Welcome back to another week of Bells & Whistles.
As always, we’ve rounded up a mix of developments, opportunities, and thoughtful reads from across the IP world along with a Bell of the Week that’s well worth revisiting.
Bell of the Week “RiP: A Remix Manifesto”
Some bells don’t just ring, they remix. This week, we revisit RiP: A Remix Manifesto (RiP), Brett Gaylor’s documentary that dives into remix culture, copyright and the messy, fascinating relationship between creativity and control in the digital age. Through the work of mashup artist Girl Talk (or Gregg Gillis), the film asks a simple but powerful question: how does culture grow if it cannot be borrowed from, built upon, or reimagined?
Watching it, it made me confront my own contradictions around creativity and control. I had to ask myself a slightly uncomfortable question: am I truly as open to others using my work as I like to believe? I realised I’m careful, even protective about my own creations. Not very different, perhaps, from how I guard my personal data, location, or privacy settings on my phone. There is something deeply human about wanting control over what is “yours.” Which is why Brett Gaylor’s decision to make the documentary itself remixable felt quietly radical. He didn’t just talk about openness, he practiced it, inviting people to reuse and reshape the film into their own versions.
The documentary also hits differently in today’s cultural landscape. Take the current Bollywood trend of endlessly revamping old songs. The familiarity is catchy, even nostalgic, but it often leaves you with an itch: is this homage, recycling, or creative fatigue? Watching RiP, it forced me to ask where we draw the line between inspiration and repetition, between dialogue with culture and over-reliance on it.
And then there’s the question the film inevitably raises in 2026: what would this manifesto look like in the age of AI? Watching Girl Talk sample hundreds of tracks feels inventive, skill-driven, almost artisanal in its layering. It comes across as cultural conversation. Yet large-scale technological appropriation of creative works today can feel extractive rather than expressive. Why does one feel inspiring and the other unsettling? The documentary doesn’t answer this for us obviously, but it gives us a vocabulary to think about it.
Maybe that’s why this bell still rings true, RiP! isn’t just about remixing media; it’s about remixing how we think about authorship, sharing and the responsibilities that come with both.
EVENTS
1. Book Launch & Lecture: Trademark and Free Speech – Conflicts and Resolutions, Northeastern University School of Law
3 February 2026 | 11:00 PM IST | Online (Zoom)
The Center for Law, Information and Creativity (CLIC) invites you to celebrate the release of Professor Lisa P. Ramsey’s (Professor of Law, University of San Diego School of Law) new book, Trademark and Free Speech: Conflicts and Resolutions (Cambridge University Press, out January 22). In this talk, Prof. Ramsey examines how trademark law can conflict with the right to freedom of expression and offers a principled framework for evaluating free speech challenges to trademark registration and enforcement. The book critiques the grant of trademark rights over informational terms, political messages, widely used phrases, decorative product features, and other language and designs with strong communicative value, showing how such protection can undermine expression and competition. It ultimately proposes speech-protective and pro-competitive reforms for legislatures, courts, and trademark offices in the US and beyond.
More info | Register here
2. Lecture: Re-imagining (Re)production in Intellectual Property Law: New Frontiers in the Branding and Making of Botanical Kinds
11 February 2026 | 12:00 – 1:30 GMT | Hybrid
In this lecture, Dr. Susannah Chapman (University College Cork) explores how plant breeding, branding practices, and legal protections are reshaping contemporary fruit varieties, drawing attention to the often-overlooked creative and reproductive labour that sustains a variety’s identity year after year. By unpacking the work that follows the formal “creation” of botanical kinds, the lecture reflects on the boundary between creativity and reproduction, while offering insights into the intersection of intellectual property law, biodiversity and food security and what this means for the food we eat.
More info
OPPORTUNITIES
1. LL.M. Applications Open: MIPLC LL.M. (2026/27 Intake) – Munich Intellectual Property Law Center (MIPLC)
Applications now open | Munich, Germany (with study components at partner institutions)
The application portal is now open for the 2026/27 intake of the MIPLC LL.M. programme. The programme equips students with expertise in intellectual property, data law, digital innovation, and competition law, preparing graduates to navigate complex global innovation and technology markets.
More info | Apply here
2. Consultant / Research Associate / Young Professional | CGPDTM (DPIIT, Government of India)
Applications open 3 February 2026 | Close 12 February 2026
Applications are invited for 20 contractual positions at the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (CGPDTM) under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). The recruitment includes 1 Consultant, 4 Research Associates, and 15 Young Professionals. Selected candidates will be based in New Delhi and may be required to travel to other IP Office locations depending on official needs.
More info
3. Summer Research Fellowship (EU Law) | Institute for Law & AI
Applications Deadline: 7 February 2026 | Cambridge, UK (in person; remote considered)
The Institute for Law & AI’s paid Summer Research Fellowship offers graduate law students, professionals, and academics the chance to work at the cutting edge of AI, law and policy, with a focus on EU law. The 10-week programme from 29 June to 4 September 2026, welcomes applicants with diverse skill sets and varying levels of experience in AI, law, and policy. Fellows typically work in person with LawAI staff at the Cambridge office, though remote candidates may also be considered.
More info
4. Visiting Scholar Support | Institute for Information Law (IViR), Amsterdam
Application Deadline: 1 October 2026 | Amsterdam, Netherlands
IViR has launched a new scholarship to support researchers who would otherwise be unable to fund a research visit to the Institute in Amsterdam. The scheme offers up to €3,000 to cover travel, accommodation, and living costs. It is open to candidates from OECD-designated Least Developed, Low Income, Lower Middle and Upper Middle Income Countries, working in areas such as digital rights, technology and data governance, and intellectual property. Selected scholars will be notified by 15 December 2026 for research visits taking place in 2027.
More info
Thanks to Lokesh, Niharika and Swaraj for the leads!
All non-sponsored listings featured here are events or opportunities free or nominally charged and ones we think our readers may be interested in. Sponsored listings will be marked as such. Unless specifically mentioned, SpicyIP has no affiliation to anything listed here. Know of an event worth sharing? Write to us at contact[at]spicyip[dot]com.
