Fairness In Intellectual Property Law-Searching for a Uniform Concept

Speakers:

Prof. Annette Kur (Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Munich)

Prof. Anna Tischner (Jagiellonian University, Kraków)

Prof. Nari Lee (Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki)

Chair: Prof. Christophe Geiger (Director of ILEO, Luiss Guido Carli)

Date and Time: February 17th, 2025, 16:00h.

Room: Aula 19 - Via Parenzo

Link: https://luiss.webex.com/luiss/j.php?MTID=mca5a256c242c40c38f6427f2590ef0fb
 

Professor Annette Kur, Professor Anna Tischner and Professor Nari Lee will discuss in their presentation their latest book publication entitled “Fairness In Intellectual Property Law-Searching for a Uniform Concept”.

We warmly invite all ILEO members, the broader academic community, and students to join this event and contribute to this enriching exchange.

Registration is mandatory for in-person participation - for registration please contact: ileo@luiss.it

Abstract

Intellectual property (IP) law in its current form provides a robust tool for navigating the seminal changes in technology, communication and trade that have unfolded in recent decades. However, the fitness of IP for that purpose has drawn criticism for extending its nineteenth-century, property-oriented paradigm to novel situations and subject matter for which it is unfit.  The book suggests that the concept of ‘fairness’ should be embraced. In line with that goal, the book strives to further the understanding and improve the operation of ‘fairness’ as a legal notion, so that it fulfils the role of mediator between the property aspects of IP, market regulation and general welfare. During this presentation, each author will focus on selected chapters of the book. Prof Kur, who is the lead author of the book will present chapter 5, which focuses on the concept of fairness and fundamental rights. Prof Tischner will discuss the systematic application of the notion of fairness, that the book develops to design law in chapter 10. Finally, Prof Lee will discuss the concept of fairness inter partes presented in Chapter 11.

The publication is available in Open Access: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800883062
 
 

Program

16:00 – 16:10 Chair and introduction

Christophe Geiger, Professor of Law and Director of the Innovation Law and Ethics Observatory, Luiss, Rome

16:10 – 16:50

“Fairness In Intellectual Property Law-Searching for a Uniform Concept”

Annette Kur, Affiliated Research Fellow Intellectual Property and Competition Law, Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Innovation and Competition, Munich

Anna Tischner, Professor of Law, Jagiellonian University, Kraków

Nari Lee, Professor of Law and the deputy director of the IPR University center, Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki

16:50 – 17:15 Discussion
 
 

About the Speakers

Prof. Annette Kur

Affiliated Research Fellow Intellectual Property and Competition Law, Max Planck Institute (MPI), Munich
E-mail: annette.kur@ip.mpg.de

Annette Kur held a tenured position as senior member of research staff and Head of Unit at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for competition and Innovation until her retirement in 2015, and continues to work as an affiliated fellow at the MPI. She is also a honorary professor at the University of Munich (LMU), and she holds honorary doctor degrees from the University of Stockholm and the Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki. She is the author of books and numerous articles in the field of national, European and international trademark, unfair competition and industrial design law as well as international jurisdiction and choice of law.

CV: https://www.ip.mpg.de/en/persons/kur-annette.html
 

Prof. Anna Tischner

Professor of Law, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland

E-mail: anna.tischner@uj.edu.pl

Anna Tischner is a law professor at the Intellectual Property Law Chair of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Poland. She holds PhD and habilitation from Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Anna’s main fields of academic interest are industrial property law and unfair competition law. Her research focuses on EU design and trade mark protection, IPR overlaps, and green IP. Anna has been a member of ATRIP since 2009 and an ATRIP ExCo member for the term 2016-2022.

Her recent publications in English include the monograph (co-authored with Annette Kur and Nari Lee); Fairness in Intellectual Property Law, chapters and articles: Lost in communication. A few thoughts on the object and purpose of the EU design protection in The Object and Purpose of Intellectual Property, ed. Frankel, Edward Elgar 2019; Chopping off Hydra’s heads. Spare parts in the EU design and trade mark law in Transition and Coherence in Intellectual Property Law. Essays in Honour of Annette Kur, ed.  Bruun, Dinwoodie, Levin, Ohly, Cambridge 2020; Design Rights and Designer’s Rights in Research Handbook on Design Law (ed. Hartwig), Edward Elgar 2021; Designing for the European Green Deal - a supplementary protection regime for circular designs in the EU in Design Law Global Law and Practice, ed. Beldiman (co-authors Beldiman Dana and Teilmann-Lock Stina), Edward Elgar 2024; Spare Parts, Repairs, Trade Marks and Consumer Understanding (co-author Stasiuk Katarzyna), IIC 2023; Spare Parts and Design Protection – Different Approaches to a Common Problem. Recent Developments from the EU and US Perspective, GRUR International 2020 (co-authors Beldiman Dana and Blanke-Roeser Constantin).
 

Prof. Nari Lee

Professor of Law and Deputy Director of the IPR University center, Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki

E-mail: nari.lee@hanken.fi

Nari Lee is the intellectual property professor at Hanken School of Economics and the deputy director of the IPR University center. She joined Hanken faculty in 2012. She has studied law at Ewha Womans University in Korea and at Kyushu University, Japan (LL.M), and holds a PhD from University of Eastern Finland and Doctor of Laws (LL.D) degree from Kyushu University, Japan. Since 1996, she has researched and taught in the area of intellectual property and international trade in universities in Europe, Asia and USA. Her research experience includes post of an affiliated research fellow at Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property and Competition in Munich, Germany (2012-2014), Research Visitor at University of Cambridge (2016), Senior Global Hauser Fellow at New York University (NYU) Law School (2017). In 2019 Spring, she served as a Designated Professor, at the Center for Asian Legal Exchange at Nagoya University, Japan and in 2019 Spring-Summer as Research Visitor at Center for IP and Information Law (University of Cambridge).

CV: https://harisportal.hanken.fi/en/persons/nari-lee/publications/