About ATRIP
about atrip
The International Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research in Intellectual Property (ATRIP) is the only global organization for scholars in the field of intellectual property law with members from across Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Oceania. ATRIP was founded in 1980 to contribute to the advancement of teaching and research in the field of intellectual property law, with a focus on building capacity and fostering innovation in teachers and researchers. As an academic society, ATRIP members are researchers and doctoral students engaged in research and teaching at academic institutions worldwide. ATRIP is a global and vibrant community of academics in the field of intellectual property law.
ATRIP members meet at the annual Congress, which serves as a central platform for presenting studies, exchanging ideas, and building academic networks. ATRIP Congresses are hosted each year in a different country, moving across the globe over the years, and are known as a unique opportunity for the genuine involvement of scholars with the thriving academic intellectual property law community. ATRIP is also empowering the next generation of intellectual property law scholars by organizing doctoral students’ workshops and granting prizes for young scholars, as part of the annual Congress.
ATRIP welcomes members from around the world who share the vision of the organization.
Purpose & Mission
The purpose and mission of ATRIP is to contribute to the advancement of teaching and research in the field of intellectual property law.
TEACHING OBJECTIVES
ATRIP pursues the following objectives concerning teaching:
- Focusing the attention of academic institutions on the teaching of intellectual property law, including its comparative and international aspects, as well as its social and economic ones.
- Improving teaching materials and methods used by academic institutions in the field of intellectual property law.
- Encouraging teachers and candidates aspiring to teaching positions to attain the knowledge needed to teach in the field of intellectual property law.
- Assisting scholars in their efforts to realize the objectives mentioned above.
To achieve these objectives, ATRIP encourages the building of international networks among its members through correspondence, visits, seminars, symposia, and other types of meetings.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
ATRIP pursues the following objectives concerning research:
- Encouraging research in the field of intellectual property law, including its social and economic aspects, and attending to the interests and needs relevant to the present and future development of intellectual property law.
- Fostering research in comparative and international aspects of intellectual property law, and in the history of intellectual property law.
- ATRIP encourages the building of international networks among its members through correspondence, visits, seminars, symposia, and other types of meetings, and the exchange of information about the initiation of research projects, their progress, and results, together with specialized studies and their publication.
Executive Committee & Past Presidents
EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS
President: Professor Orit Fischman-Afori
Haim Striks Faculty of Law, College of Management, Israel
Immediate Past President: Professor Christophe Geiger
Luiss Guido Carli University, Rome, Italy
President-Elect: Professor Estelle Derclaye
University of Nottingham, United Kingdom
Treasurer: Assistant Professor Bernd Justin Jütte
Sutherland School of Law, University College Dublin
EXECUTIVE COMITTEE MEMBERS
- Professor Roberto Garza Barbosa, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico
- Professor Jeremy de Beer, University of Ottawa, Canada
- Professor Rochelle Cooper Dreyfuss, Pauline Newman Professor of Law, New York University School of Law, USA
- Professor Nari Lee, Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki, Finland
- Associate Professor Yahong Li, University of Hong Kong, China
- Professor Caroline Ncube, University of Cape Town, South Africa
- Professor Ansgar Ohly, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany
- Professor Frantzeska Papadopoulou Skarp, Stockholm University, Sweden
- Associate Professor Evana Wright, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
PAST PRESIDENTS
2022-2024 Christophe Geiger, Italy
2019-2022 Jens Schovsbo, Denmark
2017-2019 Daniel Gervais, United States
2015-2017 Susy Frankel, New Zealand
2013-2015 Tana Pistorius, South Africa
2011-2013 Graeme Dinwoodie, Great Britain
2009-2011 Jan Rosén, Sweden
2007-2009 Annette Kur, Germany
2005-2007 Gustavo Ghidini, Italy
2003-2005 Ysolde Gendreau, Canada
2001-2003 Surinder Kaur Verma, India
1999-2001 François Dessemontet, Switzerland
1997-1999 Horacio Rangel-Ortiz, Mexico
1995-1997 André Françon, France
1993-1995 Joseph Strauss, Germany
1991-1993 Gunnar W.G. Karnell, Sweden
1989-1991 Alberto Bercovitz Rodrigues-Cano, Spain
1987-1989 Glen E. Weston, United States of America
1985-1987 William R. Cornish, Great Britain
1983-1985 Ernesto D. Arcama Zorraquin, Argentina
1981-1983 Friedrich-Karl Beier, Germany
History of the Association
HISTORY OF ATRIP IN A GLANCE
ATRIP was founded in April 1980, at a meeting held at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), in Geneva, Switzerland. WIPO played a significant part in the initiative to establish a global academic society in the field of intellectual property law. At that historical meeting, eight intellectual property professors assembled to draft the ATRIP Constitution and agreed to extend invitations to intellectual property professors from around the world to establish the organization at a Charter Meeting held one year later, in 1981. The eight “founding fathers” of ATRIP: Ernesto Aracama Zorraquín, Jean-Jacques Burst, Friederich-Karl Beier, Januz Swaja, Alberto Bercovitz Rodriguez-Cano, William Cornish, Glen Weston, and Gust Ledakis.
The Charter Meeting of ATRIP was held in July 1981 at WIPO, Geneva, and Dr Árpád Bogsch, WIPO Director General at that time, hosted the first ATRIP reception. This first ATRIP Congress included seventy participants from thirty countries. Friederich-Karl Beier was elected the first ATRIP President. The first ATRIP Treasurer was Michel de Hass, and the first ATRIP Secretary was Hans Peter Kunz-Hallstein. By 1982, ATRIP had already doubled the number of its members, and since then ATRIP membership from around the world has continued to grow.
Since its establishment, ATRIP has held an annual Congress in a different country. The only break in ATRIP activity was during the COVID-19 pandemic when the Congress was held online.
The history of ATRIP is intertwined with that of the development of intellectual property law. Key organizations, active in the field of intellectual property law, and leading intellectual property law professors have left their imprint on the development of ATRIP.
For additional reading about the history of ATRIP see: Peter K. Yu, Taking ATRIP Down Memory Lane, (2013) 4 WIPO J. 278.
For more reflections on the history of ATRIP, please see the following volume of the WIPO Journal.
CREATION OF THE ATRIP LOGO
The ATRIP logo was created by Professor Per Jonas Nordell. His story is outlined below.
“It all started when I studied Latin at high school. We had a text book going out from authentic texts. One of them was by Pliny the Younger about an elderly aristocrat in ancient Rome by the name of Spurinna. Obviously, they were close friends, and Pliny admired Spurinna as a man who could live his life with dignity: “Otium cum dignitate”.[1] Translating texts going some 2000 years back in time is a challenge. It may give some peculiar and puzzling results. That is the case firstly as traditional lexica do not have the capability to capture all nuances needed to a proper translation as they usually go out from a selection of ancient texts. Secondly, it is not so easy for us to understand the daily life in a society that far back in time. Coming through the first attempt of translation, it gave me some pictures in my mind. Later on, there was some kind of competition in a Swedish newspaper asking for young comic strip creators. Hence, I and some of my friends considered a comic strip of the day of Spurinna. It was drawn by me. Not surprisingly, it was refused.
In 1990, I got a position as research assistant to professor Gunnar Karnell at the Stockholm School of Economics. One reason for this position was that he had been President Elect for the ATRIP and needed some administrative support. Humbly, I asked him if there were no need for some kind of sign or logotype for the ATRIP, or at least for our coming conference in Stockholm. The answer was immediate and clear: “Please, com with some ideas!” As I at that time was occupied with lots of duties, I simply recycled the Spurinna theme from the refused comic strip project. It was directly accepted by Gunnar Karnell. In some way he could directly identify the presented picture as the “creator”, totally irrespective of time, place, or modus of creativity. Shortly thereafter, it was accepted by the Board of ATRIP. Indeed, I was – and still today is – most honoured about its so long life. Below, I would like to present the version which later on has been altered back from the Swedish text into the original Latin version. Unfortunately, the original master has got lost, so this published copy will not be in its best and original quality. In connection to that, I will give an attempt to translate it into English in the way that it occurs using traditional lexica in the way that is related to above:
* LL.B. at Stockholm university Faculty of Law in 1990. Research assistant in intellectual property law at Stockholm School of Economics 1990–1997. LL.D. on a dissertation on the protection of visual arts and pictures at Stockholm university in 1997. Lecturer at the Stockholm School of Economics 1997–2006. Adjunct professor in intellectual property law at Lund University 2002–2008. Professor in legal science at the Stockholm School of Economics in 2006. Professor in private law at Stockholm university since 2007. Editor of the Nordic Intellectual property Law Review (NIR) 1998–2017.
[1] Later on, I have realised that this text was shortened and adjusted to fit for a text book in Latin. Today all texts are available online, and the authentic text can be found on the Internet, cf. just for one example:
Picture 1: Old people should live a tranquile and ordinated life. This rule was firmly perceived by Spurinna.
Picture 2: In the morning he is kept in his bed.
Picture 3: In the second hour he asks for his shoes.
Picture 4: Spurinna goes around, and exercises his mind, not less than his body.
Picture 5: If friends are present, very interesting discussions are developed.
Picture 6: If not, he reads a book. Occasionally, Spurinna reads a book even if friends are present, however, just in the case they do not find it boring.
Picture 7: Then he sits down.
Picture 8: In a minute, he steps into a vehicle in companionship with a friend, as for instance me recently.
Picture 9: Coming back to his residence, he returns to his bedroom.
Picture 10: He take a pencil, and writes in either language.
Picture 11: In the 8th hour – if the wind is missing – he goes around naked in the sun and moves a ball hard and for a long time.
Picture 12: Which this exercise, Spurinna struggles against his age.
Picture 13: After taking a bath, he is leaning at the table, and for a while he delays the meal.
Picture 14: Meanwhile, he listens to someone reading.
Picture 15: Under this entire time, his friends are either doing the same thing, or something else.
Picture 16: Then, the dinner is served on old and pure silver.
Picture 17: So is the life of Spurinna after 77 years.
Picture 18: His vigour is intact.
Looking back at the Spurinna Story, we can find the origin of the ATRIP logotype in strip 10, when he is writing. The metaphor for the so to say eternal author, already identified by Gunnar Karnell, is that we, from the picture, do not know what this person is doing, other than a presumed act of intellectual activity, which may result in an intellectual property of any kind.”