Thematic Highlight In her second application for the SpicyIP Fellowship 2019-20, Arushi wrote a post on Article 13 (now Article 17, in the final text) of the EU Directive. In her post, she focusses on the economic rationale of copyright law i.e., the trade-off between the cost of creation and the incentive to create. She concludes that Article 13 fails to balance this trade-off due to overuse of automation and the threats it poses to the participatory culture of the internet….

In a guest post, Shalini Bhutani argues that the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights Act 2001 is likely to have a detrimental impact on the well being of farmers. She highlights the recent string of  lawsuits filed by PepsiCo India, asserting breeder rights in varieties of potatoes against farmers in Gujarat, to caution that the pro-farmer aspects of the legislation could be in serious threat. SpicyIP Events Pankhuri informed us of the 2019 WIPO-UNIGE Summer School that will…