ISHTIP’s seminar series brings together scholars from around the world to explore how intellectual property regimes have evolved and how they continue to shape, and be shaped by, social, political, and technological forces. In keeping with ISHTIP’s interdisciplinary ethos, the series invites contributions from law, history, philosophy, sociology, literary theory, political economy, anthropology, and other related disciplines in the humanities and qualitative social sciences. For questions about the seminars, please contact Carol Ballard at: carol.ballard@uq.edu.au.
For the complete collection of past seminars and their recordings, see here.
After Patent Republic
Hyo Yoon Kang
Date: Wednesday 22 October 2025 | Time: 3.00pm (London – BST) / Time in your location | Venue: Zoom
What comes after ‘Patent Republic’? Patent law justifications are closely embedded in a particular model of government and rhetorically project its values. Building on Biagioli’s 2006 article on ‘Patent Republic’, the talk considers what kind of polity patent law will reflect, justify, and promote when republicanism and democracy are in retreat.
Hyo Yoon Kang is Reader/Associate Professor in Law at Warwick Law School where she teaches intellectual property law. See hyoyoonkang.com for more information.
For more details see here.
Making and Marketing Biocultural Heritage in Agriculture: From the Andean Community to Asia
Rosemary Coombe and David Jefferson
Date: Monday 17 November 2025 | Time: 2.00pm (Toronto – EST) / Time in your location | Venue: Zoom
Proprietary claims over seeds, crops, agricultural methods, and culinary knowledge exist as important forms of biocultural heritage in socioecological initiatives. These novel proprietary claims, exist inside, outside, and often alongside conventional intellectual property vehicles. Drawing from earlier research focused on Andean Community member states, this seminar considers examples from China, the Philippines, and Nepal of how biocultural heritage territories are designated, agroecology principles are asserted, biocultural goods are made and marketed, and agritourism initiatives promoted.
Rosemary J. Coombe is a Full Professor in the Departments of Anthropology and Social Science. Dr David J Jefferson (he/him) is an Associate Professor at the University of Canterbury Faculty of Law, where he teaches Environmental Law, Land Law, and Intellectual Property.
For more details see here.
On Judgment: A Critical Grammar for Computing and Law
Gerardo Con Diaz
Date: Monday 8 December 2025 | Time: 6:00am (Los Angeles – PST) / Time in your location | Venue: Zoom
This seminar offers a framework for analyzing how law and computing intersect–not in isolation, but through institutional routines that authorize action, construct knowledge, and structure legitimacy.
Con Diaz is Professor and Chair of the Department of Science and Technology Studies at the University of California, Davis, and an inaugural editor of Studies in Computing and Culture.
For more details see here.
Laissez Passer: From BIRPI to WIPO
Jose Bellido
Date: Monday 9 February 2026 | Time: 2.00pm (London – GMT) / Time in your location | Venue: Zoom
In November 1959, a growing sense of dissatisfaction emerged over the functioning of the international intellectual property system. A decade later, the Bureau was transformed into a new agency, WIPO. This talk explores that institutional shift from Bureau to Office by examining the tensions, enthusiasm, and scepticism that accompanied the coming into being of a new international administrative agency.
Jose Bellido teaches law at the University of Kent in the United Kingdom.
For more details see here.
Decolonising the heritage, AI and copyright interface: a cultural rights approach
Paula Westenberger
Date: Tuesday 3 March 2026 | Time: 2.00pm (London – GMT) / Time in your location | Venue: Zoom
This presentation will advocate for the need to approach the AI regulation discussions from a heritage perspective, arguing that the human rights discipline, and in particular cultural rights, offer important mechanisms for the development of policies and for the recalibration of legislations such as copyright to responsibly address the use of AI in heritage contexts.
Dr Paula Westenberger is a Senior Lecturer in Intellectual Property Law and a member of the Centre for AI at Brunel University of London.
For more details see here.
The Legal Aesthetics of Copyright, How AI Unmakes Images
Séverine Dusollier and Nicolas Malevé
Date: Monday 18 May 2026 | Time: 4.00pm (Paris – CEST) / Time in your location | Venue: Zoom
This talk is a dialogue between two strands of thinking, photography and legal theory, to try and make sense of the current configuration of technology, law and aesthetics that sustain and contest AI image generation.
Séverine Dusollier is Professor of Intellectual Property at Sciences Po Paris and holds a Senior Chair at the Institut Universitaire de France. Nicolas Malevé is a visual artist and computer programmer and a post-doctoral researcher at Sciences Po, Media Lab.
For more details see here.