiations with its foreign trading partners under such a system. More generally, the panel will address the possible consequences of submitting IP disputes to such an investment court for the innovation environment in Europe.

FINAL ROUNDTABLE : CONTROVERSIES AND POLICY ISSUES ARISING FROM IP AND ISDS IN THE EU : A CLOSER LOOK AT THE CETA AND THE TTIP

M. Pedro Velasco Martins

Member of the Cabinet of Commissioner Malmström, European Commission, Brussels, Belgium

Mme Julia Reda

Member of the European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium

M. Daniel Segoin

Legal advisor and French agent to the CJEU in the Legal Service of the French Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Paris, France

M. Christophe Geiger

Professeur à l’Université de Strasbourg et Directeur général du CEIPI. Professor, Director General and Director of the Research Department of the Centre for International Intellectual Property Studies (CEIPI) at the University of Strasbourg (France) Christophe Geiger is Professor of Law, Director General and Director of the Research Department of the Centre for International Intellectual Property Studies (CEIPI) at the University of Strasbourg (France). In addition, he is affiliated senior researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in Munich (Germany) as well as Spangenberg Fellow at the Spangenberg Center for Law, Technology & the Arts, Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland (US), and has been invited to teach as visiting professor in several universities. He specializes in national, European, international and comparative intellectual property law, has drafted reports for the European institutions and acts as external expert for the European Parliament and the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM). He is also General Editor of the Collection of the CEIPI published by LexisNexis, co-editor of the EIPIN series published by Edward Elgar, co-editor of the CEIPI-ICTSD Publication Series on “Global Perspectives and Challenges for the Intellectual Property System” and member of the editorial board of several journals on IP law. He has published numerous articles as well as authored and edited many volumes in this field, the most recent being “Criminal Enforcement of Intellectual Property: A Handbook of Contemporary Research” (2012), “Constructing European Intellectual Property: Achievements and New Perspectives” (2013), “Research Handbook on Human Rights and Intellectual Property” (2015) with Edward Elgar, and “What Patent Law for the European Union?” (2013), “The Contribution of Case Law to the Construction of Intellectual Property in Europe” (2013, in French); “Intellectual Property Law in a Globalized World” (with Caroline Rodà, 2014), with LexisNexis.

This panel, in the form of a final roundtable, will include a discussion of controversies and policy issues arising from the utilisation of the investor-state dispute settlement in IP cases in the European context. The focus will be on the CETA and on the current negotiations of the TTIP. The panel will gather prominent personalities representing academics, practitioners and policy makers to discuss the main challenges and issues arising from these agreements.

CLOSING REMARKS

M. Christophe Geiger

Professeur à l’Université de Strasbourg et Directeur général du CEIPI. Professor, Director General and Director of the Research Department of the Centre for International Intellectual Property Studies (CEIPI) at the University of Strasbourg (France) Christophe Geiger is Professor of Law, Director General and Director of the Research Department of the Centre for International Intellectual Property Studies (CEIPI) at the University of Strasbourg (France). In addition, he is affiliated senior researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in Munich (Germany) as well as Spangenberg Fellow at the Spangenberg Center for Law, Technology & the Arts, Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland (US), and has been invited to teach as visiting professor in several universities. He specializes in national, European, international and comparative intellectual property law, has drafted reports for the European institutions and acts as external expert for the European Parliament and the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM). He is also General Editor of the Collection of the CEIPI published by LexisNexis, co-editor of the EIPIN series published by Edward Elgar, co-editor of the CEIPI-ICTSD Publication Series on “Global Perspectives and Challenges for the Intellectual Property System” and member of the editorial board of several journals on IP law. He has published numerous articles as well as authored and edited many volumes in this field, the most recent being “Criminal Enforcement of Intellectual Property: A Handbook of Contemporary Research” (2012), “Constructing European Intellectual Property: Achievements and New Perspectives” (2013), “Research Handbook on Human Rights and Intellectual Property” (2015) with Edward Elgar, and “What Patent Law for the European Union?” (2013), “The Contribution of Case Law to the Construction of Intellectual Property in Europe” (2013, in French); “Intellectual Property Law in a Globalized World” (with Caroline Rodà, 2014), with LexisNexis.