Intellectual Property and Innovation in the Digital World

CERGE-EI
Politickych veznu 7
111 21 Prague 1
Czech Republic

The Progress & Freedom Foundation will have President Ray Gifford, Vice President for Research Tom Lenard and Director of PFF's Center for the Study of Digital Property James DeLong in Prague January 17, 2006, for an all-day conference entitled "Intellectual Property and Innovation in the Digital World." Co-hosted with CERGE-EI, a joint venture of Charles University and the Czech Republic Academy of Sciences, and the Liberální Institut, a Czech-based think tank born of the "Velvet Revolution," the program will focus on both U.S. and E.U. approaches to intellectual property protection, with particular focus on patents, standard setting, interoperability and "open" platforms in the software and IT sectors.

Among the other participants will be U.S. Ambassador David Gross, Czech Republic Minister of Informatics Dana Bérová, Czech attorney Jiri Matolin, and Martin Campbell-Kelley of the University of Warwick. More participants will be announced. Those wishing to learn more or interested in attending may contact PFF Vice President for Communications and External Affairs Patrick Ross at 202-289-8928 or pross@pff.org.

Recognizing that intellectual property is a central driver of the digital economy, "Intellectual Property and Innovation in the Digital World" will examine the nexus of innovation, creation and intellectual property protection in the digital world. The conference comes as the E.U. is reexamining its Lisbon Agenda for economic growth with its i2010 initiative, seizing on the digital revolution to revitalize the economies of European nation states and make the E.U. more competitive globally. And it comes as the U.S. and E.U. approach the conclusion of global trade talks in the Doha Round, in which intellectual property protection is a central component.

CERGE-EI is an economics department jointly established by Charles University in Prague and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. It provides an American-style Ph.D. program in economics and conducts state-of-the-art research in theoretical and policy-related economics, with a particular emphasis on the transition to free markets and European integration. All courses are taught in English, and the Ph.D. degree from CERGE-EI is fully recognized in the United States.

The Liberální Institut is a non-governmental, non-partisan, non-profit think tank for the development, dissemination and application of classical liberal ideas and programs based on the principles of classical liberalism. Its focus is on the development of individual freedom, private ownership, free markets, and the rule of law. Those principles were adopted by the F.A. Hayek Club, which was formed during the "Velvet Revolution" in the fall of 1989. The F.A. Hayek Club officially became the Liberální Institut in February, 1990.

This will be PFF's second annual Digital Europe. Digital Europe 2005 brought several PFF fellows to Milan for an all-day conference co-hosted with Istituto Bruno Leoni on interoperability and open standards, and several PFF fellows did public events in Brussels involving EU officials that were co-hosted with the Centre for the New Europe.