Latest blog articles

With AI’s recent breakthrough in machine learning, now more than ever inventors are looking for ways to protect AI systems. But obtaining patent protection depends on the right claims.

When compared to other countries, European researchers in the field of human embryonic stem cells maybe at a disadvantage. Because of the morality clause in the European Patent Convention, the EPO does not grant patents on human embryonic stem cell research.

A new copyright reform (Music Modernization Act) was passed in the US Senate in 2018, comprising reforms on the term of protection for works played through online digital music services such as Spotify, Apple Music and Pandora. However, can copyright keep on being repeatedly extended? Is this...

Over 30 states and 40 business and civil society groups debated strategies for affordable and sustainable medicines prices at last month’s second WHO Fair Pricing Forum—co-sponsored by the government of South Africa.

Universality is the idea that universal facts exist and can be progressively discovered, whereas relativism denies the existence of universal facts. It follows that universality presupposes a system of universal values applicable to all human beings, which is denied by relativism.

Now is high time to prepare for life without the Appellate Body—hopefully it will only be temporary, argued Maastricht doctoral researcher Jens Hillebrand Pohl at a guest lecture he gave at Nagoya University, Japan, on 23 April 2019.

Electronics companies increasingly engage in patent aggregation, that is to accrue patents without using them for manufacturing purposes. So far, it is unclear whether such behaviour has negative effects on innovation. If it did, could EU competition law remedy it?

Those of you who were old enough to follow news headlines in the 90’s will probably remember this quote. For those of you who don’t: it is a famous phrase used by the defence team of O.J. Simpson in an – as would later turn out: successful – attempt to convince the jury of O.J.’s innocence.

25 years after the Genocide Against the Tutsi, the denial of this genocide still poses a serious challenge to prevention and reconciliation. How to address this problem was one of the central questions discussed during a recent commemorative conference in the Peace Palace.

E-personhood is a term proposed in a draft report by the EU Parliament, about civil rules and laws on Robotics. This legal status aims at ensuring rights and responsibilities for the most capable AI agents. An intense debate about its usefulness is taking place in the EU.