ESRs Natasha Mangal, Lucius Klobučník and Anastasiia Kyrylenko were recently invited to Trinity College Dublin to deliver an exciting series of lectures related to IP, innovation, and their current PhD research under the EIPIN IS programme. The TCD Intellectual Property Law Seminar Series took place on three dates in February and March of this year. The event was free of charge and open to the public, and attendees included current LLM students from Trinity College as well as legal practitioners.

Natasha Mangal delivered the first lecture of the series on February 18th, titled: ” The Music Modernization Act and Changes to Mechanical Licensing Practices: An Institutional Perspective.” Her talk focused on recent legislative changes in U.S. copyright law, particularly in connection with the Music Modernization Act and the creation of a new blanket licensing system for compulsory statutory mechanical licenses in musical works. Attendees got acquainted with the current institutional framework for regulating copyright in the U.S., and also gained a comparative perspective with European music licensing practices. She concluded her talk by highlighting some of the potential impacts of the new legislation on foreign rightsholders.

A purely European perspective was addressed in the second talk by Lucius Klobučník on February 25th. Lucius provided an overview of legislative and market-led changes in the online music licensing market in Europe, with a special emphasis on new licensing entities active in multi territorial online licensing. Sean Donegan from the Irish Music Rights Organisation gave comments on the lecture and highlighted particular issues arising in connection to streaming. Subsequent discussion focus on inaccuracies in the online licensing market and possible solutions.

On March 10th, the seminar series was concluded by Anastasiia Kyrylenko‘s lecture on IP provisions in bilateral trade agreements between the EU and third countries, particularly Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Through the analysis of the EU Association Agreements, Anastasiia addressed critics voiced towards the EU external policy in intellectual property, shared with the audience some of the issues the countries are facing in the implementation phase.

More information on the TCD Intellectual Property Law Seminar Series can be obtained here. The ESRs warmly thank Professor Giuseppe Mazziotti for the invitation and initiative in organizing the lecture series.