# ISHTIP

> International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property 


## Posts

- [Call for Papers for the 2026 ISHTIP Annual Workshop](https://ishtip.org/call-for-papers-for-the-2026-ishtip-annual-workshop/): The 17th Annual Workshop of the International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property (ISHTIP)will be hosted by Faculty of Law, University of São Paulo, Brazil. Call for Papers Intellectual Property and Democracy 25-26 June 2026 Faculty of Law, University of São Paulo (USP) In recent years, fundamental elements that had been taken for granted in western liberal democracies appear to be in retreat: the rule of law, separation of powers, and the protection of individual rights, such as freedom of opinion and expression or the right to non-discrimination. Concomitantly, there has been a rise in scholarship in the last decade that have critiqued […]
- [Save the Date: ISHTIP 17th Annual Workshop - 25 & 26 June 2026, São Paulo](https://ishtip.org/save-the-date-ishtip-17th-annual-workshop-25-26-june-2026-sao-paulo/): The 17th Annual Workshop of the International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property (ISHTIP) will take place on 25 and 26 June 2026 and it will be hosted by the Faculty of Law, University of São Paulo, Brazil. The annual theme will be: Intellectual Property and Democracy. Call for papers will be circulated soon.
- [Open Science's Progressive Potential. A Critical IP Perspective. Online Seminar with Prof K Bowrey, 30 Jun 2025, 1-2pm (GMT London)](https://ishtip.org/open-sciences-progressive-potential-a-critical-ip-perspective-online-seminar-with-prof-k-bowrey-30-jun-2025-1-2pm-gmt-london/): We are pleased to announce a joint Warwick Law School/International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property Online seminar as part of Prof Kathy Bowrey’s (UNSW Sydney) visit to Warwick Law School.   See here for the recording of the seminar. Abstract Open Science’s progressive potential. A critical IP perspective Open Science operates as a philosophy and an ethos, defined by a set of practices and policy directives that privilege open scientific collaboration and sharing of information for the benefits of society. It is envisaged as a counterforce to the closed scholarly communication systems that generate huge profits for […]
- [Mario Biagioli (1955-2025)](https://ishtip.org/mario-biagioli/): It is with profound sadness that we learned about the passing of our beloved friend, colleague, and mentor, Mario Biagioli.  Mario was a pre-eminent scholar in many fields of inquiry: history of science, science studies, media studies, and the interdisciplinary study of intellectual properties. He was a founding member of our society and vital in its mission. We are deeply affected by this loss. We will commemorate his life and work in due course, hopefully in a way that will do justice to the creativity and genuine open-mindedness which Mario embodied.
- [Final Programme for the 2025 ISHTIP 16th Annual Workshop - "Intellectual Property and Capitalism"](https://ishtip.org/final-programme-for-the-2025-ishtip-16th-annual-workshop/): We are pleased to announce the final programme for the 2025 ISHTIP 16th Annual Workshop “Intellectual Property and Capitalism” in Madrid. Please note the later starting times on both days than in the earlier drafts. If you plan to attend in person or listen in online, please register your attendance on the Eventbrite website.
- [Programme for 2025 ISHTIP 16th Annual Workshop 'Intellectual Property and Capitalism'.](https://ishtip.org/programme-for-2025-ishtip-16th-annual-workshop-intellectual-property-and-capitalism/): We are pleased to announce the programme for ISHTIP’s 16th Annual Workshop, 25-26 June 2025. The workshop is free to attend, but registration is necessary. You can do so here. We are grateful for the high interest in the workshop and look forward to seeing you in Madrid, or online. Please consider joining our mailing list if you are interested in ISHTIP’s work. We will sporadically send emails about upcoming online colloquiua and the next annual workshop. We are also on on bluesky where we occasionally post updates.
- [Intangible in tangible London reading group meeting, 23 January 2025](https://ishtip.org/intangible-in-tangible-london-reading-group-meeting-23-january-2025/): From Danilo Mandic: We hope you are all well at the start of the new year. We would like to invite you to our reading group that will take place on Thursday 23rd January at 4pm (GMT). The suggested reading this time is Anna Kornbluh’s book Immediacy, Or the Style of Too Late Capitalism. We would suggest reading the Intro and the chapter “Anti-Theory” (and Conclusion for those who have time). Despite some gaps, over the years, the reading group has remained persistent in its objective to allow us to gather, share ideas, and read IP against texts coming from other areas […]
- [Call For Papers: 2025 Annual Workshop](https://ishtip.org/call-for-papers-2025-annual-workshop/): The 16th Annual Workshop of the  International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property (ISHTIP) will be hosted by Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain. Call for Papers INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND CAPITALISM 25-26 June 2025  Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain In recent years, the relationship between intellectual property and capitalism has received growing interest from different disciplines, particularly economic history, law, sociology, politics, and science and technology studies. This workshop aims to bring together interdisciplinary scholarship which explores this relationship historically and across different political economic paradigms. The workshop invites reflections on the ways in which intellectual property rights have been instrumental […]
- [REGISTRATION IS OPEN for the 2024 15th ISHTIP Annual Workshop](https://ishtip.org/registration-is-open-for-the-2024-15th-ishtip-annual-workshop/): Please register and save the date for the 15th Annual Workshop of the International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property, which will take place in Boston on 26 and 27 June 2024. This year’s theme will be “Intellectual Property and the Anthropocene”. More information can be found here: https://www.bu.edu/law/engagements/intellectual-property-and-the-anthropocene/ Speaking participants include: The Program is still being finalised. Accommodation: Early booking of accommodation is advised, as the prices in the Boston area in this period can be high. ISHTIP is grateful to Professor Jessica Silbey and Boston University School of Law for their organisation and hosting.
- [Call For Papers: 2024 Workshop](https://ishtip.org/call-for-papers-2024-workshop/): Intellectual Property and the Anthropocene 26-27 June 2024 DEADLINE EXTENDED: new deadline is Monday, 22 Janary 2024 The 15th Annual Workshop of the International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property (ISHTIP) will be hosted by Boston University School of Law at Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Further details here.
- [2024 ISHTIP 15TH ANNUAL WORKSHOP](https://ishtip.org/2024-ishtip-15th-annual-workshop/): Boston University, 26-27 June 2024 CALL FOR PAPERS Intellectual Property and the Anthropocene 26-27 June 2024 The 15th Annual Workshop of the International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property (ISHTIP) will be hosted by Boston University School of Law at Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States. We will explore themes connected to problems related to global environmental changes related to human-centered domination of the planet. The concept is not without controversy – when it began, its obfuscation of differences among humans with diverging claims and impacts, its embedded human-nature dualism. These questions, and the roles of technological changes, […]
- [FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF LEARNING: THE ORIGINS OF CANADIAN COPYRIGHT LAW](https://ishtip.org/for-the-encouragement-of-learning-the-origins-of-canadian-copyright-law/): ‘FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF LEARNING: THE ORIGINS OF CANADIAN COPYRIGHT LAW’ MYRA TAWFIK (WINDSOR) IN CONVERSATION WITH PIERRE-EMMANUEL MOYSE, (MCGILL), MICHAEL EVERTON (SFU) AND ISABELLA ALEXANDER (UTS) 23 Nov 2023 GMT 16:30-18:00; CET 17:30-19:00; EDT 11:30-13:00: PST 8:30-10:00 am; AEST 24 Nov 3:00-4.30am Chaired by ISHTIP Governing Board Member, Cristina Martinez Professor Tawfik’s new book, For the Encouragement of Learning, addresses the contested history of copyright law in Canada, where the economic and reputational interests of authors and the commercial interests of publishers often conflict with the public interest in access to knowledge. It chronicles Canada’s earliest copyright law to explain […]
- [Fifteen Years of Primary Sources on Copyright 1450-1900](https://ishtip.org/fifteen-years-of-primary-sources-on-copyright-1450-1900/): Glasgow 16-17 October 2023 It is fifteen years since the launch of the Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), the (AHRC funded) digital archive edited by Lionel Bently and Martin Kretschmer . To celebrate this event a conference will be held on 16-17 October in the University of Glasgow’s Advanced Research Centre on a hybrid basis (allowing for online or in person attendance). This CREATe event is supported by ISHTIP, CIPIL & University of Cambridge. The event comprises two key elements. First, a number of national editors will present their new material for the digital archive. Patricia Akester (GPI-IPO) and Victor Drummond (Universidade Gama Filho) will launch their section covering Portugal and […]
- [COPYRIGHT AND CARTOGRAPHY. HISTORY, LAW, AND THE CIRCULATION OF GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE](https://ishtip.org/copyright-and-cartography-history-law-and-the-circulation-of-geographical-knowledge/): ‘Copyright and Cartography. History, Law, and the Circulation of Geographical Knowledge’ Isabella Alexander (UTS) in Conversation with Will Slauter (Sorbonne) & Kathy Bowrey (UNSW). Chaired by Jose Bellido (Kent) 12 Oct 2023 BST 16:00; CET 17:00; EDT 11:00: PDT 8:00; AEST 13th Sept 2:00am This open access book explores the intertwined histories of mapmaking and copyright law in Britain from the early modern period up to World War 1, focusing chiefly on the 18th and 19th centuries. Taking a multidisciplinary approach and making extensive use of the archival record, this is the first detailed, historical account of the relationship between […]
- [Intellectual Property, Past and Present: An Interdisciplinary Conversation](https://ishtip.org/intellectual-property-past-and-present-an-interdisciplinary-conversation-22-september-2023/): 22 September 2023 Hosted by HDEA (Histoire et dynamique des espaces anglophones), Sorbonne Université, ISHTIP is supporting a great forthcoming book discussion, organised by Will Slauter: « Intellectual Property, Past and Present: An Interdisciplinary Conversation », 22 September 2023, 14:00-17:00 Central European Time, Sorbonne Université and on Zoom (hybrid event, in English) Featuring a discussion of two recent books : •       Jessica Silbey, Professor of Law, Boston University, author of Against Progress: Intellectual Property and Fundamental Values in the Internet Age (Stanford University Press, 2022), with comments by Séverine Dusollier, Professor of Law, Sciences Po Paris •       Gabriel Galvez-Behar, Professor of History, […]
- [2023 ISHTIP 14th ANNUAL WORKSHOP](https://ishtip.org/2023-ishtip-workshop/): Tel Aviv University, 20-23 June 2023 Conference Program below Register to attend here: https://forms.office.com/r/7qWqXphmMF CFP: IP and Migration Tel Aviv University’s Faculty of Law (TAU Law) is delighted to host the 14th Annual Conference of the International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property (ISHTIP) . This year’s conference theme is IP and Migration – of people, information, technology, creativity and law; as always, we are happy to consider other submissions within ISTHIP’s core themes. We aim at scholars from all disciplines – law, cultural studies, sociology, media studies, economics, history, philosophy and anyone who studies IP. The conference is hosted by the S. Horowitz […]
- [CFP: Patent Futures. A History](https://ishtip.org/cfp-patent-futures-a-history/): “Patent Futures: A History,” is the fourth and final workshop of the ERC-funded project “Patents as Scientific Information, 1895-2020,” (www.passim.se) in collaboration with The International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property (ISHTIP www.ishtip.org). Call For Papers: Patent Futures. A History Dates: April 26-28, 2023. Venue: Mundaneum, Mons, Belgium. Call closes: November 15, 2022. Proposal format: 500 Word proposal/200 Word bio. Submit to: 2023workshop@passim.se Co-founded by the two Belgian lawyers Paul Otlet (1868-1944) and Henri LaFontaine (1854-1943), Mundaneum http://www.mundaneum.org, has played a crucial role for PASSIM, both in terms of its structure and design, but also because it […]
- [‘PARIS TO NEW YORK: THE TRANSATLANTIC FASHION INDUSTRY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY’](https://ishtip.org/paris-to-new-york-the-transatlantic-fashion-industry-in-the-twentieth-century/): VÉRONIQUE POUILLARD (OSLO) IN CONVERSATION WITH STINA TEILMAN-LOCK (CBS) AND JOHANNA GIBSON (QMUL) 23 May 2022 BST 11am; CET 12pm; EST 6am: PST 3am; AEST 8pm ‘Paris to New York: The Transatlantic Fashion Industry in the Twentieth Century’ Véronique Pouillard (Oslo) in conversation with Stina Teilman-Lock (CBS) and Johanna Gibson (QMUL). Chaired by ISHTIP Co-Director, Kathy Bowrey (UNSW). Fashion is one of the most dynamic industries in the world, with an annual retail value of $3 trillion and globally recognized icons like Coco Chanel, Christian Dior, and Yves Saint Laurent. How did this industry generate such economic and symbolic capital? […]
- ['Performing Copyright' : Luke McDonagh (LSE) in conversation with Jane Wessel (USNA) & Kathy Bowrey (UNSW)](https://ishtip.org/performing-copyright-luke-mcdonagh-lse-in-conversation-with-jane-wessell-usna-kathy-bowrey-unsw/): 27 April 2022 BST 1pm; CET 2pm; EST 8 am; PST 5am; AEST 10pm Performing Copyright. Law, Theatre and Authorship. Luke M. McDonagh (LSE) in conversation with Jane Wessel (USDA) and Kathy Bowrey (UNSW). Chaired by ISHTIP Co-Director, Eva Hemmungs Wirtén, (Linköping University) . Based on empirical research, this innovative book explores issues of performativity and authorship in the theatre world under copyright law and addresses several inter-connected questions: who is the author and first owner of a dramatic work? Who gets the credit and the licensing rights? What rights do the performers of the work have? Given the nature of […]
- [CFP: Patents in the service of War And Peace](https://ishtip.org/cfp-patents-in-the-service-of-war-and-peace/): We invite contributions to the 3rd workshop of the ERC-funded project PASSIM (Patents as Scientific Information, 1895–2020), in collaboration with The International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property (ISHTIP). Deadline is soon: October 30, 2021 Dates: May 16–18, 2022Venue: Norrköping, SwedenCall closes: October 30, 2021Proposal format: 500 Word proposal/200 Word bioSubmit to: 2022workshop@passim.se Although legal historians and humanities scholars have studied patent law and its histories beyond their economic effects, it is surprising that they have devoted less attention to their military entanglements. The workshop welcomes papers on patents, relating to the theme of ‘war and peace’. In this sense, patents are […]
- [13th ISHTIP WORKSHOP PROGRAM 2022](https://ishtip.org/workshop-2022-call-for-papers/): Machines of Law and Intellectual Property as Legal Machinery. DAY 1 20 June 2022 BST 12.00-12.15; CET 13:00-13:15; EST 7.00-7.15; PST 7.00-7.15; AEST 21.00-21.15Welcome, Organisers. BST 12.15-13.00; CET 13:15-14:00; EST 7.15-8.00; AEST 21.15-22.00Devaluing Trademarks in an AI Driven Marketplace, Christine Haight Farley.Commentator: Marc Stuhldreier.Chair: Matilda Arvidsson. Break BST 13.15-14.00; CET 14:15-15:00; EST 8.15-9.00; PST 5.15-6.00; AEST 22.15-23.00Human Labour and AI Creativity: Beyond the Author/Tool Dichotomy, Kristofer Erickson.Commentator: Ulf Petrusson.Chair: Véronique Pouillard. Break BST 14.15- 15.45; CET 15:15-16:45; EST 9.15-10.45; PST 6.00-7.45; AEST 23.00-00.45Technologies of Peace: Enemy Patents, Custodial Functions, and the Interwar Construction of Security, Anna Saunders. UNESCO on the […]
- [Identity and IP: how who we are informs our work](https://ishtip.org/identity-and-ip-how-who-we-are-informs-our-work/): ISHTIP Online Discussion. 19/20 July 2021 A discussion of personal and identity-based perspectives exploring how these connect in some way with IP writing and research. Attendees: Fady Aoun, Kathy Bowrey, Veit Erlmann, Susy Frankel, Hyo Yoon Kang, Jessica Lai, Sharon Le Gall, Toni Lester, Charleston Thomas, Hai-Yuean Tualima, Andrew Ventimiglia, Andrea Wallace.
- [Academic Open Letter in Support of the TRIPS Intellectual Property Waiver Proposal](https://ishtip.org/academic-open-letter-in-support-of-the-trips-intellectual-property-waiver-proposal/): July 2021 ISHTIP members Prof Graham Dutfield (University of Leeds), Dr Hyo Yoon Kang (Kent Law School), Dr Luke McDonagh (London School of Economics), along with Dr Aisling McMahon (Maynooth University) and Dr Siva Thambisetty (London School of Economics) have drafted an open letter signed by over 100 IP academics in support of the Indian and South African proposal for temporary TRIPS waiver “as a necessary and proportionate legal measure towards the clearing of existing intellectual property barriers to scaling up of production of COVID-19 health technologies in a direct, consistent and effective fashion”. Drawing upon the history and theory […]
- [Panel Discussion on Intellectual Property Law Scholarship and Pedagogy 
in Times of Covid-19 Pandemic](https://ishtip.org/panel-discussion-on-intellectual-property-law-scholarship-and-pedagogy-in-times-of-covid-19-pandemic/): Co-hosted by Center for Social Critiques of Law, Kent Law School and  International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property (ISHTIP) Panelists: Graham Dutfield (Leeds)Hyo Yoon Kang (Kent)Fiona Macmillan (Birkbeck)Luke McDonagh (LSE)Aisling McMahon (Maynooth)Alain Pottage (Kent/ SciencesPo)Els Torreele (UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose)  Traditionally IP law, and patent law in particular, had been regarded a legal technical and technocratic subfield. This panel discussion intends to review and discuss the state of the IP scholarship and pedagogy in light of the fissures within the field that have been laid bare at least since the so-called “TRIPS IP waiver” discussion.  […]
- [‘Cultural Heritage and IP’, Fiona Macmillan in conversation with Jose Bellido and Kathy Bowrey](https://ishtip.org/cultural-heritage-and-ip-fiona-macmillan-in-conversation-with-jose-bellido-and-kathy-bowrey/): May 20 BST 11am/CET 12 noon/ Pacific 3am/EST 6am/AEST 8pm ‘Cultural Heritage and IP’, Fiona Macmillan (Birkbeck) in conversation with Jose Bellido (Kent) and Kathy Bowrey (UNSW) The encounter between creativity and cultural production, on the one hand, and legal regulation, on the other, demonstrates the systemic and conceptual limits of the law. It raises a host of questions that traverse – in multiple senses and contexts – distinctions between things like public and private, property and the commons, individual and community, product and process, idea and expression, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, conservation and destruction, authentic and fake, […]
- [‘Patent Capital in the Covid-19 Pandemic’, Hyo Yoon Kang in conversation with Mario Biagioli and Javier Lezaun](https://ishtip.org/patent-capital-in-the-covid-19-pandemic-hyo-yoon-kang-in-conversation-with-mario-biagioli-and-javier-lezaun/): May 4 BST 10am/CET 11am/Pacific 2am/EST 5am/ AEST 7pm ‘Patent Capital in the Covid-19 Pandemic’, Hyo Yoon Kang (Kent) in conversation with Mario Biagioli (UCLA) and Javier Lezaun (Oxford) In the present pandemic, there has been increased public interest and media reporting on intellectual property, in particular patents and know-how, in relation to the vaccine and other medicines against Covid-19. The WTO is still considering the proposed waiver of TRIPS related enforcement of intellectual property rights in Covid-19 medicines. Such an interest in the purpose and effects of patent rights has also been accompanied by some misunderstandings and misleading polemics. […]
- [‘Commodification of creativity’, Kathy Bowrey in conversation with Martin Fredriksson  and Brad Sherman](https://ishtip.org/commodification-of-creativity-kathy-bowrey-in-conversation-with-martin-fredriksson-and-brad-sherman/): 22 April BST 11am/CET 12 noon/ Pacific 3am/EST 6am/AEST 8pm ‘Commodification of creativity’, Kathy Bowrey (UNSW) in conversation with Martin Fredriksson (Linköping) and Brad Sherman (Uni of Queensland) There is an enduring and wide-reaching interest in understanding how copyright interacts with creativity, free speech, national cultures and new technologies. Without tracing the incorporation of authorship into the actual business practices of the global book, music and film industries we can’t begin to fully appreciate creator investments in copyright philosophy. How was the author’s right to intangible property as established in the 19th century so effectively mobilised by multinational corporations to […]
- [Passim Workshop 2020](https://ishtip.org/passim-workshop-2020/): PATENTS AS CAPITAL Call for Papers We invite contributions to the workshop “Patents as Capital,” which forms the 2nd workshop of the ERC- funded project PASSIM (Patents as Scientific Information, 1895-2020), in collaboration with The International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property (ISHTIP). Dates: 8-10 September 2020 Venue: Nobel Museum, Stockholm, SWEDEN Call closes: 14 February 2020Proposal format: 500 Word proposal/200 Word bioSubmit to: 2020workshop@passim.se Patents are regarded as central techniques and indicators of value in the ‘knowledge economy’ by linking immaterial knowledge to capital. In intellectual property scholarship, particularly that approaches law as economics or as […]
- [Twelfth Annual ISHTIP Workshop](https://ishtip.org/twelfth-annual-ishtip-workshop/): Please note: The 12th ISHTIP Annual Workshop will be held at Bournemouth University, UK, 12-16 July 2021. This will be an online event. More details and final program to come shortly. The 13th workshop is now scheduled to be held at Gothenberg University in 2022. 12th Annual ISHTIP Workshop Landmarks of Intellectual Property Bournemouth University, UK 12-16 July 2021 Landmark noun, often attributive land·mark | \ land-märk \ An object (such as a stone or tree) that marks the boundary of land A conspicuous object on land that marks a locality (originally and esp. as a guide to sailors in navigation) […]
- [PASSIM Workshop](https://ishtip.org/1008-2/): INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY FOR THE UN-DISCIPLINE(D): The first workshop from the ERC-funded project PASSIM (Patents as Scientific Information, 1895- 2020), in collaboration with The International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property (ISHTIP). Dates: September 10-13, 2019 Venue: Norrköping, SWEDEN Call closes: January 31, 2019 Acceptance by: February 15, 2019 Proposal format: 500 Word proposal/200 Word bio Submit to: eva.hemmungs.wirten@liu.se Research on copyright, patents and trademarks engage scholars across a wide spectrum of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. No longer reserved for law and legal scholarship, a variety of methodological and theoretical approaches now inform and drive […]
- [Workshop 2019 Call for Papers](https://ishtip.org/workshop-2019-call-for-papers/): Workshop 2019 Call for Papers University of Technology Sydney, 4 – 6 July 2019 Registration and local details are available here. UPDATE: Date for submission of proposals: *Deadline extended* 23 November 2018 Expected date for notification of acceptance:  21 December 2018 Date for submission of full papers: 1 June 2019 Intellectual Property and the Visual “We entered and cast anchor, and in the morning went oh-ing and ah-ing in admiration up through the crooks and turns of the spacious and beautiful harbor – a  harbor which is the darling of Sydney and the wonder of the world.” Mark Twain, Following the Equator […]
- [2018 Pre-event Roundtable - Call for Papers](https://ishtip.org/2018-pre-event-roundtable-call-for-papers/): Call for Participation Histories of Intellectual Property in Numerous Objects—Interdisciplinary Insights University of Roma Tre, 3 July 2018 (Preceding main ISHTIP Workshop, 4-6 July) We are pleased to announce a roundtable preceding the ISHTIP Workshop, based around the underlying idea of A History of Intellectual Property in 50 Objects (Cambridge University Press, 2018, forthcoming). The book shows how objects and material culture can provide an approachable way to tell histories of intellectual property, focusing on 50 objects—including the Singer Sewing Machine, the Corset, the Football, the Barbie Doll, and the Post-it. The book presents intellectual property as an interdisciplinary topic, […]
- [Workshop 2018 Call for Papers](https://ishtip.org/workshop-2018-call-for-papers/): Annual ISHTIP Workshop University of Roma Tre, 4-6 July 2018  Call for Papers Intellectual Property and Heritage 2018 marks the tenth anniversary of the establishment of ISHTIP, which held its first workshop in the Stationers’ Hall in London in March 2008.  The Stationers Hall, with its special place in intellectual property law and history, seemed an appropriate place to kick off an interdisciplinary society with a particular focus on the interaction of those two disciplines.  Ten years on, ISHTIP has deepened its interdisciplinary engagement providing a forum for an array of new disciplinary and critical theoretical perspectives.  Influenced by the […]
- [10TH ANNUAL WORKSHOP (2018), University of Roma Tre, Rome, Italy](https://ishtip.org/10th-annual-workshop-2018-university-of-roma-tre-rome-italy/): University of Roma Tre, 4-6 July 2018 The annual workshop of ISHTIP in 2018 will be held at the School of Law, University of Roma Tre, Via Ostiense 161, 00154 Rome (4-6 July).  It will be jointly organised by the Department of Law – University of Roma Tre, ASK – Bocconi University, and the Department of Cultural Heritage Studies, University of Salerno. The organisers will be Fiona Macmillan (Birkbeck, University of London), Lillà Montagnani (Bocconi University, Milan) and Giovanni Riccio (University of Salerno). View the event programme: here Call for Papers: here Pre-event Rountable (3rd July) Call for Papers: here Register for the […]
- [Workshop 2017 Call for Papers](https://ishtip.org/workshop-2017-call-for-papers/): ISHTIP International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property 9th Annual Workshop CILP & the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto, Canada July 12-14, 2017 ‘Intellectual Property as Circulation and Control’ CALL FOR PAPERS This year’s workshop will seek to explore all aspects of the circulation/control dilemma from historical and/or contemporary perspectives.  Modalities of control that might be considered include:  licensing practices; distribution and business models; collectivization; cultural appropriation; authors, inventors and ownership; criminal provisions; international trade agreements; technological means of control such as technological protection measures, anti-circumvention laws, search engines and aggregators; surveillance and policing by law […]
- [8th Annual Workshop  CREATe, University of Glasgow, UK  July 6-8, 2016  "Intellectual Property and Resistance"](https://ishtip.org/8th-annual-workshop-create-university-of-glasgow-uk-july-6-8-2016-intellectual-property-and-resistance/): ISHTIP International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property 8th Annual Workshop CREATe, University of Glasgow, UK July 6-8, 2016 ‘Intellectual Property and Resistance’   Programme: Click Here     In 2016, ISHTIP will be hosted by CREATe, the RCUK Copyright Centre, University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK. Scotland was the home of booksellers such as Alexander Donaldson who sought to resist the monopolistic practices of their established London-based rivals, in the so-called Battle of the Booksellers of the eighteenth century. The patriotic Scottish booksellers, newcomers to the trade, sold cheap reprints of books sold by the London booksellers, […]
- [Workshop 2016 Programme](https://ishtip.org/workshop-2016-programme/): [Click Here to return to main page]   ISHTIP International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property 8th Annual Workshop CREATe, University of Glasgow, UK July 6-8, 2016 ‘Intellectual Property and Resistance’     Pre-event: Seminar by Prof. Barton Beebe, New York University School of Law Bleistein, American Copyright Law, and the Problem of Aesthetic Progress WED 6th JULY, 10am, CREATe hub (University of Glasgow, 10 The Square, G12 8QQ)   PROGRAMME WED 6th JULY: 12pm-1pm: Lunch and Registration (University of Glasgow, Main Building, Senate Room)1pm-1.10pm: Welcome: Elena Cooper/Martin Kretschmer, CREATe, University of Glasgow, UK 1.10pm-2.25pm: Early Career Panel 1: IP and […]
- [Workshop 2016 Call for Papers](https://ishtip.org/workshop-2016-call-for-papers/): ISHTIP International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property 8th Annual Workshop CREATe, University of Glasgow, UK July 6-8, 2016 ‘Intellectual Property and Resistance’ CALL FOR PAPERS In 2016, ISHTIP comes to Scotland, the home of booksellers such as Alexander Donaldson who sought to resist the monopolistic practices of their established London-based rivals, in the so-called Battle of the Booksellers of the eighteenth century. The patriotic Scottish booksellers, newcomers to the trade, sold cheap reprints of books sold by the London booksellers, including those in which statutory copyright, under the Statute of Anne 1710, had expired. The London […]
- [Workshop 2014 Programme](https://ishtip.org/workshop-2014-provisional-programme/): Return to main Workshop 2014 page   Download a PDF version of the programme.   Wednesday 2 July 2014, University Main Building, Room IX 11.30 REGISTRATION opens followed by LUNCH 12.15 Opening remarks by the organizers 12.30-13.10 Session 1 chaired by Martin Fredriksson, Linköping University (SE): Balázs Bodó, University of Amsterdam (NL) A Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Scientific Shadow Libraries Commentator: Jorge Contreras, American University (US) 13.15-13.55 Matt Stahl, University of Western Ontario (CA) Tactical Destabilization for Economic Justice: The American Recording Industry, Aging R&B Performers, and the 1984-2004 Royalty Reform Movement Commentator: Toni Lester, Babson College (US) 14.00-14.40 […]
- [Call for Papers for the Sixth ISHTIP Annual Workshop](https://ishtip.org/call-for-papers-for-the-sixth-ishtip-annual-workshop/): The Instability of Intellectual Property Uppsala, Sweden July 2-4, 2014 More information on Uppsala and attending ISHTIP Hosted by the Department of Archival Science, Library & Information Science and Museology & Heritage Studies (ALM), Uppsala University in collaboration with the Faculty of Law, Uppsala University and Linköping University in Sweden. By choosing this theme for the 2014 ISHTIP workshop at Uppsala University we want to focus on the ways in which intellectual property moves and travels across disciplinary, legal, linguistic, and geopolitical borders. Venue, Uppsala University Main Building Instability can refer to the way intellectual property law seeks to pin down […]
- [Sixth Annual ISHTIP Workshop](https://ishtip.org/sixth-annual-ishtip-workshop/): The Instability of Intellectual Property Uppsala, Sweden July 2-4, 2014 The conference is free of charge and supported by the Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences (Riksbankens Jubileumsfond). The organizers will provide refreshments/lunch to all registered participants. Hosted by the Department of Archival Science, Library & Information Science and Museology & Heritage Studies (ALM), Uppsala University in collaboration with the Faculty of Law, Uppsala University and Linköping University in Sweden. By choosing the theme of The Instability of Intellectual Property for the 2014 ISHTIP workshop at Uppsala University we want to focus on the ways in which intellectual property moves […]
- [Workshop 2012 programme](https://ishtip.org/workshop-2012-programme/): Fourth Annual ISHTIP Workshop Intellectual Property as cultural technology 25-26 June 2012 London School of Economics, London UK Workshop website   Monday 25 June 9.00 – Narrating creativity Chair: Martha Woodmansee (Case Western Reserve) Lorraine Piroux (Rutgers), ‘What Can the Possessed Possess?’; Intellectual Property, Authorship, and Diderot’s Two Conceptions of Genius’ Barton Beebe (NYU), ‘Bleistein; Or, intellectual property law and the problem of aesthetic progress’. Dan L Burk (UC Irvine) & Jessica Reyman (Northern Illinois), ‘Patents as genre’. 11.30 – IP as cultural technology (1)  Chair: Luke McDonagh (LSE) Plamena Popova (UniBIT), ‘Copyright law: impacts on urban shaping’ Matteo Ferrari  (Trento/McGill) ‘GI […]
- [Fourth Annual ISHTIP Workshop](https://ishtip.org/fourth-annual-ishtip-workshop/): Call for Papers Fourth Annual ISHTIP Workshop: Intellectual property as cultural technology London School of Economics, 25 & 26 June 2012 Intellectual property rights are generally supposed to function as means of stimulating and diffusing cultural production. This instrumentalist understanding of how intellectual property works as a cultural technology has survived for more than two centuries; it has been amplified and refined by a long tradition of economic analysis and economic history, and it has now been retrenched as the basic premise of contemporary debates about public domains, digital commons, and the expansion of corporate semiotic power. How plausible or […]
- [Elena Cooper](https://ishtip.org/elena-cooper/): Field, Blaine and the Artistic Copyright Committee of the Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce 1857-1862 Elena Cooper Orton Fellow in Law, Trinity Hall, Cambridge Abstract While the history of the painting copyright provisions of the Fine Arts Copyright Act 18621 has been the subject of recent scholarship,2 very little is known about the detail of the debates that took place in the body which led the campaign for reform: the Artistic Copyright Committee of the Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. Appointed in 1857 under the Chairmanship of Sir Charles Eastlake (then President of the Royal Academy of Arts), […]
- [Ramon Lobato & Julian Thomas](https://ishtip.org/ramon-lobato-julian-thomas/): Piracy and anti-piracy as generative forces Ramon Lobato and Julian Thomas Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University of Technology Abstract From the perspective of rights holders, piracy represents lost revenue. In this article we argue that piracy, nevertheless, has important generative features. We consider the range of expanding commercial opportunities that piracy opens up around the media industries, and we offer a preliminary model of transnational anti-piracy enterprise. We situate piracy not only in relation to the law, but as an element of what we take to be a larger informal media sector, characterised by close relationships with formal businesses […]
- [Jose Bellido](https://ishtip.org/jose-bellido/): Torres Caicedo A decade in international intellectual property history (1879-1889) Jose Bellido School of Law, Birkbeck, University of London Abstract One year after signing the Paris Convention of Industrial Property (1883), Jose Maria Torres Caicedo, the president of the most important copyright association at the time, the Association Littéraire et Artistique Internationale (ALAI), sent a letter to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His main concern is to reach a bilateral copyright agreement between the tiniest Latin American country, the Republic of El Salvador and France. Few days earlier, he had publicly announced the forthcoming bilateral agreement. Few months later, […]
- [Kathy Bowrey](https://ishtip.org/kathy-bowrey/): ‘“The World Daguerreotyped – What a Spectacle!” Copyright law, photography and the importance of a public visual space’ Kathy Bowrey Faculty of Law, University of NSW Abstract This paper concerns copyright law and the history of photography. As has been documented by other writers such as Edelman, Bently and Deazley, the inclusion of photography in the copyright regime was controversial because of the mechanical and scientific nature of the method of production. However there is more to the story of copyright law and photography than one about classificatory objections and the derisory attitudes of particular legal and cultural elites about […]
- [Martha Woodmansee](https://ishtip.org/martha-woodmansee/): Fan Control in the Era of the Entertainment Franchise: The Case of Harry Potter Martha Woodmansee Professor of English and Law, Case Western Reserve University Abstract Literary commentary, interpretation, translation, adaptation, sequelling, and criticism have figured among the defining activities of literary culture since the invention of printing. This paper is concerned with the constraints being imposed on these activities by the growth of the entertainment franchise. I examine the efforts of the Harry Potter franchise to constrain the diverse “fan” activities inspired by J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels. My focus is this franchise’s legal action in Warner Bros. and […]
- [Marett Leiboff](https://ishtip.org/marett-leiboff/): No Idea: Tristram Shandy, transgressive creativity, John Locke’s tabula rasa, and the legal imaginary Marett Leiboff Legal Intersections Research Centre, Faculty of Law University of Wollongong   Abstract Pray, Sir, in all the reading which you have ever read, did you ever read such a book as Locke’s Essay upon the Human Understanding? ——Don’t answer me rashly, –because many, I know, quote the book, who have not read it,—and many have read it who understand it not:— Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, Vol. II, Chap. II John Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, first published […]
- [Steven Hubicki](https://ishtip.org/steven-hubicki/): ‘DNA neither knows nor cares, [it] just is’: The problem of embodiment in biotechnology patents’ Steven Hubicki Griffith Law School  
- [Jason J. Du Mont & Mark D. Janis](https://ishtip.org/jason-j-du-mont-mark-d-janis/): Design Patent’s Non-Patent Origins Jason J. Du Mont and Mark D. Janis Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property & Competition Law; Chicago-Kent College of Law; Indiana University Maurer School of Law Abstract Design patent protection is the oldest American form of intellectual property protection for ornamental designs, but still the most enigmatic.  Congress passed the first design patent legislation in 1842, operating on the assumption that existing rules for utility patents could be incorporated en masse to protect designs.   This Article questions that assumption.  Drawing on new archival research and historical analysis, this Article demonstrates for the first time how […]
- [Rosemary Coombe & Joseph Turcotte](https://ishtip.org/rosemary-coombe-joseph-turcotte/): Reimagining Fair Dealing: Creating Archiving Software for Enhancing Canadian Cultural Heritage Online Rosemary Coombe/Joe Turcotte Tier One Canada Research Chair in Law, Communication and Cultural Studies, York University, Toronto Abstract The presentation will simultaneously describe and present new open source arts content management software developed to enable arts organizations to digitally exhibit and share a wider range of Canadian cultural content online. The architecture of this system has been explicitly developed to meet Canadian fair dealing requirements while simultaneously using digital communications technology to create a dynamic and dialogic archives that will increase our knowledge and understanding of Canadian cultural […]
- [Third Annual ISHTIP workshop](https://ishtip.org/third-annual-ishtip-workshop/): Call for abstracts: We invite you to submit an abstract to the Workshop addressing the broad ambitions of the society from all Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary perspectives. Papers that reflect global politics, colonial, post-colonial, Commonwealth or Asia-Pacific themes are especially welcome. Abstracts are due by 1 March 2011 and authors are requested to submit abstracts for a presentation of around 45 minutes in duration. Please email abstracts for consideration by the ISHTIP Steering Committee to Professor Kathy Bowrey: k.bowrey@unsw.edu.au Important Dates: Abstract submission deadline: 1 March 2011 Notification of acceptance: 31 March 2011 Final registration: 6 June 2011 Final deadline full paper submission: 14 June 2011 […]
- [Workshop 2009 - Participants](https://ishtip.org/workshop-2009-participants/): Emanuela Arezzo, Luiss Guido Carli, Roma Jose Bellido, Birkbeck College, University of London Lionel Bently, Cambridge U Mario Biagioli, Harvard U Michael Birnhack, Tel Aviv U Maurizio Borghi, Brunel U Kathy Bowrey, University of New South Wales Dan L. Burk, U California, Irvine Margaret Chon, University of Michigan Law School Rosemary J. Coombe, York University, Toronto Peter Decherney, University of Pennsylvania Johanna Gibson, Queen Mary U Gustavo Ghidini, U degli Studi di Milano Eva Hemmungs-Wirtén, Uppsala U Andrew Herman, York University, Toronto Peter Jaszi, American U Friedeman Kawohl, Bournemouth U Martin Kretschmer, Bournemouth U Fiona MacMillan, Birkbeck, University of London Luca […]
- [Workshop 2009 - Programme](https://ishtip.org/workshop-2009-programme/): First Annual ISHTIP Workshop The Construction of Immateriality Practices of Appropriation and the Genealogy of Intellectual Property Università Bocconi, Milan Italy 26-27 June 2009 The ISHTIP 2009 Workshop has been organised with the kind support of Angelo Sraffa Department of Law and of ASK Research Centre of Bocconi University, Milan. >> Programme << Friday 26 June 9:45: Opening Remarks (Gustavo Ghidini, Università degli Studi di Milano and LUISS Guido Carli, Roma) 10:00-13:00: Morning session (chair: Gustavo Ghidini) Michael Birnhack (Tel Aviv University), “Hebrew Authors and English Copyright Law in Mandate Palestine” Friedeman Kawohl (Bournemouth University) “Copyright History as a Means to Justify Current Positions […]
- [Updated Executive and Advisory Board](https://ishtip.org/updated-executive-and-advisory-board/): An updated list of members of the ISHTIP Executive and Advisory Board has been posted.
- [Third Annual ISHTIP Workshop 2011](https://ishtip.org/third-annual-ishtip-workshop-2011/): Information is now posted about the Third Annual ISHTIP workshop to be held at Griffith University Brisbane Australia 5-6 July 2011 . This includes a call for abstracts and registration information. See here
- [ISHTIP Workshop 2010 - programme](https://ishtip.org/second-annual-ishtip-workshop-programme/): Second Annual ISHTIP Workshop Geographies of Intellectual Property American University, Washington, D.C. 24-25 September 2010 Live webcast of the event available here
- [ISHTIP Workshop 2010 - participants](https://ishtip.org/ishtip-workshop-2010-participants/): Notes on the Participants of the 2010 ISHTIP workshop.
- [ISHTIP Workshop 2010 papers](https://ishtip.org/ishtip-workshop-downloads/): This content is password-protected. To view it, please enter the password below. Password:
- [Zac Zimmer](https://ishtip.org/zac-zimmer/): Zac Zimmer, “Commons: Copyleft as Training Ground” In order to advance our thinking about the commons, we are faced with two needed and interrelated theoretical tasks: 1) to connect the recent enthusiasm around alternative models of intellectual property regimes–broadly grouped under the general concepts of copyleft and the creative commons–to the ur-historical struggle centered around the idea of enclosure (simply: the process of erasing the commons); 2) to move beyond US Constitutional Law-based critiques of the contemporary IP regime to an authentically global consideration of the implications of the contemporary enclosure of the immaterial world. The fundamental question is: what […]
- [Matthias Wießner](https://ishtip.org/matthias-wiesner/): Matthias Wießner, “The German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the International Copyright Regime” East German politicians had to decide if the 1949-founded GDR should continue to be a member of the Berne Convention. The occupying power, the Soviet Union, refused participation in the multilateral Berne Convention. This raised the question of whether the GDR should follow the Soviet example. But if the GDR wanted to join the world economic scene, intellectual property law was also necessary for cultural and business relations, namely book trade with foreign countries. In 1955, the GDR government gave diplomatic notice that the Berne Convention was “again […]
- [Simon Stern](https://ishtip.org/simon-stern/): Simon Stern, “From Author’s Right to Property Right” This paper examines the arguments developed in eighteenth-century England for regarding copyright as a property right.  The Act of Anne (1710) uses the language of property sparingly, speaking of protection for “authors and proprietors of . . . books and writings,” and explaining the need to safeguard “property in every . . . book” to which the statute applies.  As Ronan Deazley has noted, the original draft of the statute was thoroughly drenched in proprietary language that the drafters minimized (On the Origin, 41).  The statute thus created the possibility of conceiving […]
- [Will Slauter](https://ishtip.org/will-slauter/): Will Slauter, “How News Becomes Property” Periodicals devoted to current events have been around since the beginning of the 17th century, and the first copyright statutes appeared in the 18th century, when many of our most fundamental ideas about authorship and ownership took shape. Yet no news writer or publisher seriously claimed a property in news reports until the middle of the 19th century. As the geography of news in America shifted from a decentralized model in which newspapers exchanged news with each other to a centralized model in which press agencies contracted with individual papers around the country, newspaper […]
- [Katie Scott](https://ishtip.org/katie-scott/): Katie Scott, “Mapping Plagiarism in a Regime of Privilege” The charge of plagiarism dispenses with the calendar and substitutes the map.  It takes a moral position in relation to artistic idea, arguably judging it always already an inalienable possession.  The passage of time does not lessen the crime.  Rather plagiarism operates and is identified by forms of mapping: by the process of appropriative tracing or re-tracing of forms and by a mental mapping of point to point correspondences which leads to the recognition of repetition.  However, not all copies are plagiaries; their classification as such is historically contingent.  This paper […]
- [Dwijen Rangnekar](https://ishtip.org/dwijen-rangnekar/): Dwijen Rangnekar, “Re-Making Place: The Social Construction of a Geographical Indication for Feni” A range of social movements mobilise around and seek to valorise ‘place-based’ imageries. There is, these movements argue, vitality in place. And this constitutes a crucial element of critiques of power/globalisation. As anthropologists remind us, people continue to construct some form of boundaries around place, however permeable and transient those boundaries might be. In the context of global agrifood, socially generated marks indicating conditions of origin have emerged that speak to a different set of moral economies. In this constellation Geographical Indications appears as a remarkable place-based […]
- [Marc Perlman](https://ishtip.org/marc-perlman/): Marc Perlman, “Should There Be Property Rights in Folklore? Surveying the Intellectual Landscape of the Debate” Along with the drive to expand intellectual property rights, a movement is underway to propertize traditional culture (folklore). Both initiatives have provoked counter-arguments. But while criticism of the extension of IP rights has been forcefully articulated, opposition to the propertization of folklore has been comparatively scattered and unfocussed. In this paper I map the intellectual terrain of the dispute over the ownership of folklore. The opposition takes several forms in various contexts (informal, legal, diplomatic, political, academic). Many legal laypersons reject the idea on […]
- [Doris Estelle Long](https://ishtip.org/doris-estelle-long/): Doris Estelle Long, “The Continuation of the Geographic Boundaries of Empire in the New Digital Order” Current battles over the nature and scope of protection afforded creative and innovative activities in the “new digital order” have strong resonances with historic battles over the territorial boundaries that formed the basis for the 19th Century Empires whose views of land and power continue to dominate intellectual property debates today.  Despite the evolving needs of the digital order, the processes of Empire, including its emphasis on territoriality as a rights modality, and its determination that its civilizing message is good for all comers, […]
- [Orly Lobel](https://ishtip.org/orly-lobel/): Orly Lobel, “Innovation’s Edge: Talent Wants to be Free and Flowing” The field of Employment IP (EIP) restrictions is a dynamic area of policy and has recently spurred heated debate. No state enforces contractual agreements to prevent post-employment mobility and competition without restriction, but while most states enforce non-compete agreements, a small but rising number of states, most notably California, void most or all such contractual agreements. This paper presents a theoretical model and empirical and experimental evidence that widespread EIP controls may have inadvertent counterproductive effects of lowering employee performance, impeding growth and innovation, and thereby preventing the rise […]
- [Jeongoh Kim](https://ishtip.org/jeongoh-kim/): Jeongoh Kim, “Cultural Geographies of Intellectual Property: Turnpikes and Copyrights” In this interdisciplinary essay, I combine literary and cultural-studies approaches to the relationship between road-making and copyright in the context of the new turnpikes. The enclosure of lands and the construction of turnpikes and canals not only broadened opportunities for travel and navigation but also accelerated the dissemination of commodities of all sorts. These geographical developments expanded, sometimes beyond the point of recognition, familiar notions of place that were framed by a parish or estate or even a metropolis. By poising the Foucauldian and economic views of the implications of […]
- [Stavroula Karapapa & Maurizio Borghi](https://ishtip.org/stavroula-karapapa-maurizio-borghi/): Stavroula Karapapa & Maurizio Borghi, “Invisible Geographies: Copyright and the Unexplored Land of Non-Display Uses” In this paper, we review the concept of “use” in copyright law. With the advent of mass digitisation projects, such as the Google Book Search, a peculiar shift has occurred in the way that digital copies are dealt with. While technology has so far mainly affected the way by which works are reproduced and distributed, mass digitisation purely affects the way by which the works are used. Works are turned into machine-readable data and are automatically processed without them being displayed to the public. In […]
- [Debora Halbert](https://ishtip.org/debora-halbert/): Debora Halbert, “Exporting Authenticity:  The Construction of National Cultural Identity” In this paper I investigate the narrative construction of national identity made through arguments about cultural preservation and cultural property.  The narrative is much more complex than simply demonstrating that American cultural hegemony with the help of intellectual property laws has created a global homogenized culture.  Instead, the corporatized global culture produced under the auspices of the culture industry must be understood within a nation-state project aimed at articulating cultural authenticity in the post-colonial world. Even as states seek to shore up their borders and establish an authentic sense of […]
- [Sara Bannerman](https://ishtip.org/sara-bannerman/): Sara Bannerman, “’We are all developing countries’: Canada and International Copyright History” Canada’s history with international copyright is a story of conflict: of struggle against British Imperial copyright, conflict with the international copyright system, and eventual engagement with the international copyright community. This paper outlines the path of Canadian international copyright history between 1886 and 1971, arguing that Canada’s international copyright history has been, in part, a product of the norms, institutions and policies of Canadian foreign relations, and that Canada’s history with the Berne Convention can be viewed as the struggle of a British colony to find a place […]
- [Second Annual ISHTIP Workshop](https://ishtip.org/second-annual-ishtip-workshop/): Second Annual ISHTIP Workshop Geographies of Intellectual Property American University, Washington, D.C. 24-26 September 2010
- [First Annual ISHTIP Workshop](https://ishtip.org/first-annual-ishtip-workshop/): First Annual ISHTIP Workshop The Construction of Immateriality Practices of Appropriation and the Genealogy of Intellectual Property Bocconi University, Milan Italy 26-27 June 2009

## Pages

- [Other Events](https://ishtip.org/otherevents/): In addition to the Annual Workshop and ongoing Seminar Series, ISHTIPs hosts a number of other events including one-off lectures, workshops, and seminars. Details of these events will be posted on this page. For the details of past ISHTIP events, see here. Open Science’s Progressive Potential. A Critical IP Perspective Online Seminar with Professor Kathy Bowrey Date: Wednesday 30 June 2025 | Time: 1:00pm (London – BST) / Time in your location | Venue: Zoom This seminar explores the effects of technoscientific capitalism and the datafication of research on the concepts of author and inventor. Can the historic valorisation of […]
- [Contact](https://ishtip.org/contact/): If you would like to become a member of ISHTIP or have questions regarding any of our events, please reach out to our team at admin@ishtip.org. For enquiries related to the Seminar Series, please reach out to our Seminar Series Coordinator, Carol Ballard, at carol.ballard@uq.edu.au. We will get back to you once we have reviewed your enquiry.
- [Past Seminars](https://ishtip.org/past-seminars/): The complete collection of past seminars can be found here, along with their recordings. 2025-26 Seminar Series Decolonising the heritage, AI and copyright interface: a cultural rights approachPaula Westenberger Date: Tuesday 3 March 2026 Laissez Passer: From BIRPI to WIPO Jose Bellido Date: Monday 9 February 2026 On Judgment: A Critical Grammar for Computing and Law Gerardo Con Diaz Date: Monday 8 December 2025 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 […]
- [Call for Papers for the 2026 Annual ISHTIP Workshop](https://ishtip.org/forthcoming-workshop/): The 17th Annual Workshop of the International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property (ISHTIP)will be hosted by Faculty of Law, University of São Paulo, Brazil. Call for Papers Intellectual Property and Democracy 25-26 June 2026 Faculty of Law, University of São Paulo (USP) In recent years, fundamental elements that had been taken for granted in western liberal democracies appear to be in retreat: the rule of law, separation of powers, and the protection of individual rights, such as freedom of opinion and expression or the right to non-discrimination. Concomitantly, there has been a rise in scholarship in the last decade that have critiqued […]
- [The Legal Aesthetics of Copyright, How AI Unmakes Images](https://ishtip.org/the-legal-aesthetics-of-copyright-how-ai-unmakes-images/): << Back to Forthcoming Seminars In the long history of a repetitive crisis caused by the introduction of technologies in cultural production, Generative AI disturbs the notion of authorship that the law deploys to grant its protection to artistic works. 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. Building on recent photo theory, it traces an evolution of the digital image starting from the networked image, through a logic of accelerated circulation and […]
- [Decolonising the heritage, AI and copyright interface: a cultural rights approach](https://ishtip.org/decolonising-the-heritage-ai-and-copyright-interface/): << Back to Past Seminars Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being increasingly used in heritage contexts. Different types of AI can be used, for example, as tools for heritage research and management, including for the reconstruction of heritage sites and artefacts. While the benefits and challenges of AI for heritage is being currently explored by various disciplines, for example in digital humanities and computer science, there is still a gap as regards the legal challenges arising from such practices, particularly relating to intellectual property (IP) rights. Discussions and consultations are taking place in various countries on approaches to the regulation of […]
- [Laissez Passer: From BIRPI to WIPO](https://ishtip.org/past-seminars/laissez-passer-from-birpi-to-wipo/): << Back to Past Seminars Jose Belliso (University of Kent) Laissez Passer: From BIRPI to WIPO In November 1959, a growing sense of dissatisfaction emerged over the functioning of the international intellectual property system. The Swiss government expressed disquiet with the institutional and financial arrangements underpinning the Berne and Paris Unions. It was not alone: others, like the British government shared a frustration with the ways in which the Bureau overseeing these unions had become slow, inefficient, and, to put it bluntly, chaotic. A decade later, the Bureau was transformed into a new agency (WIPO), a name that, according to […]
- [On Judgment: A Critical Grammar for Computing and Law](https://ishtip.org/on-judgement-con-diaz/): << Back to Past Seminars As digital systems increasingly shape how decisions are made, the boundary between legal reasoning and computational procedure has grown unstable. This essay, in preparation for the Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of Computer Science, 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. Rather than treating one system as subordinate to the other, it traces the tensions that emerge when their logics collide, overlap, or become indistinguishable. Drawing on insights from science and technology studies and legal studies (including traditions shaped by intellectual […]
- [Making and Marketing Biocultural Heritage](https://ishtip.org/making-and-marketing-biocultural-heritage/): << Back to Forthcoming Seminars Much socio-legal research on intellectual property in relation to food and agriculture focuses on the influence of global policy norms on domestic law-making and the expansion of new international trade opportunities for small-scale producers. Other studies have examined controversies and contestations around government actors claiming foods as manifestations of their national heritage. We depart from both mainstream analytical approaches, employing perspectives from legal anthropology on how ‘policy travels’ to consider new articulations of human rights and sustainability objectives. We evaluate and synthesise a growing body of ethnographic research (much of it done by and with […]
- [After Patent Republic - Hyo Yoon Kang](https://ishtip.org/past-seminars/after-patent-republic-hyo-yoon-kang/): << Back to Past Seminars Hyo Yoon Kang (University of Warwick) After Patent Republic What comes after ‘Patent Republic’? In his 2006 article, Mario Biagioli showed how the modern U.S. patent law system, with its development of examination, filing, and institutional bureaucracy, was closely attached to the understanding of American polity as a republic. The figures of inventor and patent holder were predicated on a notion of democratic citizenship that imbued rights on individuals, such as the right to private property. This distinguished the modern U.S. patent law system from letters patent under monarchy. In this talk, I take Biagioli’s […]
- [Events](https://ishtip.org/events/): Each year ISHTIP hosts a variety of events. The highlight of the events calendar is the Annual Workshop, a two day in person event held in June-June each year to showcase the ongoing research and works in progress of ISHTIP members and participants. The call for papers for the Annual Workshop is released in November/December each year, along with confirmation of the location and dates. In addition ISHTIP hosts an online seminar series as well as a range of other events, both in person and online, in order to engage with ISHTIP members throughout the year. ISHTIP members will receive […]
- [Forthcoming Seminars](https://ishtip.org/forthcoming-seminars/): 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.  The Legal Aesthetics of Copyright, How AI Unmakes ImagesSéverine Dusollier and Nicolas Malevé […]
- [Call for Papers](https://ishtip.org/call-for-papers/)
- [Past Events](https://ishtip.org/past-events/)
- [Past Workshops](https://ishtip.org/pastworkshops/): 25-26 June 2025 16th Annual Workshop – “Intellectual Property and Capitalism” – Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Spain 26-27 June 2024 15th Annual Workshop – “Intellectual Property and the Anthropocene” – Boston University (BU), United States 20-21 June 2023 14th Annual Workshop – “Intellectual Property and Migration” – Tel Aviv University (TAU), Israel 20-22 June 2022 13th Annual Workshop – “Machines of Law and Intellectual Property as Legal Machinery” – University of Gothenburg, Sweden (Hybrid Event) 12-16 July 2021 12th Annual Workshop – “Landmarks of Intellectual Property” – Bournemouth University, United Kingdom (Online Event) 4-6 July 2019 11th Annual Workshop […]
- [Resources](https://ishtip.org/resources/): This resources list is currently under development. Readings Sound and image recordings Open Science’s Progressive Potential. A Critical IP Perspective Online Seminar with Professor Kathy Bowrey  
- [Office Holders](https://ishtip.org/office-holders/): ISHTIP Executive Committee ISHTIP Governing Board ISHTIP Advisory Board Website Design and Help
- [Programme](https://ishtip.org/programme/): ISHTIP ANNUAL WORKSHOP Department of Law, University of Roma Tre; ASK Research Center, Bocconi University; Department of Cultural Heritage Studies, University of Salerno University of Roma Tre, 3-6 July 2018   Tuesday 3 July, Aula Magna, University of Roma Tre, Via Ostiense 159 15.00-19.00: ISHTIP Pre-Event Roundtable: Histories of Intellectual Property in Numerous Objects Convenor: Claudy Op Den Kamp, Bournemouth University 15.00-17.30: Presentations 17.30-18.00: Refreshments 18.00-19.00: Roundtable Discussion     Wednesday 4 July, Aula Magna, University of Roma Tre, Via Ostiense 159 09.00: Welcome to ISHTIP Workshop 09.15 – 11.15: Presentations by Doctoral Researchers Chair: Maria Lillà Montagnani, Bocconi University […]
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- [ISHTIP 2018 Workshop](https://ishtip.org/ishtip-2018-workshop/): Register for the Workshop Use these links to sign up for the workshop and related events: Pre-Event Roundtable Main Conference Admission Book Launch and Drinks Party – July 4th Conference Dinner – July 5th Local Hotel info The following hotels are in walking distance from the University of Roma Tre: Abitart Hotel, http://www.abitarthotel.com/ (4 star) (10 minutes walk) Hotel San Anselmo, http://www.aventinohotels.com/sananselmo/ (4 Star) (20 minutes walk) Hotel Aventino, http://www.aventinohotels.com/aventino/ (3 Star) (20 minutes walk) Hotel Villa San Pio, http://www.hotelvillasanpio.com/default.html (3 Star)(20 minutes walk) Hotel Santa Prisca, http://www.hotelsantaprisca.it/ (2 Star) (20 minutes walk) Keep in Touch Feel free to subscribe […]
- [ISHTIP 2013 - Programme](https://ishtip.org/ishtip-2013-programme/): 5th Annual ISHTIP Workshop: Cultural Economy and Intellectual Property 26-28 June 2013 Event organized in collaboration with Institut d’histoire du droit (UMR 7184, Université Panthéon-Assas), LARCA (EA 4214, Université Paris Diderot), Heyman Center for the Humanities (Columbia University) and Columbia Global Centers Europe-Reid Hall, IDHE (UMR 8533, CNRS-Paris 8), Centre de recherches historiques (EA 1571, Paris 8), JILC (EA 1569, Paris 8), CRIDAF (EA 453, Université Paris 13-Villetaneuse) Coordination: Laurent Pfister (Université Panthéon-Assas), Will Slauter (Université Paris 8). Please note: All papers will be circulated in advance of the workshop. To receive access to the papers, please email ishtip2013@gmail.com after […]
- [Constitution](https://ishtip.org/constitution/): A. GOALS 1. ISHTIP has been established to facilitate the development of interdisciplinary research in relation to intellectual property norms (broadly understood to include legal, social and other norms that purport to regulate the creation, evolution, dissemination and re-use of ideas, expressions, creations, innovations, as well as commercial signs and symbols). In particular, ISHTIP has been established to bring together scholars working in law, the arts and humanities, and the social sciences, to explore why, how and with what effect different societies at different times have sought to recognise particular ideas or artefacts as new or creative, to identify and […]
- [Workshop 2013](https://ishtip.org/workshop-2013/): Cultural Economy and Intellectual Property 26-28 June 2013 Paris, France Pour la version française, voir ci-dessous Call for papers The term “cultural economy” has been employed by scholars interested in the cultural dimensions of financial and commercial activities as well as by those interested in the economics of culture in societies past and present. In pairing this term with intellectual property, the fifth annual ISHTIP workshop seeks to stimulate interdisciplinary discussion about the different ways culture and economy interact and how their interactions shape norms and regulations pertaining to IP. Case studies situated in a specific historical context are welcome, […]
- [Public Papers](https://ishtip.org/papers/): This is a selection of papers presented at the ISHTIP Annual Workshops, that are made available by kind permission of the Authors. Sara Bannerman Middle Powers and International Copyright History: the case of Canada — presented at ISHTIP 2010, Washington DC. Published in Brian Fitzgerald and Benedict Atkinson (eds.) Copyright Future: Copyright Freedom (Sydney University Press: 2011) Jose Bellido Copyright at a Distance. From Action to Management (1880-1910) — presented at ISHTIP 2009, Milan Michael Birnhack Hebrew Authors and English Copyright Law in Mandate Palestine — presented at ISHTIP 2009, Milan. Published in Theoretical Inquires in Law, vol. 12 (2011), 201 Maurizio […]
- [Workshop 2011 program](https://ishtip.org/workshop-2011/): Third Annual ISHTIP Workshop 5-6 July 2011 Griffith University, South Bank, Brisbane Australia The Third Annual ISHTIP Workshop will be hosted by Professor Brad Sherman and Professor Kathy Bowrey, and held at Griffith University, Brisbane Australia. Revised Program Day One 5 July 2011 9.00 am Registration 9.30 – 10.30am Elena Cooper, ‘Field, Blaine and the Artistic Copyright Committee of the Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce 1857-1862’ 10.30 – 11.00am Morning Tea 11.00 – 12.00 pm Ramon Lobato, ‘Piracy and anti-piracy as generative forces’ (co-authored by Julian Thomas) 12.00 – 1.00pm Lunch 1.00 – 2.00pm Jose Bellido, ‘Torres Caicedo A decade […]
- [About](https://ishtip.org/about/): The International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property (ISHTIP) promotes and supports scholarly investigation of the theory and histories of patent, copyright, and related rights; the diverse roads not taken in the evolution of these legal structures; contemporary countertrends; and the laws and norms that have been devised to manage intellectual production and exchange. ISHTIP was launched at a conference on copyright history held March 20, 2008 at Stationers’ Hall in London. Development of the Society is being carried out by legal and literary scholars, cultural historians, and historians of science from the U.S., Canada, Australia, and […]


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