“The Biopolitics of Intellectual Property: Regulating Innovation and Personhood in the Information Age”

Date and Time for this Past Event

• Tuesday, Sep 20, 2022  7pm - 8:30pm

Location

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Our ideas — as expressed in copyrights, patents, and trademarks — are powerful assets for individuals, companies, and organizations. Your logos, images, website content, and creative new conceptual twists that make your product noteworthy are all forms of intellectual property (IP). The increasing value of such assets can spur moral and ethical conflicts, and even lead to legal disputes. In the Information Age, almost every aspect of our lives involves choices that are influenced by intellectual property, whether it is the brands we value, the music and movies we consume or the drugs we take when sick. IP policy thus has powerful implications to public welfare and legal precedent. The topic is especially useful to anyone responsible for safeguarding an organization's innovative contributions—and to anyone who desires to share material online.

Gordon Hull takes the position that the field of IP is evolving toward neoliberalism, a philosophy that supports market-based approaches to regulation. At the same time, broadly applied legal decisions are trending differently. Personally Speaking attendees are invited to contemplate these ideas, to listen to the presentation, and to weigh the opinions of the speaker and other members of the audience. It is not necessary to have read the book in advance, and all respectful opinions are invited. There is no charge for this event and it is open to the public.
Hull is a professor in the Department of Philosophy at UNC Charlotte and a core faculty member in the Public Policy Ph.D. program. A true interdisciplinarian, he is also an affiliate faculty member in the School of Data Science at UNC Charlotte. Hull trained as a historian of philosophy, but he has spent most of his career studying the intersection of technology, law, and society using the tools of political philosophy and ethics. In addition to articles on contemporary and historical theory, he has published numerous papers on intellectual property and privacy. His research aims to understand how technological and legal developments affect social power.

All Personally Speaking published experts series events are hosted by the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, with The Dubois Center at UNC Charlotte Center City and J. Murrey Atkins Library. During these community talks, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences faculty engage audiences in conversation about their research findings and describe the personal motivations for writing their books. The presentation may be recorded. The author welcomes questions and comments about his book, which is published by Cambridge University Press. Get a glimpse of the content here or request the book from your local library. We've requested that the libraries have copies on hand to make your reservation easier.

Learn about the whole series at CLAS.charlotte.edu/PS