Please fasten your seatbelt, bring your seat in an upright position and pay attention to the following news from the IP world.
Events
29 October 2025: Design Rights Summit (AIPLA)
Join
AIPLA for its first design rights summit and get insights from leading
practitioners from around the world on the latest developments in
copyright, trade dress and design patents. Sounds good? Then click here for more information.
22 January 2026: Artificial Intelligence and the Trouble for Authorship: Towards a Legal Theory of Effort
The
UCL Faculty of Laws invites you to attend a lecture on AI and
authorship by Johanna Gibson, Herchel Smith Professor of Intellectual
Property Law at Queen Mary, University of London. The event will be
hybrid and only takes an hour of your time, so register here.
UKIPO
Consultation on changes to the UK designs framework
The
UKIPO is interested to learn what matters most to people using the
design system to help shape the future of design law. After the UKIPO’s
call for views in 2022 and design protection survey earlier this year,
this is the final step in making the design protection system simpler,
fairer and more accessible.
Please voice your opinions here by 27 November 2025.
Call for papers
ALAI European Authors’ Right Award
The
8th edition of the ALAI European Authors’ Right Award, supported by
GESAC, has been launched. The award will be handed out to a student or
researcher for submitting the best essay related to authors’
rights/copyright with a European dimension. The deadline is 14 November
2025, so hurry and click here for more information.
Rethinking Law for Nonhuman Minds: AI Agents and the Transformation of Legal Fundamentals
The
international journal Laws is asking for papers on how law must evolve
to accommodate or resist the integration of AI agents. Questions like
‘Can nonhuman agents meaningfully possess legal agency or bear
responsibility?’ or ‘How should the law conceptualize “intent” and
“fault” in the absence of consciousness?’ may be explored. You do have
the answers? Then submit your manuscript by 16 March 2026 here.
The picture is by Ikbal Alahmad and used under the licensing terms of pexels.com.