In this talk, Marius Buning will present his new research project on the making of the European Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). The EUIPO is one of 45 decentralized agencies of the European Union; it is charged with managing the registration of EU trademarks and registered community designs, which provide exclusive rights for trademark and design protection throughout the EU. After a brief discussion of the institutional infrastructure of the Office, Marius will turn the attention to the reports and studies carried out by the EUIPO on the impact and importance of intellectual property. Although these reports have been highly influential in shaping policy decisions, they have so far escaped scholarly notice. Instead, this paper takes their ideological bias as a point of departure for understanding how notions of fairness and morality in IP surface in public discourse and come to circulate in a global economy. The paper thus argues that surveys and reports are not merely information tools that reflect social reality but play an active part in shaping that reality as well.
Marius Buning received his Ph.D. in History and Civilization from the European University Institute (2013) with a dissertation on the making of a patent system in the Dutch Republic. His research interests focus on the nature of intellectual property and the role of the state in shaping notions of scientific and technological progress. Marius has held fellowships at Harvard University, the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies (NIAS), and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. He is now a Postdoctoral Fellow in the CREATIVE IPR project, University of Oslo.
Practical information
The seminar will be organized as a hybrid event at Håndbiblioteket on the 5th floor in Niels Treschow’s hus, University of Oslo. After the seminar, the Creative IPR research group invites all participants to continue the conversation over dinner. If you want to join us for dinner after the seminar, please register your attendance by November 24.