On April 22nd, Dean Roger Fairfax and Sheriff Saadallah, Executive Director of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Academy, signed a Memorandum of Understanding to continue the close relationship between American University Washington College of Law's (AUWCL) Program on Information Justice & Intellectual Property (PIJIP) and WIPO.

PIJIP’s project on Copyright and the Right to Research organized a group of leading copyright academics, stakeholders, and computational researchers for a policy retreat in the Cradle of Humankind, South Africa, February 23-25, 2024. The subject of the meeting was enabling African and other Global South uses of digital research tools without promoting “data colonialism” concerns, including wrongful uses of traditional knowledge and community-held information. 

PIJIP’s Arcadia project on the Right to Research hosted an academic retreat in the Cradle of Humankind, South Africa, February 23-25, 2024. The meeting gathered leading African experts and scholars on copyright law and computer science to discuss policy principles and a research agenda on enabling African and other Global South uses of digital research tools without promoting “data colonialism” concerns.

PIJIP’s Senior Research Analyst Andrés Izquierdo, in collaboration with Beatriz Busaniche and Luca Shiru, conducted a training session on the right to research, text and data mining, and artificial intelligence at the Copyright Office of Panama.

PIJIP Senior Policy Analyst Andres Izquierdo and Right to Research Project members Beatriz Busaniche, Luca Schirru, and Allan Rocha are in Panama conducting a workshop in Panama on copyright and the public interest.

This week, PIJIP Director Sean Flynn is in Geneva, Switzerland, participating in workshops with the South Centre to train delegates on the substantive issues being considered by WIPO committees.

PIJIP published a new Right to Research working paper Developing a Human Right to Research in International Law by Dr. Sanya Samtani, a Senior Researcher at the University of Witwatersrand.

PIJIP has published a new working paper by Anthony D. Rosborough of the European University Institute and Aaron Perzanowski of the University of Michigan. The paper is part of our series on the Right to Research in International Copyright.

This month, PIJIP Senior Research Analyst Andrés Izquierdo attended the World Intellectual Property (WIPO) General Assembly on behalf of the Global Network on Copyright User Rights.

Post-Doctoral Research Fellow Michael Palmedo recently presented PIJIP’s empirical research on copyright exceptions for Text and Data Mining at the annual conference of the Society for the Economic Research of Copyright Issues.