Rethinking Intellectual Property Rights - Fifth Annual Workshop

Theme of 2018: IPR, Access to Seeds and Famers’ Rights

Date: 18th to 20th January 2018

Objectives of the Annual Workshop:

Rethinking IPR is an annual National Level Workshop for Law students and students of other disciplines interested in IP research (undergraduate, post graduate and research scholars) organized by the IUCIPRS, CUSAT to initiate critical thinking regarding the role of Intellectual Property Rights in a social context.

About the Theme of 2018:

Plants constantly evolve and adapt to their environment. This process of evolution and natural selection has been going on from time immemorial. In addition to this process of natural selection, the farmers have been involved in the process of selection and breeding of better varieties also. Seeds are the storehouses of the genetic information resulting from this evolution and selection over a period of time. This process of seed selection and improvement is very important to ensure the development of varieties, which are better adapted to the environment and more productive also. Food security of a nation is dependent upon the seed security of its farmers. This is the major reason why plants and seeds were traditionally kept outside the scope of intellectual property rights. It was understood that there would be great danger in letting it being privatized and monopolized by a few. It will be interesting and highly relevant to examine how this shift impacted the rights of farmers, especially their right to access seeds and also agriculture in general.

The programme includes lectures, invited talks, case studies, corner discussions, students’ presentations, exercised, scenario analysis, role play, field exposure etc.

Sub-themes:

• Intellectual Property and Sustainable Agriculture


• Impact of Patents on Agriculture


• Sustainable Agriculture and Plant Variety Protection


• Impact of TRIPS Agreement on Seeds


• Patents and Protection of Plant Varieties and Sustainable Agriculture- Indian Perspective


• Geographical Indications and Agriculture

No. of Participants:

Total number of participants is limited to 35

Submission Guidelines:

• Abstract (maximum 300 words) on one or two sub-themes.


• IUCIPRS encourage original single author papers.


• Maximum of two authors are allowed.

Registration and Selection process:

Law students and students of other disciplines interested in this area (undergraduate, post graduate and research scholars) willing to prepare a paper on any of the sub-themes could apply. The sessions of the workshop are designed in a manner reflecting the concerns of the access to seeds and farmers’ rights in the context of IP. Students are urged to prepare papers accordingly so that each session will comprise of two student presentations representing the conflicting interests.

Fees: Students are required to register by paying rupees 500.

Awards/ Certificates:

Quality papers will be published in the renowned IP Journals.

Important Dates:

• Submission of Abstract: 15th August 2017


• Intimation for the selection of abstracts will be given on or before 25th August 2017.


• Full paper submission by 31st October 2017

For official Notification click here

For Registration click here