Click here to see the Chair special introduction for this symposium

SYMPOSIUM and ROUND TABLE TOPICS

In today's technical and global environment, the legal landscape must be understood and carefully examined in order to protect processes and IP and assure maximum ability to monetize investments and contractual agreements.

Increasing regulation and oversight create myriad land mines, and care must be taken at every step, from development of products, to enhancements to trade secret and IP protection, and effective and legal marketing in cross border environments.

Companies confront these opportunities and challenges on a daily basis.

Legal minds from across jurisdictions will be presenting and discussing how best to achieve these goals of protection and marketing with real examples for attendees. The latest legal developments and trends will be discussed in a setting that will allow for meaningful interaction.

'The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.' - Henry VI, Part 2, Act 4, Scene 2.

1. Free Trade Agreement negotiations
2. Investment disputes, anticorruption investigations and trade disputes
3. World Trade Organization, US trade policy, and customs, economic sanctions, and export controls topics
4. Labor Law (National and International)
5. Artificial Intelligence (AI)
   • Biometric Data litigation and facial recognition software, used in the pursuit of criminals and to regulate sporting events (the introduction of electronic of tech assisted referees).
   • Biometric Data as unique identifiers on the human body that allow for identification such as finger prints, DNA, facial features in conjunction with facial recognition software. The improper use/storage and related numerous problems.
   • GDPR age where the storage and use of personal data are fiercely scrutinised: Controversies that test the boundaries of the regulations to be protected from impropriety.
   • Face recognition issues: In April 2018, an Illinois federal judge certified a class in their claim against a famous Internet company, alleging that its photo-scanning technology used to 'tag' people in posts, was in fact gathering and storing biometric data without consent. Under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act 2008, the company could be fined between $1000 - $5000 each time a person's image is used without consent. Experts say that the stored images are more valuable and more susceptible to hacking by identity thieves than names, credit card numbers and addresses. Whilst those details can be changed - biometric data is unique and immutable, which propels the concept of 'identity theft' into a whole new era of meaning.
   
   
6. Cryptocurrency: Economic Tonic or Rat Poison Squared?
   • The technology behind and the pitfalls of insufficient regulation.
   • Trade secrets
   • Consequences of lost passwords and loss of access keys to crypto accounts containing millions of irrecoverable funds. Do the accounts need to be hacked to retrieve the funds?
   • Cryptocurrency technology and the environmental/sustainability global impact. Cryptocurrency uses as much CO2 in a year as 1 million transatlantic flights. If blockchain and crypto are the future is it really sustainable?
   
   
7. Reputational management
   • Managing both bad and fake news
   • Business Risk and Corporate Reputational Management
   • Turning Bad News into Manageable Information (Somebody Call the Spin Doctor!)
   • How corporations can deal with the aftermath of bad publicity when things go wrong either with technologies or products?
   • Saying Sorry, a new corporate culture. Recent examples of admitting liability.
   • What can publicly listed corporations say in public? Communication restrictions and the potential damage to reputation and stock prices when you say the wrong thing.
   • The link to Artificial Intelligence (AI)
   
   
8. Marvels in Science: Limitations in reality?
   • Funding and capital raisings for technology advances and new ideas (cannabis science, crypto, etc).
   • Managing expectations of what technology or new products can promise, versus the reality.
   • How inflated expectations and promises, can lead to legal ramifications.
   • Market place and market manipulation
   • Links to sustainability
   
   
9. Monetizing and protecting technologies (Intellectual Properties, contracts, confidentiality, Patents, Copyrights and litigation)
10. White collar crime / Business Risk and Corruption
11. Dispute resolution from an international perspective
12. Cyber security
13. Taxation
14. The international possibilities of cannabis science
15. Privacy in a GDPR age
16. Sustainability
17. Medical devices & Bio-Science Developments
18. International bribery and corruption impacting cross-border flow
19. International legal considerations affecting cross-border transactions
20. Technology transfer legal and management issues