SpicyIP
Summer School
A 9-day residential programme cultivating critical pluralism on IP law and policy, inspired by the legacy of Prof. Shamnad Basheer.
⚡ Seats filled on a rolling basis — apply early.
IP beyond the Classroom.
The SpicyIP Summer School doesn’t teach IP law the way textbooks do. We start by using pharma as a deep case study – from drug development to patent strategy to access and litigation – to build the analytical rigour that is then tested and applied in engagement with other domain areas.
Built on the T-FLIP pedagogy developed by the late Prof. Shamnad Basheer, the programme rejects siloed ‘black letter law’ instruction in favour of analytical immersion: placing participants at the points where IP doctrine meets economic reality, public welfare, and the politics of knowledge.
This year’s theme, “Rethinking IP: Foundations, Faults, and Futures” focuses on three interlinked terrains of engagement that run through every session. IP is not a ‘subject’ in the conventional academic sense. It is a set of concepts encapsulating ownership, exclusivity, access, incentive, disclosure, public domain and more, that have consequences at every stage of any knowledge-intensive process.
The programme’s measure of success is not what participants can recall, but how they reason. If, at the end of nine days, a participant instinctively asks ‘why does this rule exist, and for whom?’ before asking ‘what does it say?’ — the programme has achieved its purpose.
🏛️ Foundations
Go deep into how IP law actually works, its doctrine, institutions, and real-world operation viewing them as strategic instruments deployed by specific actors with specific interests. First through the pharmaceutical innovation lifecycle, and then through the four domains of inquiry.
⚡ Faults
Identify where established frameworks are under stress such as access-to-medicine tensions, intermediary power over creators and audiences, the contested space of cultural commons, and the ongoingAI-driven disruptions
🔭 Futures
Develop the practical and analytical capacity to reason through what comes next in domains where tensions have upturned current understandings as well as where the rules are still being written.
One arc. Two phases.
The 2026 programme is built as a single integrated arc with deep domain immersion in Phase I followed by applied analysis, thematic inquiry, and professional practice in Phase II.
The Pharma Stack
Full immersion in the pharmaceutical innovation lifecycle — from molecular discovery through clinical trials, patent strategy, regulatory approval, generic competition, and access. Pharma is chosen because it is the domain where IP’s mechanisms, tensions, and stakes are most legible at every stage. By the end of Day 4, participants will have developed analytical reflexes that carry into everything that follows.
Four Domains of Inquiry
The analytical approach sharpened during the pharma stack are applied to four domains (not mutually exclusive) where IP frameworks are under active pressure. In each domain, participants work through the same three questions: What are the foundations? Where are the faults? What futures are emerging? Each domain is explored through complex, multi-layered hypothetical problems.
Public Domain, Commons & Open Source
Challenging the residual view of the public domain, and examining open-source movements and the commons as affirmative systems with their own logic and vulnerabilities.
Intermediaries & Power
How intermediaries use IP (their own and others’) to shape markets, control creative ecosystems, and extract value from knowledge workers.
Entertainment: Music & Film
The mechanics of how creative work is commodified,owned, licensed, monetised, and now increasingly generated or manipulated by AI.
Standards, Innovation & Openness
What role do Standards and Openness play in a world that is increasingly technologically complex: how do fragmentation and interoperability affect the world around us.
Nine days. One arc.
Deep domain immersion through applied analysis, professional practice, and synthesis. *Tentative schedule below
Faculty to be announced.
Drawn from the bar, academia, industry and the policy world — each bringing deep expertise and a commitment to critical engagement. Faculty announcements will be made on SpicyIP closer to the programme. Watch this space.
Hear from those who were there.
What participants said about their Summer School 2025 experience.
Summer School 2025 in pictures.
Sessions, workshops, fireside conversations, and everything in between.
Apply for the 2026 cohort.
The Summer School is deliberately small — 25 participants, 9 days, one cohort. Selection is competitive.
General Seats
Open to law students, young lawyers, academics, and practitioners with genuine interest in IP law and policy.
IDIA Scholar Seats
Five seats reserved for IDIA Scholars, in partnership with IDIA, supporting access for participants from underrepresented communities.
Need-Based Seats
Five seats earmarked on a need basis, with priority for applicants from Government Law Colleges and under-resourced law schools — waiving or reducing the contribution, subject to sufficient eligible applications.
Who should apply?
While open to anyone interested, please note this is a course that requires active participation in fundamentally questioning, and being open to reconstituting, common understandings of IP and its applications from classrooms to courtrooms. Students in our inaugural batch ranged from BA LLB 2nd year to Assistant Professor and PhD graduate. We expect the median student to be in their final year of law school.
Selection Process
Supported by leaders in IP practice.
The Summer School is made possible through the generous support of our sponsors and knowledge partners.
Interested in supporting the next generation of IP professionals?
View Sponsorship BrochureReady to Rethink IP?
Applications for SpicyIP Summer School 2026 are now open. 25 participants. 9 days. Whitefield, Bengaluru. June 20–28.
⚡ Seats are filled on a rolling basis as qualified applications are received. Apply early.
For queries, write to [email protected]