SpicyIP Bells & Whistles: IP Events and Opportunities (24.11.2025)
Gaurangi Kapoor
Welcome back to another week of Bells & Whistles!
This week, I’m excited to bring your attention to something special — the SpicyIP–Jhana Blogpost Competition!
If you’ve been following an intriguing development in Indian IP and have an argument or insight you’re itching to explore, this is your chance to dive in. Research, think, write — and if your post uses Jhana’s platform as part of your analysis and gets published on SpicyIP, you’ll be eligible for a share of the ₹33,000 prize pool.
Submissions are open till December 30th, so if you’ve got an idea brewing, now’s the time to shape it into a post.
Bell of the Week: Primary Sources on Copyright (1450–1900)
Some Bells don’t just ring — they open entire worlds.
This week, I want to spotlight Primary Sources on Copyright (1450–1900), an extraordinary digital archive that brings together centuries of legal history, from the earliest printing privileges to the foundations of modern copyright.
Built through a remarkable international collaboration with editors curating materials from Renaissance Italy, France, the German-speaking world, Britain, and the United States, the project offers far more than scanned documents. It gives readers the context behind each source: why it was chosen, how it fits into the broader legal landscape, and the technical details that shaped its preservation.
I stumbled upon this treasure while reading Privilege and Property: Essays on the History of Copyright, and it has since become one of the most fascinating rabbit holes for anyone curious about how ideas, authorship, and rights evolved over five centuries.
A quiet reminder that our “modern” copyright debates have deeper roots and that the past still has plenty to teach us.
EVENTS
1. Lecture: “Play Fair”: Retro-Games and Intellectual Property (1897–1997) – Digital Heritage Labs (NYU Shanghai)
24 November 2025 | 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM CST | Hybrid
This lecture explores how IP law has grappled with video games and related technologies from the era of J. J. Thomson’s Cathode Rays (1897) to the rise of retro games a century later. It reflects on what today’s gaming industry can learn from landmark legal disputes involving classics such as Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Tetris, and Street Fighter II. The talk also examines how IP law might evolve to better capture the inherently playful, “ludic” nature of video games.
More info
2. Book Launch: Intellectual Property Debates in South Asia: Law, Development, and Practice (edited by Dr Pratyush Nath Upreti)
25 November 2025 | 16:00 (UK Time) | Stephen Livingstone Room (MST.02.003), School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast
Queen’s University Belfast – School of Law will host a presentation of Intellectual Property Debates in South Asia: Law, Development, and Practice by Dr Pratyush Nath Upreti, with Dr Jose Bellido (University of Kent) as discussant. Co-organised by the G-IPTech Centre and Q-IEL, the event invites attendees for a timely conversation at the intersection of IP, law, and development.
More info
3. First Rajiv K. Luthra Memorial Lecture (NLSIU & Rajiv K. Luthra Foundation)
29 November 2025 | 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM | ‘Aurora’ Auditorium, Prestige Falcon Towers, Ashok Nagar, Bengaluru
The National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru, and the Rajiv K. Luthra Foundation (RKLF) will jointly host the inaugural Rajiv K. Luthra Memorial Lecture. Professor Dev Gangjee (University of Oxford) will deliver the lecture titled “Tools or Partners? Hybrid Human–AI Creativity and the Boundaries of Copyright.” He will be joined by Eashan Ghosh, Advocate & IPR Chair Professor, National Law University Delhi, as the discussant. The lecture is open to the public.
More info
OPPORTUNITIES
*First National Policy Brief Competition on Intellectual Property & Innovation 2025 (SpicyIP & CIPAM, DPIIT)
Deadline: 14 December 2025
The competition invites law students to present policy solutions on pressing IP and innovation issues. Teams of three (from the same institution) can choose between two themes — Trade Secrets & Confidential Information in the Pharmaceutical Sector and Standard-Essential Patents (SEPs) and Technological Innovation.
More info*
1. Single Credit Course: Impact of Digital Space on Intellectual Property Rights [Centre for Advocacy, Practice, and Research on IP (CAPR-IP), Dharmashastra National Law University, Jabalpur]
29–30 November 2025 | Registration Deadline: 25 November 2025 | Registration Fee: ₹200 (Students) | ₹500 (Academicians, Practitioners & Others)
CAPR-IP is offering a focused single-credit course exploring how the digital environment is reshaping the creation, distribution, protection, and monetisation of creative and technological works. The course will address traditional and emerging IP challenges, including infringement, piracy, counterfeiting, AI authorship, software patentability, platform liability, and cross-border enforcement.
More info
2. Call for Submissions: GNLU Student Law Review Volume VII
Submission deadline: 25 December 2025
The GSLR invites submissions of articles, book reviews, case notes, and legislative comments offering comparative perspectives or interdisciplinary approaches to India’s evolving legal landscape. Contributions are welcomed from students, academicians, legal scholars, and practitioners. Co-authorship is permitted for all categories—up to three authors for articles and up to two for other submission types.
More info
3. Call for Papers: ATRIP Essay Competition 2025 [ATRIP & FICPI]
Submission deadline: 6 February 2026
ATRIP’s Executive Committee, in collaboration with FICPI, invites young researchers (aged 35 or below as of 31 December 2025) to submit essays on any topic relating to intellectual property law, in English or French. The top three papers will be featured on the ATRIP website, with opportunities for publication in the Journal of World Intellectual Property Law or IIC – International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law (subject to review). The first-place winner will be invited to present at the 2026 ATRIP Annual Conference at the University of São Paulo, Brazil (28 June – 1 July 2026).
Submit your paper to: admin[at]atrip[dot]org.
More info
4. Call for Papers: Leuven IP and AI Workshop [Centre for IT & IP Law (CiTiP), KU Leuven and Centre for Sustainable Development Law and Policy, Durham University]
Deadline: 31 January 2026
Experts across all areas of IP studies are invited to contribute to a workshop examining how AI is reshaping IP theory, law, policy, and litigation. Themes include (but are not limited to) IP, AI and creativity, innovation, platforms, consumers, and institutions for AI-related IP innovation and commercialisation. Interdisciplinary perspectives—from law, economics, philosophy, social sciences, computer science, and related fields—are warmly welcomed.
More info
5. ECTA Award Competition – Call for Papers
Deadline: 15 February 2026
ECTA invites IP professionals and students to submit articles or essays that contribute meaningfully to the development of EU Intellectual Property Law for the annual ECTA Award competition. The Award continues its collaboration with the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (Oxford University Press) for both the Professional and Student categories. Submit your paper to ecta[at]ecta[dot]org (please specify whether you are participating in the Professional or Student category).
More info
6. Visiting Scholarships: Centre for Legal History of India (CLHI), Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory
3 – 6 Months Research Stays | Frankfurt am Main, Germany
The Centre for Legal History of India (CLHI), housed within the Department of European and Comparative Legal History at the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory, invites applications from doctoral and post-doctoral researchers for visiting scholarships of 3 or 6 months. Scholars will have access to the Institute’s extensive library resources, participate in academic events, and engage in discussions on contemporary questions in legal history and legal theory. Research projects should align with the Centre’s thematic agenda. Scholarship holders receive a monthly stipend of €1,650 (doctoral researchers) or €2,700 (post-doctoral researchers).
More info
Thanks to Daanish, Malobika, Niharika and Lokesh for the leads!
All non-sponsored listings featured here are events or opportunities free or nominally charged and ones we think our readers may be interested in. Sponsored listings will be marked as such. Unless specifically mentioned, SpicyIP has no affiliation to anything listed here. Know of an event worth sharing? Write to us at contact[at]spicyip[dot]com.