About the Conference

Each IP Mosaic Conference is typically organized around a specific IP social justice legal issue, policy, or socio-economic challenge. Representative conference themes include equitable access to health, medicines, knowledge, and information; socially beneficial application of information technology and related advances to IP development and dissemination; legal protection for traditional and indigenous knowledge and expression; and promoting IP awareness, education, and entrepreneurial and socio-political empowerment in marginalized communities. The conference format is principally comprised of paper or project presentation sessions and plenary panel discussions. In addition, keynote presentations and “incubator project” and work in progress sessions are also mainstays of the conference.

2025 Theme | IP and the Fabric of Nations

The IP Mosaic Conference is a unique convening of a diverse collective of academic scholars, policy leaders, and activists who meet to consider and critique IP protection. In the conference’s 11th year, the Theme “IP and the Fabric of Nations” seeks to examine narratives and stories about the role that IP plays in knitting communities, peoples and nations together. We are looking for critical examinations of the stories that are told about IP in enabling national excellence in industrial growth, promoting socio-economic empowerment, and solving development challenges, e.g. collaborative approaches to IP production and use across borders such as climate technology cooperation and technology platforms like WIPO Green, or IP as a means of negotiating the international expansion of cultural products such as K-Pop and K-Drama. We are looking for critical examinations of how IP enables storytales of national identity and culture, such as the role of IP in Disney’s capture of European American fairy tales or the complex adoption of the Haka into New Zealand’s sports identity. We seek contributions that allow us to examine how the stories that we tell about IP and the narratives around IP enable inclusion and belonging in national identity-building projects, especially for marginalized peoples and communities.

Call for Papers

The IP Mosaic Conference Planning Board invites IP scholars, policy makers, and social activists to submit paper and project proposals for presentation at the 11th Annual IP Mosaic Conference, which will be hosted at the Suffolk University Law School on October 24-25, 2025. The Theme this year is “IP and the Fabric of Nations”, focusing on the role of intellectual property in nation-building and human development/fulfillment in both developed and developing nations, and creating connections across borders.

The Theme “IP and the Fabric of Nations” seeks to examine narratives and stories about the role that IP plays in knitting communities, peoples and nations together. We are looking for critical examinations of the stories that are told about IP in enabling national excellence in industrial growth, promoting socio-economic empowerment, and solving development challenges, e.g. collaborative approaches to IP production and use across borders such as climate technology cooperation and technology platforms like WIPO Green, or IP as a means of negotiating the international expansion of cultural products such as K-Pop and K-Drama. We are looking for critical examinations of how IP enables storytales of national identity and culture, such as the role of IP in Disney’s capture of European American fairy tales or the complex adoption of the Haka into New Zealand’s sports identity. We seek contributions that allow us to examine how the stories that we tell about IP and the narratives around IP enable inclusion and belonging in national identity-building projects, especially for marginalized peoples and communities.

We welcome ALL submissions on topics at the intersection of intellectual property and social justice, particularly with respect to race, gender, class and other social identities, constructs, and conditions, as well as the social justice effects and obligations of the intellectual property regime, from rewarding originality and innovation and promoting human development and self-actualization to meeting the health, education, and socio-economic empowerment needs of the global society. We are particularly interested in papers that address the following sub-themes:

Sub-Theme I – Claiming Space: Divergence in IP Institutional Actors – (Trademark, Copyright Practitioners, examiners)
● This theme is intended to draw on IP institutions as contributors to nation building and human development/fulfillment narratives, especially on industrial policy, national identity, and the creation of community. We seek research and policy papers, and presentations to examine the extent to which expanding the diversity of membership in national IP institutions such as the USPTO, Copyright Office and others; the judiciary, especially the Federal Circuit; within the IP Bar; and at the international level, such as within WIPO and the WTO, can promote a more efficacious IP ecosystem.

Sub-Theme II – New Rights, New Rightsholders
● The theme draws on the idea that nation-building and human development/fulfillment comes from the storytellers/creators and innovators of society. Focusing on the ‘building’ component, we are seeking papers and presentations that: 1) focus on the expansion of IP to new communities and peoples and 2) new rights and subject matter aimed at building the economy and building/preserving culture and 3) address the rights to access and knowledge of the people and the nation. At the international level, this looks at developments in international fora that expand participation in the IP system and IP and newer rights for individuals and peoples.

Sub – Theme III – Competition and Collaboration – Political Sovereigns(?) and IP
● This theme focuses on the tension between competition and collaboration among sovereign states on IP and Industrial, Innovation, and Cultural Policy. We seek papers and presentations that address conflicts such as the US-China IP relationship, and collaborations such as vaccine development, or new seeds such as the International Rice Institute at the CGIAR, or developments at WIPO. This would also be the main theme of the International panel.

We are looking for two types of papers.

1) The first are for papers by scholars at any stage of their career. These should be papers that are completed or close to completion, with fully fleshed out ideas that can be placed in front of the audience for translation from academia to practice. These should be practically-oriented papers that articulate or solve a problem, rather than theoretical papers. Panelists will be asked to submit these by September 24, 2025 at least one month before the conference.

2) The second are works-in-progress from junior scholars. Some or all of these could be presented remotely. The scholarship would apply to any that fit within the theme of the conference and that would benefit from feedback from the more senior scholars participating in the Conference, as well as the IIPSJ planning committee members and Suffolk IP faculty (and invited faculty from the Greater Boston area) for feedback. These papers (at whatever stage) must be submitted by September 24th, 2025, at least one month before the conference.

Paper and project abstracts (300 words) will be considered on a rolling basis with an initial submission deadline of July 25, 2025; the final deadline for consideration of submissions is August 27, 2025.

Submit to ipmosaic@iipsj.org with the subject line “IP Mosaic Submission 2025 — [First Name] [Last Name].” Please include a statement identifying if you’ve presented at the conference in the past two years.