The Global Congress on Public Interest Intellectual Property is being created as an alternative forum to the annual industry-organized Global
Congress Against Counterfeiting and Piracy, which was one of the main incubators for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and other
components of the ongoing enforcement agenda in international intellectual property law. The enforcement agenda has come under increasing scrutiny from public interest advocates and independent researchers, including through the recently released Media Piracy in Emerging Economies report
http://piracy.ssrc.org/the-report/. Taking these research and advocacy interventions as a starting point, the Global Congress on Public Interest
Intellectual Property will serve as a site for the sharing of research, ideas and policy proposals for how international intellectual property law
should be constructed to better protect the full range of global public interest concerns.

American University Washington College of Law (WCL) will host the first Global Congress on Public Interest Intellectual Property August 25-27, 2011. The Global Congress will be co-hosted by WCL¹s Program on Justice and Intellectual Property, Fundação Getulio Vargas¹s Center for Technology and Society (Brazil), the American Assembly at Columbia University, the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (Geneva), and the Institute for Global and International Studies at George Washington University.

SAVE THE DATE: August 25-27, 2011

American University Washington College of Law
4801 Massachusetts Ave, NW
Washington DC, 20016

The tentative schedule is as follows:

August 25, 3-6pm
Keynote Addresses: Framing the Current Moment
Keynote addresses will be webcast live and will be followed by a gala
welcoming reception.

August 25, 9am-6pm
Public Interest Intellectual Property Workshops: Building the Knowledge Base

The day will feature a series of works-in-progress research presentations on the themes of promoting new thinking on international intellectual property enforcement and mapping a range of best practices and policy options to ensure that national and international intellectual property systems protect and serve a broad range of public interest concerns. In addition to contributions analyzing options from within intellectual property doctrine, contributions will be sought from parallel fields that constrain intellectual property abuses such as competition law, consumer protection law, price control regimes, etc.

August 25, 7-10pm
Dinner cruise on the Potomac river.

August 26, 10am-3pm
Congress Deliberations: Creating a Positive Agenda for International Intellectual Property Law

Congress delegates will be invited to deliberate over policy proposals and action plans that chart a positive future for international intellectual
property law.

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

Participation in the Global Congress is being recruited from scholars, policy advocates and public officials from across the globe, with a
particular emphasis on the representatives of interests from developing countries.

Presentations and papers are being sought on any topic relevant to the mapping and analyzing of new thinking on intellectual property enforcement
and the consideration of positive proposals that respond to the developmental and other public interest challenges associated with the
globalization of intellectual property and the rising enforcement agenda.

TRAVEL SCHOLARSHIPS

Through the generous support of financial sponsors of the Congress, to include the International Development Research Centre, Open Society
Foundation and Google Inc., a limited number of partial and full travel scholarships will be available for selected participants accepted to
contribute research papers at the Congress. As funding is limited, travel scholarships will be awarded with preferences for applicants who lack
sufficient institutional funding to otherwise participate and with preferences for applicants from developing countries and those who raise
contributing funds from other sources.
Priority applications to be considered for travel funding are due July 1, 2011. The final date for submission of proposals to present research at the
Congress will be due July 15, 2011. Registration for self-funded attendees not presenting research will remain open until approximately three weeks
before the event or until the maximum number of participants is reached (approx. 100 delegates max).

APPLICATION SITE
All applications will be accepted via an online form that will be available at http://infojustice.org/global-congress by April 15, 2011.

Questions and inquiries can be addressed to sflynn@wcl.american.edu and mpalmedo@wcl.american.edu. Early expressions of interest in presenting
research at the Congress are welcomed to the above email addresses.

PUBLICATION OPPORTUNITIES
Finalized papers will be considered for publication in the PIJIP digital commons working paper series
(http://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/research/) in the fall of 2011 as
well as for a symposium issue of a law review in winter, 2012, TBA.

Sean M Fiil Flynn
Associate Director
Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property
American University Washington College of Law
Washington D.C. 20016

Tags: agenda, alternative forum, Global Congress on Public Interest Intellectual Property, intellectual property, international intellectual property systems, law