Call for Papers: 45th ATRIP Annual Congress on “The Good Use, Misuse and Abuse of Intellectual Property” [In-person, Osgoode Hall Law School, Toronto, 27-30 June 2027]

The 45th Annual Congress of ATRIP, the International Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research in Intellectual Property, will be held from 27 to 30 June 2027 at York University, Osgoode Hall Law School, in Toronto, Canada. The theme is “The Good Use, Misuse and Abuse of Intellectual Property”. The Congress will be held strictly in person.

The call, issued by Prof. Estelle Derclaye, ATRIP President (2026-2028), on behalf of the Executive Committee, starts from the premise that intellectual property is not a neutral legal concept. IP rights can serve good, bad and even ugly purposes, and the Congress will explore that full range of uses: how the best applications of IP rights can be enhanced and the worst minimised or eliminated.

The Good Use. IP rights incentivise creation and invention, reward authors, designers and inventors, and support free expression, cultural dissemination, education and health. Trademarks prevent consumer confusion and guard against harmful counterfeits. IP can also be used creatively and inclusively: free and open-source software and the GNU GPL, Creative Commons licences, patent pledges and commons, trademarks and designs protecting cultural heritage, FRAND-licensed standard-essential patents and fast-track routes for green technologies.

The Misuse and the Abuse. Misuse is the assertion or exercise of a right beyond the purposes for which it was granted. Abuse is worse: the exercise of an IP right in a way that harms others or the public interest, a notion recognised in Article 8(2) TRIPS. The call lists examples at each stage:

• Acquiring rights: bad-faith or knowingly invalid registrations, false copyright notices, divisional applications used to deter competitors
• Maintaining rights: evergreening, pay-for-delay agreements
• Exploiting rights: patent and copyright trolling, refusals to license, trademark bullying, copyright used to suppress whistleblowing, planned obsolescence, wrongful threats and other procedural tactics

Proposals may take a general perspective or focus on one field (copyright, patents, plant variety rights, trademarks, geographical indications, designs and so on). Suggested questions include:

• What makes a use of IP rights “good”, “bad” or “ugly”, and are these concepts culturally contingent across jurisdictions?
• How do international, regional and national norms enable good use, misuse or abuse (for example Article 8(2) TRIPS, functional exclusions in trademark and design law)?
• How can IP be used creatively for the public good, and can “good mechanisms” be carried into other IP fields?
• Can some misuses of IP rights in fact advance the public good?
• Which overlaps in IP protection are good, bad or ugly?
• How do “misuse” and “abuse” differ, including between common law and civil law systems, and can an international consensus be found?
• Are current remedies adequate, and what role should competition law, criminal law, abuse of right doctrines or internal mechanisms such as bad faith and unjustified threats rules play?
• Should new forms of IP be created (for example against deepfakes, or for TK and TCEs), or should some rights be reformed or deleted (for example the database sui generis right, utility models, trade secrets)?

All methodologies (doctrinal, empirical, comparative, historical, interdisciplinary) are welcome. Papers on strictly descriptive national developments will be considered only if they offer insights of broad relevance to the theme.

Besides the main theme, the Congress will have a session on teaching and assessment and the issues raised by Artificial Intelligence. You may submit an abstract for this session instead of the general theme. Topics include:

• Ethics of using AI in learning, teaching and assessing law students
• Whether AI should be used or banned, which tools, when, and whether law schools should prepare students to use it
• The weakening of critical thinking and cognitive skills, and how to mitigate it
• Equality, diversity and inclusion in students’ use of AI, including access to paid tools
• Drafting AI policies for teaching, coursework, online exams and PhD theses, including editorial policies for journals and books
• Detecting AI use in assessment and enforcing AI policies
• Whether any of these issues are specific to IP law, and the future of AI in legal education

Interdisciplinary, practical and empirical papers are particularly welcome, including early evidence of AI use in teaching and assessment.

The call is open to IP researchers from any jurisdiction, and ATRIP states that care will be taken in the selection process to ensure global diversity. Proposals from ATRIP members with no outstanding membership fees are given priority.

Doctoral students will not be invited to present at the main Congress and may present only in collaboration with a senior researcher. ATRIP will circulate a separate call for doctoral student presentations, and doctoral students are encouraged to apply to it.

Each submission must include:

• An abstract of no more than 400 words that sets out the author’s name, academic affiliation, official website and the title of the presentation
• The research question, the methodology and the anticipated contribution to the Congress theme, with a clear focus on the good use, misuse or abuse of IP
• Optionally, the intention to submit the paper for the edited volume to be published after the Congress
• A CV

Proposals can be submitted only through ATRIP’s online form, by Monday, 25 January 2027. The form asks for name(s), title(s) and academic position(s), university or organisation, whether you are an ATRIP member, an email address and any additional notes, with the CV and the abstract uploaded as files.

After submitting, you will receive a confirmation email with a 3-digit submission number, which you should quote in any further communication about your submission. If no confirmation email arrives, write to admin@atrip.org.

The call does not charge a fee for submitting a proposal. ATRIP says online registration for the Congress is expected to open by early 2027, and a dedicated Congress website is to follow. The registration fee has not yet been announced.