UCL Colloquium in Legal and Social Philosophy
Giving Desert its Due
Speaker: Prof. T. M. Scanlon (Harvard University)

• Speakers: Tony Durham, Director of Shopper Insights at Procter and Gamble; Dr Jane Leighton, Consultant at Nielsen Neurofocus; Tony Willoughby; and Mark McKenna, Professor of Intellectual Property, Notre Dame Law School
• Chair: The Hon Mr Justice Arnold
• Accreditation: 1.5 CPD by the SRA (BSB pending) and constitutes relevant CPD for IPReg

LAW AND GLOBAL HEALTH COLLOQUIUM
Justice, Law and Global Health
by Professor James Orbinski, University of Toronto
Chaired by Professor Michael Freeman, UCL

Global Health in its broadest conceptualization connotes well-being in a state of justice. Reducing injustice and enhancing global health is a matter of practical action, and the use and construction of law is central to this process. In this lecture Dr. Orbinski drew on his twenty five years of international experience to argue that global health law is most effective when it has a plural grounding in pragmatism, the high ideals of humanity, human rights and the pursuit of the public good.

View more information about the Current Legal Issues Colloquium

Why in the 21st century is there such a lack of understanding and scholarly research in this country about one of the key institutions of the state – the judiciary? Recent work with juries has dispelled the myth that the law prevents research with and about juries. This lecture argued that a similar myth exists about researching the professional judiciary and judicial system, and that the lack of Judicial Studies in the UK is academically unacceptable and socially dangerous, leaving our understanding of the judiciary both conceptually and empirically weak. This lecture laid out a blueprint for Judicial Studies in the UK and explore what contribution it can make to coherent debate and policy development in such key areas as constitutional reform, the justice system and judicial appointments. 

The Hargreaves Review bemoaned the prevalence of lobbynomics and the tendency of policy-driven evidence-making, instead of evidence-driven policy-making. When politicians talk about being leaders, what does it mean to lead when policy is not based on evidence? Who is leading who?

At a lively UCL Institute for Brand and Innovation Law (IBIL) Brands Seminar held on 3 April, William F Patry, Chief Copyright Counsel, Google Inc. discussed the issues and the current state of play on copyright with The Rt Hon Prof Sir Robin Jacob of UCL Laws, who chaired the event. A copyright lawyer for 30 years, Bill Patry previously served as copyright counsel to the US House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary and as a Policy Planning Advisor to the Register of Copyrights. He is also a prolific writer on copyright. He offered his frank and far-reaching expertise on US and international copyright issues to the UCL audience in attendance.

For more info:
IPKat Event Blog Part I
IPKat Event Blog Part II

About this event
What amounts to a trade mark infringement on the Internet is a a matter of vital commercial importance. Both the question of whether there is an infringement and who should be liable are subjects of wide debate and argument. Can a trade mark owner sue an internet auctioneer? Could others (ISPs, credit card companies via whom infringers are paid sand so on). And how far can a court grant remedies having cross-border effect. These questions are increasingly coming before the courts on both sides of the Atlantic. Is a common approach possible or necessary? Attendees had clear understanding of the current state of the law and where it may be going in the figured.

Documents to download

• Patent Specification with amendments (please note that this document is 78 pages long)
• Court of Appeal Judgment
• House of Lords Judgment
• Skeleton Arguments of the Parties
• Final Judgement from Justice Rothstein

By Lord Malloch-Brown, Chairman, EMEA & Global Affairs, FTI Consulting Inc.
Chaired by Joshua Rozenberg

Speakers include:
The Rt Hon Sir Stephen Sedley
Prof. Leslie Green (University of Oxford)
Prof. Eric Barendt (UCL)
Charlotte Harris (Partner, Mishcon de Reya)
Chair: The Rt Hon Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury (Master of the Rolls)

In light of topical social, political and legal debates upon the intersection of the rights of freedom of expression and respect for private life, the UCL Jurisprudence Review will be celebrating the launch of its 17th volume by hosting a panel discussion to address the normative value of freedom of expression and privacy. Questions addressed in this debate include:

• the relationship between freedom of expression and freedom of the press privacy as a fundamental right
• how rights to freedom of speech and privacy are balanced when both are engaged in a particular case
• the duties that those who benefit from rights of free speech have in respect of what they say
• whether the decline of injunctions and super-injunctions has encouraged further bad practices between the press, PR agents and those selling private information to newspapers or defending themselves against the publication of their private information

Audio only recording



I-Phone/Pad Play Here

In March 2011 the Coalition government launched a Commission to investigate the case for a British Bill of Rights, which would replace the Human Rights Act (HRA). The HRA was passed by the Labour government in 1998, giving legal effect to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and allowing domestic courts to rely on the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. The question of whether Britain needs a UK Bill of Rights and the precise role of the ECHR at domestic level, divides experts and members of the public alike.

Speakers include:
- Chris Bryant MP - former Shadow Minister for Political and Constitutional Reform
- Saladin Meckled-Garcia, UCL Institute for Human Rights
- Aileen Kavanagh, University of Oxford
- Colm O'Cinneide, UCL
The chair was taken by Joshua Rozenberg, Presenter of BBC's Law in Action



I-Phone/Pad Play Here  

This event brought together a panel of speakers to discuss the value of academic legal education to the legal profession. In the current climate this was both timely and important and we hope you will enjoy the lively discussion.

A new report examining how people and communities around the world face forced eviction has been published by a prominent group of researchers, led by UCL academics. This event has been set up by the Institute for Human Rights to discuss the relationships of forced evictions to economic and social rights, and their status as violations.  

• Sydney Brenner, 2002 Nobel Laureate for Physiology or Medicine,
• Professor Sir John E. Sulston (2002 Nobel Laureate for Physiology or Medicine, Chair of Institute for Science, Ethics & Innovation, University of Manchester),
• Professor Salvador Moncada (Director, Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research, UCL),
• The Rt Hon Lord Justice Jacob (Sir Hugh Laddie Professor of Intellectual Property Law, UCL)
• Patrick Vallance (Senior Vice President, Medicines Discovery and Development, GlaxoSmithKline)
  

Accredited with 1.5 CPD hours (SRA / BSB / IPReg)

Institute of Brand and Innovation Law Lecture
Trade Marks: The Future of the Advertising Function

Jerome Gilson (Brinks, Hofer, Gilson & Lione) - DOWNLOAD PAPER
Dr Ilanah Simon Fhima (UCL) - DOWNLOAD SLIDES
Prof. Dr Annette Kur (Max Planck Institute of IP) - DOWNLOAD SLIDES
Chaired by The Hon Mr Justice Arnold
Accredited with 2 CPD hour

Institute of Brand and Innovation Law Lecture
Patent Claim Interpretation

Prof. Dr. Peter Meier-Beck, Judge at the German Federal Court of Justice
Professor Dan Burk, Chancellor's Professor of Law, University of California, Irvine
Dr Matt Fisher, UCL IBIL
Chaired by Professor Daniel Alexander QC, UCL and 8 New Square

About this event:
This seminar examined some of the many issues that surround the interpretation of a patent's claims in Germany, the UK and US. Patents operate as a breakwater from competition, enabling control of the supply and use of a certain type of information; information that would otherwise be freely appropriable by all. They create scarcity where there would naturally be none, marking out a novel zone of virgin territory that may only be cultivated by the patentee or with their permission. Due to this effect their scope is of critical importance. In the UK, as in Germany and the US, the patent's claims are the key to its scope. They are utilised by the granting Office when considering issues of patentability and by the courts in matters of validity and infringement. Their breadth is important to the patentee as this defines the extent of their proprietary interest, and to their competitors for the very same reason.

This seminar brought together leading speakers from Germany, the UK and US to consider issues including:

• Article 69 EPC and its Protocol; their form and function
• The German approach to claim interpretation;
• The Doctrine of Equivalents;
• The US approach to claim construction; and
• The current UK approach to construction.

Institute of Brand and Innovation Law Lecture
How can Europe be a key player at a global level in the patent field? What is the role of the EPO?
Benoît Battistelli, President of the European Patent Office (EPO)

Followed by a panel discussion with the speaker and
John Alty, Chief Executive of the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) and
Alasdair Poore, President of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA)

The chair was taken by The Rt Hon Lord Justice Jacob

View the video of this event:

This sector is going through change at an unprecedented pace. Traditional business are challenged, new market forces are emerging and consumer behaviour is changing and adapting to a novel setting.This creates a complex set of interrelated issues which range from analysis of market power, to data protection and privacy, incentivising content and infrastructure investment and innovation but, at the same time, protecting consumers.

The 2010 Jevons Colloquium brought together heads of authorities, senior enforcers, business representatives. academics, and the leading experts from the EU and US to discuss this set of issues. 

Joaquin Almunia, the EU Competition Commissioner opened the Colloquium and started the debate with John Fingleton, OFT's Chief Executive, Willard K Tom,at the US Federal Trade Commission and other senior authority heads and business figures.  Ed Richards, Ofcom's Chief Executive, gave a key note address. 

The Colloquium featured a number of other senior enforcers and leading experts including:  Per Hellstrom of DG Competition at the European Commission; Thibaud Vergé, Chief Economist at the French Competition Authority, Heather Clayton, Senior Director of OFT and responsible for the OFT recent study on online targeting; Jon Baker, Professor at the American University; Andrea Coscelli, Director of Competition Economics at Ofcom, and Pamela Harbour, former Commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission.

The Sir Hugh Laddie lecture was delivered by Mr Raimund Lutz, President of the German Federal Patent Court, Munich
on "From National Patent Litigation to a European Patent Court - A Dream, A Wish or Soon Reality?"
Chaired by Professor Jan Brinkhof

UCL INSTITUTE FOR BRAND AND INNOVATION LAW
Brand Protection and Competition Law

The aim of this event was to bring together competition and IP specialists and industry experts to stimulate discussion on:

• the protection of brand value under the competition rules;
• the interaction of the competition rules with intellectual property law; and
• L'Oreal v Bellure and other recent developments in the law.

Speakers included:

• The Hon Mr Justice Arnold
• Philip Collins (Chairman, OFT)
• The Rt Hon Lord Justice Jacob
• Deborah Majoras (Procter & Gamble)
• Michael Miller (Amazon)
• Jackie Holland (Director, OFT)
• The Hon Mr Justice Roth
• Dr Christopher Stothers (UCL & Arnold & Porter (UK) LLP) 

View the video of this event:

Alternatively listen to the lecture from this link

About this lecture
Professor Genn will focus on the critical ways in which courts support society and the economy and on how they have directly improved standards of medicine practice and health care. She will also discuss new evidence about the link between access to justice and health and consider whether much of what turns up in doctors’ surgeries (including requests for anti-depressants) are in fact the results of an inability to access the courts.
Read more about the UCL Lunch Hour Lecture Series

In this special afternoon seminar, scheduled to coincide with the culmination of the Walker Review’s second consultation period, experts from UCL Laws and special invited speakers will discuss the key corporate governance issues exposed by the banking crisis and advance proposals for future regulatory developments in this area.

Speakers include:
Professor Edward Walker-Arnott (Honorary Visiting Professor at UCL and former senior partner of Herbert Smith)
Dr Roger Barker (Head of Corporate Governance at the Institute of Directors);
Cliff Weight (co-founder of the executive pay consultancy Independent Remuneration Solutions, now part of MM&K);,

Discussants:
Professor Philip Rawlings (Professor of the Law at UCL);
Dr Iris Chiu (Senior Lecturer in Laws at UCL);

Chaired by
Dr Marc Moore (Lecturer in laws at UCL).

Listen to the Panel Discussion and Q&A

Listen to the Cliff Weight's Paper

This lecture examined the case for children’s rights and discuss ways of improving the implementation of them including a discussion of the Equality Bill and a possible third protocol.

June 2009

UCL & BINDMAN ANNUAL DEBATE 2009
To be or not to be: A decision for the individual or the State?
30 June 2009

The debate centred on legal, medical and ethical arguments surrounding the issue of assisted suicide in Britain and whether the current law should change to allow people to help terminally ill patients to travel to a country in which assisted suicide is lawful, without fear of being prosecuted.

The members of the panel were:

• Dr Rob George, Care not Killing
• Edward Turner, director of Dignity in Dying
• Katherine Araniello, artist and disability rights campaigner
• Sir Ken Macdonald, former Director of Public Prosecutions
• Dr Evan Harris MP, Liberal Democrats
• Saimo Chahal, Bindmans LLP (introduction)
• Marcel Berlins (chair)

Alternatively download this audio or video file to your iPod from iTunes U

June 2009

March 2009

January 2008

or alternatively click on this link to download the pod and/or vodcast to your MP3 player.

In this lecture, Lord Hoffmann, who recently retired as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (Law Lord), reflects on the contribution made to European trade mark law by the late Sir Hugh Laddie. In surveying Sir Hugh's leading cases, including Wagamama, Davidoff I, Arsenal and Boehringer Ingelheim, Lord Hoffmann focuses on Sir Hugh's belief that the key function of a trade mark is to act as a badge of origin. Lord Hoffmann concludes with the prediction that European trade mark lawyers may yet come to adopt Sir Hugh's approach. Until his untimely death in November 2008, Professor Sir Hugh Laddie was the Professor of Intellectual Property at UCL.

Speakers:
The Rt Hon the Lord Hoffmann
Chaired by The Rt Hon the Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury
Presiding, Professor Malcolm Grant CBE
Introduction by Professor Dame Hazel Genn DBE QC

Protecting trade marks against dilution has always been controversial. Traditionally, trade mark protection has been tied to whether consumers are confused. This can be justified because it means that the infringement action serves to protect consumers. However, there is no need for confusion in the dilution action, meaning that the traditional rationale for trade mark protection does not work. This has led to fears that dilution creates ‘property’ in trade marks and only benefits the trade mark owner.

It has also been very difficult to prove dilution. Unlike confusion, dilution is based on subconscious processes, and so both courts and legislators have had difficulty in defining it, and devising a test for it, and some have been sceptical about whether it takes place at all. Although these issues are no longer new, this is nevertheless a timely seminar: the US has only recently completely replaced its dilution legislation and, at the end of last year, the European Court of Justice issued its first decision considering the meaning of the types of detriment and unfair advantage that European legislation requires (another is in the pipeline).

This seminar brings together leading speakers from the US, the UK and the Benelux (which has always claimed that European dilution law is based on the pre-harmonisation Benelux law) to consider issues including:

• Should we protect trade marks against dilution?
  If so, which marks should benefit from dilution?
• How can dilution be proved?
• Is the present scope of dilution too wide?
• What are the differences between the protection available in the US and Europe? Can we learn from each others’ experiences?

The seminar is allied to two of IBIL’s key research themes: (i) IP and European integration and (ii) comparative trade mark law.

The American Perspective
Professor J. Thomas McCarthy, Founding Director, McCarthy Institute of Intellectual Property, University of San Francisco, USA
DOWNLOAD SLIDES

The Benelux Perspective
Professor Charle Gielen, NautaDutilh, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
DOWNLOAD SLIDES

The UK Perspective
Professor David Llewellyn, White & Case, and King's College London, UK
DOWNLOAD SLIDES

Chair: The Rt. Hon. Sir Robin Jacob, Court of Appeal, UK

Accreditation: 2 CPD hour by the Solicitors Regulation Authority

or listen to via an alternative player by clicking here

Programme:
Chair: The Hon Mr Justice Barling, President, Competition Appeal Tribunal.

The Innovation Process and Patenting
Paul Denerley, AstraZeneca
DOWNLOAD SLIDES

Regulatory Considerations
Ann Nielson, Bristol-Myers Squibb
DOWNLOAD SLIDES

The Generic Industry Perspective
Howard Rosenberg, Frommer, Lawrence and Haug LLP

Litigating and the Commission's Methodology
David Rosenberg, GSK
DOWNLOAD SLIDES

Competition Law Issues
John Kallaugher, UCL and Latham & Watkins LLP
DOWNLOAD SLIDES

This programme was developed in co-operation with the Rt. Hon. Sir Robin Jacob.