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: Professor Anil Gupta
Some bells don’t just chime, they change what we choose to hear. This week’s Bell of the Week is Prof. Anil Gupta, the mind behind the Honey Bee Network, who gently but powerfully shifted the lens of intellectual property toward those often left out of the conversation: farmers, artisans and grassroots innovators. Through the Honey Bee Network, Prof. Gupta and his collaborators travelled across villages to document local problem-solving practices, traditional knowledge, and small-scale inventions that rarely find their way into formal IP systems. The idea was not just to “collect” knowledge, but to ensure attribution, dignity, and where possible, benefit-sharing for the knowledge holders.
By documenting local knowledge, celebrating small inventors and advocating for fair attribution and benefit-sharing, Prof. Gupta helped broaden the imagination of IP beyond labs and corporations to fields, villages and everyday problem-solvers. In doing so, he reminded us that innovation is not scarce, recognition is. His book Grassroots Innovation: Minds on the Margin Are Not Marginal Minds further captures this philosophy, spotlighting how creativity thrives in resource-constrained settings and why such ingenuity deserves visibility and respect.
A good moment, perhaps, to reflect on how IP systems can listen more closely to voices at the margins and how many quiet innovators surround us if we choose to notice.
EVENTS
1. Webinar: SEP Information in PATENTSCOPE | WIPO
10 February 2026 | 17:30–18:15 Geneva time | Virtual (Zoom)
Register here
OPPORTUNITIES
1. Academic Positions (Lecturer Level) – Liverpool Law School
Application Deadline: 26 February 2026 (23:30)
Liverpool Law School is seeking to appoint up to eight permanent academics at Lecturer level. The School particularly welcomes applicants who can contribute to the student experience in Property Law (Equity & Trusts; Land Law), Criminal Law (including Criminal Evidence), Law & Technology, and Commercial/Corporate Law (such as corporate governance, arbitration, and banking law). Interviews are expected to take place in the week commencing 30 March 2026.
More info
2. PhD Position: Law – Stockholm University (Sweden)
Application Deadline: 1 March 2026
The Department of Law at Stockholm University is offering one fully funded PhD position starting in Fall 2026. The position runs for up to four years and is based in Stockholm, providing full funding for the duration of the doctoral studies and the opportunity to pursue advanced research in law within a leading academic environment.
More info
3. Postdoctoral Fellowship: Western Postdoctoral Fellowship Program – Western University (Canada)
Deadlines: 7 April 2026 (ROLA proposal) | 14 April 2026, 3:00 PM EDT (Full application)
Western Research and the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at Western University invite applications for the Western Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. Administered jointly by the two units, the programme offers a minimum stipend of $70,000 per year (subject to any association agreement changes), recoverable benefits, and a $5,000 annual research allowance for up to two years, supporting early-career researchers across disciplines.
More info
Thanks to Lokesh 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.
