3rd Vidhi Pragati: National IP Moot Court Competition 2027, NLU Delhi (Invitational)

The Centre for Innovation, Intellectual Property and Competition (CIIPC) and the IPR Chair at National Law University Delhi, in collaboration with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, announce the 3rd edition of Vidhi Pragati: National IP Moot Court Competition 2027. The website also lists the Cell for IPR Promotion and Management (CIPAM) among the organisers.

The theme of this edition is Copyright and Trademark. The moot proposition, set in the context of generative artificial intelligence and the use of copyright-protected works to train large language models, has already been released on the competition website.

The competition operates on an invitational model. The registration page states that participation is restricted to invited institutions, and the rule book says the memorial round is open to all teams that register after receiving the invitation.

Under the rule book, the competition is open to law students currently enrolled in recognised three-year LL.B. or five-year integrated LL.B. programmes at universities or institutions that offer a law programme and fall within any of these categories:

• IPR Chair Universities
• National Law Universities (NLUs)
• Universities or institutions offering law programmes within the NIRF Law category
• Institutions ranked among the Top 10 Government and Top 10 Private Law Institutions under the IIRF Rankings, 2026
• Institutes of Eminence

Each institution may register only one team.

• Each team has three members: two speakers and one researcher.
• Only the speakers make submissions in the oral rounds; the researcher must also attend the oral rounds and alone may pass notes.
• Substitution after the registration deadline is not allowed except in extenuating circumstances with prior approval of the Organising Body.

• Stage I, Memorial Qualifier Round: every registered team submits two memorials (Plaintiff and Defendant). If more than 24 teams register, the top 24 on cumulative memorial scores qualify for the oral rounds.
• Stage II, Oral Rounds: two preliminary rounds, quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final, held physically at the campus of National Law University Delhi from 5 to 7 February 2027.
• Researcher's Test: 5 February 2027, 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM, one hour, 60 marks (objective and subjective).

Memorials must be submitted in both Word and PDF on the competition website, cited in OSCOLA 5th edition, with Arguments Advanced capped at 5,500 words excluding footnotes. Qualified teams must also bring 5 spiral-bound hard copies of each memorial on 5 February 2027. Full formatting rules and the penalty table are in the rule book.

The rule book states that there is no registration fee for the competition. Meals will be provided to participating teams for the entire three-day competition.

• Register through the official registration form on the competition website, selecting your invited institution.
• Upload a bona-fide letter authorising the team to represent the institution (PDF, JPG or PNG) and a formal photo of each team member (JPG, PNG or WebP), each under 4 MB.
• Name a Point of Contact (with WhatsApp on their phone number) and give the email of the institution's committee or Head/Dean.
• Registration formalities must be completed before 28 October 2026, 11:59 PM IST, subject to any extension notified by the Organising Body.
• A provisional registration confirmation is mailed after submission; each team then receives a unique Team Code.

Clarifications on the moot proposition can be sought through the clarifications form on the website until 11:59 PM IST on 19 October 2026; answers will be released on 30 October 2026.

The memorial submission date differs between the official documents: the rule book and the website schedule give 30 November 2026 (11:59 PM IST), while the timeline graphic in the brochure shows 28 November. Teams should plan for the earlier date and confirm with the organisers.

All award recipients receive a Certificate of Merit, and all teams that participate in the oral rounds receive a Certificate of Participation.