ESF
ESF EXPLORATORY WORKSHOP ON THE FUTURE OF PATENT GOVERNANCE IN EUROPE
Hamburg, 1 - 2 September 2014 Convened by Ingrid Schneider (University of Hamburg, Germany) and Esther van Zimmeren (University of Antwerp, Belgium)
19 participants from 13 countries and three International Organisations gathered together in Hamburg (1 - 2 September 2014) to discuss the challenges faced by the governance of Intellectual Property in a changing international environment. The meeting organised at the University of Hamburg was sponsored by the European Science Foundation (ESF) after a successful proposal in response to the 2013 Call for ESF Exploratory Workshops. This is the initiative that supports interactive and result-oriented meetings which are likely to open up new directions in research and to explore emerging research fields which may have potential positive impact on new developments in science.
The workshop was triggered by the realization that decision-making in intellectual property (IP) has become increasingly politicized and contested by a growing number of stakeholders. The upheavals in the patent system are ongoing, and fundamental reforms of the European patent system are under way. These shifts need to be assessed from an interdisciplinary perspective, combining legal, political and social science expertise, to grasp the nature of empirical changes, the interests of the stakeholders involved, and the structures of decision-making in the European multi-level system in its international context.
The underlying objectives of the ESF workshop were threefold. First, it aimed at exploring important paradigm shifts in European patent governance induced by patent reforms, technological and socio-economic developments at the European (“inbound”) and international level (“outbound”). Second, it provided an anticipatory impact assessment of the Unitary Patent Package. Third, it initiated a new debate on norms, criteria, and procedures for good governance in the patent system.