As we had announced on the blog earlier, SpicyIP celebrated its tenth anniversary in May this year with Consilience 2016, conceptualised by SpicyIP and NLS’ Law and Technology Society, supported by the MHRD Chair of IP, NLS. The event was supported by SFLC (Software Freedom Law Centre), Texas A&M University, Cellular Association of India, Free Software Movement Karnataka, and Obhaan and Associates.
We are finally releasing the Report of the proceedings of the event. As I had mentioned in my earlier post, the theme for this year’s Consilience was Open Sesame: Unlocking IP to Unleash the Commons, focusing on the themes of the Developing Country dimension and fostering openness within IP regimes.
The weekend was divided into four Sessions with six panels, on Open Innovation, Open Education, Open Law/Policy and the Future of the Commons. The first session explored open innovation in the context of the pharmaceutical, biological research and software industries, IP licensing and policies and Open Standards. It also explored the changing nature of innovation systems, and the importance of compulsory licensing and compensatory commons.
The second session focused on open education, ranging from questions of access and the publication of journals to innovative teaching methods based on open access. The third session, on openness in law and policy, discussed open access to the law, in its statutes and written forms, the practical efficacy of the RTI Act, with Prof. Jefferson highlighting a need to move to actionable transparency.
The final session, fittingly, discussed the future of IP and the Commons. This panel focused on the current state of the relationship between the monopolies of IP and the Commons, interlinked as they are, and how to improve on it.
We also released the SpicyIP music video (titled “commons right”) as part of our celebrations, the audio of which is available here. The music owes itself to the incredibly talented John Daniel (lawyer turned musician) and the lyrics were jointly penned by him and Prof Basheer.
We also announced the Open Access IP Dictionary, a project conceptualised by Prof Basheer and now being implemented through partner institutions such as Nirma University. We’re happy to see that many have come forward in support of this project, and we are open to collaborating and partnering with all institutions and individuals interested in democratising the discourse around IP through this open access dictionary.
The full details of the event are available here, and the proceedings are also available on YouTube. Our keynote speaker for the event was Prof (Dr) Richard Jefferson, a pioneer in the technology space and founder of the Lens, a creative initiative in the innovation cartography space. We will bring you his keynote speech separately after we’ve transcribed the video.