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: 30 Years of the WIPO Internet Treaties
What did copyright law look like when the Internet arrived?
This week’s Bell takes us back to 20 December 1996, when the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT) were adopted in Geneva. This year marks 30 years of the WIPO Internet Treaties, two treaties that sought to bring international copyright law into the digital age.
And looking back at them today is surprisingly interesting.
In 1996, there was no YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, streaming economy or generative AI. Yet technology was already changing the way creative works could be created, reproduced and shared. The WCT extended copyright protection into the digital environment, while the WPPT strengthened the rights of performers and producers of phonograms in this new technological landscape. India acceded to the treaties in 2018. The changes were already made in 2012 congruent to the expansion of rights of authors in the digital world, be it the TPM provision under Section 65A or Rights Management Information under Section 65B.
In many ways, these treaties were copyright law trying to answer a question that sounds very familiar today: what happens when technology changes faster than the law?
Thirty years later, the technology has changed dramatically, but the question hasn’t.
The Internet has given us streaming, social media and platforms that allow creative works to travel across the world within seconds. And now, artificial intelligence is raising another set of difficult questions: Can copyrighted works be used to train AI models? How should the law treat AI-generated outputs? And can copyright principles developed for human creativity and digital dissemination accommodate technologies that operate in fundamentally different ways?
This makes the 30th anniversary of the Internet Treaties particularly timely. The AI debate may feel unprecedented, but copyright has been here before. The Internet Treaties were themselves an attempt to adapt international copyright law to a technological transformation whose full implications were still difficult to predict.
WIPO is marking the anniversary this year with discussions on the continuing relevance of the treaties and the challenges posed by today’s digital environment, including artificial intelligence.
Perhaps that is what makes looking back at the treaties so useful. Every technological revolution eventually becomes part of the history of IP. The question is what today’s AI revolution will leave behind.
Some bells introduce us to the future. Others remind us that we’ve been here before.
EVENTS
1. IP BRICS Open Session | CGPDTM
3 September 2026 | 1:00 PM (IST) | New Delhi, India
The Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (O/o CGPDTM), Government of India, under India’s chairship of IP BRICS 2026, is hosting the IP BRICS 18th Meeting of Heads of Intellectual Property Offices (HIPO) in New Delhi. As part of the meeting, the O/o CGPDTM invites interested stakeholders to register for the Open Session on “Connecting Dots between IP and Culture.”
Register here
2. Seminar on SEPs and Dispute Resolution: Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together? | WIPO
12-13 October 2026 | Geneva, Switzerland | Hybrid
Continuing the dialogue under the WIPO Strategy on Standard Essential Patents 2024–26, this seminar will bring together judges, policymakers, industry representatives, practitioners, academics and other experts for a focused exchange on how SEP disputes are evolving worldwide and how practical dispute-resolution tools can support a more balanced global SEP ecosystem.
More info | Register here
OPPORTUNITIES
1. Advertisement for Empanelment as Guest Faculty – Faculty of Law, Academic Session 2026–27 | University of Delhi
Application Deadline: 2 September 2026 | 5:00 PM (IST)
Applications are invited for empanelment as Guest Faculty (Contractual) for 70 vacancies in the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi. The qualifications for Guest Faculty are the same as those prescribed for regular teachers of the University of Delhi. Practising Advocates with a minimum of 5 years’ experience may also be empanelled as Guest Faculty, even if they do not hold an LL.M. or have not cleared NET.
More info
2. Career Development Fellowship in Law | Durham University
Application Deadline: 16 September 2026 | 4:29 AM (IST)
Durham University is inviting applications for its Career Development Fellowship in Law, a fixed-term position providing structured development support for early-career academics to deliver education, undertake research/scholarship, and engage in citizenship activities. Applications are welcomed from candidates working in any area of intellectual property law and policy. The existing team has expertise in copyright, patents, innovation policy, AI and emerging technologies, and UK, EU and Asian intellectual property law. The successful candidate will join a small and supportive IP group committed to nurturing early-career academics.
More info
3. Tech Policy Press Fellowship 2027
Application Deadline: 24 September 2026 | 11:59 PM (EDT)
Tech Policy Press is accepting applications for its 2027 Fellowship Cohort, supporting a select group of journalists, researchers, and public policy professionals interested in independent reporting and/or policy analysis at the intersection of technology and democracy. Fellows will join an international cohort for regular feedback and exchange of ideas, receive ongoing editorial guidance from Tech Policy Press staff, and participate in monthly sessions designed to support and strengthen their work.
More info
Thanks to Lokesh and Swaraj for 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.
