n March 19, 2025, PIJIP director Sean Flynn will present at a WTO workshop on the history of the TRIPS agreement, organized by delegates from Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, India, and Pakistan. The event will review 30 years of the TRIPS agreement, focusing on its history, national experiences, and impact on public interest and development in member countries. Key segments include a historical overview by Carlos Correa of the South Centre, a discussion on national experiences, and a panel featuring experts from academia and civil society.

A recent article by Chidi Oguamanam, representative of Nigeria and University of Ottowa Professor of Law, provides analysis of the failure to endorse a new consolidated text by the 50th session of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Traditional Cultural Expressions (WIPO-IGC). The article was originally published by ABS Canada, and is reprinted here with the author’s permission.

Link to article

To shed light on the evolution of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Broadcast Treaty negotiations, the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (PIJIP) Geneva Center research team has compiled a Documentary History of the Broadcast Treaty in the SCCR.

American University's Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property invites you to participate in this year's annual meeting and sympoisum of the Global Expert Network on Copyright User Rights in Geneva, Switzerland. The goal of this year's symposium is to share research and deliberate over principles that guide protection of the public interest in the digital copyright issues WIPO is considering. 

PIJIP released the Cradle Principles on Knowledge Governance at the 50th meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC) of the World Intellectual Property Organization.

On January 29-30, 2025, over sixty participants, including fifteen ambassadors and forty country delegates, gathered in Montreux for the Retreat of Like-Minded Countries in WIPO. The Ambassadors’ retreat was jointly organized by the Mission of Indonesia to Geneva, PIJIP’s Geneva Center and the South Centre.

On January 27-28, 2025, members of the Access to Knowledge Coalition (A2K) gathered for a planning retreat in Geneva, Switzerland.  Discussions focused on the current Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) agenda at WIPO, including analysis of the Broadcasting Draft Treaty, Exceptions and Limitations, and Copyright in the Digital Environment agenda items.

PIJIP is co-hosting a week of meetings on progressive copyright reform in South Africa February 3-6, 2025. The week of meetings will include workshops on copyright and artificial intelligence.  

PIJIP is co-organizing two workshops in Geneva on matters being considered by the World Intellectual Property Organization. On January 27 and 28, PIJIP is hosting a workshop of the Access to Knowledge Coalition of stakeholder organizations who support international norm setting on copyright limitations and exceptions.

The Design Law Treaty is intended to streamline and standardize procedures for protecting industrial designs. PIJIP provided comparative and international law analysis to delegations negotiating the treaty, including through a workshop of experts held at the Diplomatic Conference’s venue. 

PIJIP Director Sean Flynn and Fellow Allan Rocha presented analysis of a new Brazil proposal to require remuneration for training artificial intelligence at a meeting in Brasilia, Brazil, last week. 

Professor Olufunmilayo Arewa to deliver the distinguished lecture, titled "The Mysteries of Lorraine Hansberry: The Postmortem Afterlife of Copyright for Artistic Legacies"

Intellectual Property (IP) Law Community of the District of Columbia (DC) Bar will honor Professor Victoria Phillips with the esteemed Champion of IP Award.  The annual Champion of IP Award celebrates an individual who has impacted IP policy, fostered innovation, and passionately advocated for intellectual property rights. 

On April 22nd, Dean Roger Fairfax and Sheriff Saadallah, Executive Director of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Academy, signed a Memorandum of Understanding to continue the close relationship between American University Washington College of Law's (AUWCL) Program on Information Justice & Intellectual Property (PIJIP) and WIPO.

Professors Carroll and Peter Jaszi, published a new paper, The Triumph of Three Big Ideas in Fair Use Jurisprudence. The article, published in the Tulane Law Review, argues that the Court’s decisions on fair use, which represent one-third of the Court’s total merits decisions, are historic.

In May 2024, members of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) adopted the WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge.  What are the key takeaways from this new treaty? How will it affect the future protection of traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions? What are the next steps at both the domestic and international levels?

Professor Christine Farley was quoted in Takeaways From Jack Daniel's Latest Dog Toy Win. The article discusses the district court's decision on remand from the Supreme Court’s Jack Daniel’s v. VIP Prods. case—the trademark case about a parody dog toy.