Intellectual property & sustainable development: How sustainable is IP?

• Department of Law

This event features a discussion with Prof. Jacques de Werra (University of Geneva)

Abstract

Sustainable development constitutes a major societal challenge. It is also a key driver of policy action that can infuse many sectors and particularly impact the intellectual property (IP) ecosystem. The presentation will discuss how sustainable development is reflected in IP laws and policies and how it could be further developed. It will focus on selected issues spanning the life cycle of IP from the birth of IP rights (i.e. how can the conditions of IP protection reflect sustainability?) to the death of IP infringing products (i.e. must they be destroyed if they could be recycled?). The presentation will also discuss the circulation of IP-protected goods (and the application of the exhaustion doctrine to the upcycling of goods / the circular economy), the legal treatment of greenwashing (under unfair competition law), as well as the sustainable commercialisation of IP rights (e.g. the use of so-called patent pledges that purport to make eco-friendly patented inventions freely available to interested third parties).

Speaker

Jacques de Werra is a professor of the law of obligations (contract law) and of intellectual property law at the Faculty of Law, Université de Genève. He is the founder and was the first Director of the Digital Law Center (www.digitallawcenter.ch). He is a also member of the MIDS Committee (Master of International Dispute Settlement). Jacques de Werra has taught as visiting professor at various leading universities abroad (Harvard Law School - January/winter term 2022 & January/winter term 2024 as Charles Hieken Visiting Professor in Patent Law for a course on "International Intellectual Property Transactions", Stanford Law School, Paris 2 - Panthéon Assas, Université Catholique de Louvain, City University of Hong Kong, University of Nagoya).