Scientific Committee
Manuel
DESANTES REAL
CHAIR
Manuel Desantes Real holds a Professor’s Chair in Private international law at the University of Alicante (Spain) since 1992. He is a Fellow of the Eisenhower Foundation (1998-), Co-Director of the Global Digital Encounters (2020-), Co-Director of the Global Innovation Law and Policy (GIPLaw-UA) Research Group, Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the Metaverse UA Chair, Co-Editor of the European Intellectual Property Institutes Network (EIPIN) Book Series, Edward Elgar Publishing (2009-), Chairman of the EIPIN Scholar Foundation Board (2022-), Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the University of Alicante Metaverse Responsible Development Chair (2023-), member of the International Academic Council of FIDE (Fundación para la Investigación sobre el Derecho y la Empresa) (2018-), and only European Member of the Committee of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade / China Chamber of International Commerce (CCPIT/CCOIC) Intellectual Property Mediation Center (2021-). Author of 5 books and more than 100 scientific publications, he has taught a complete course at the Hague Academy of International Law (2019). Manuel has been Vice-President of the European Patent Office (2001-2008), Vice-Rector and Rector ad interim of the University of Alicante (1996-1998), Member of the Legal Service of the European Commission (1998-2000), Founder and Director of the Magister Lvcentinvs (Master in intellectual Property Law), Universidad de Alicante (Spain) and Of Counsel Attorney of the firm Elzaburu (2010-2022).
Gaetano
DIMITA
Dr Gaetano Dimita is a Senior Lecturer in International Intellectual property Law, Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London, where he focuses his research and teaching on Games and Interactive Entertainment Law. He is the founder and editor- in-chief of the Interactive Entertainment Law Review, Edward Elgar, the producer of the More Than Just a Game conference series; the co-author of Mastering the Game 2nd edition, WIPO. Gaetano is also a video games enthusiast.
Martin
EBERS
Martin Ebers is President of the Robotics & AI Law Society (RAILS), Germany, and Professor of IT Law at the University of Tartu, Estonia. Moreover, he is a permanent fellow at the law faculty of the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany. He taught and presented at more than 100 international conferences, is a member of several national and international research networks and published 22 books and over 120 articles in the field of Law & Technology, esp. Artificial Intelligence, as well as in Commercial, Private, European, Comparative and International Law. In 2022, Dr. Ebers was awarded a five-year grant from the Wallenberg Foundation (WASP-HS) to conduct research with his team in Sweden on “Private Rule-making and European Governance of AI and Robotics”. His latest books are among others “Algorithms and Law” (Cambridge University Press, 2020), “Contracting and Contract Law in the Age of Artificial Intelligence” (Hart Publishing, 2022), and the “Stichwortkommentar Legal Tech” (Nomos Publishing, 2023). According to Beck-Aktuell 31.12.2023, Dr. Ebers is among the “top 5 legal influencers” in Germany. Since 2024, he is Editor-in-Chief of the new open access journal “Cambridge Forum on AI: Law and Governance” at Cambridge University Press.
Julián
LÓPEZ RICHART
Julián López Richart is an Associate Professor of Civil Law and Director of the LLM in Digital Society Law at the University of Alicante , where he graduated in Law and also obtained his Doctorate Degree in 2001. In 2003 he was appointed Associate Professor of Civil Law. Between 2007 and 2013 he held the position of Vice-Dean of Academic Affairs of the Faculty of Law. After a year as Visiting Scholar at Cornell University (New York, U.S.), in 2014 he took over the direction of the Magister Lvcentinvs, Master in Industrial and Intellectual Property, a position he held until 2017. He is currently the Director of the Research Group on “Law and New Technologies»; (IUSTEC) at the University of Alicante and a member of the research project «The emergence of Artificial Intelligence in tort law and its adaptation to new technologies», funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation (Government of Spain). Julián has also been leading researcher in «EIPIN Innovation Society»;, the first European joint doctorate in intellectual property, funded by the European Commission in the framework of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie, International Training Networks (ITN) actions, within the Horizon 2020 program.
Laurent
MANDERIEUX
Laurent Manderieux is Professor of Intellectual Property Law at Bocconi University of Milan, Italy, Founder of the Bocconi LL.M in Law of Internet Technology, Chair, European IP Teachers’ Network, Coordinator, Transatlantic IP Academy, Member of the International Academic Council of FIDE (Fundación para la Investigación sobre el Derecho y la Empresa) and is invited Professor / Lecturer of IP Law in Universities and Training institutes in many countries of Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa. In addition to his IP teaching and IP research activities at Bocconi, Laurent is Senior Intellectual Property Expert for various international Organizations and governments. He was for many years Official and Senior Official at the WIPO in Geneva, Switzerland: in particular, as Head, WIPO Public Affairs and Media Relations, he took care of training and information for government officials, lawyers, researchers, scientists, and business circles. Before joining WIPO, he also worked for the UN (FAO) in Rome, Italy; and at the European Union in Brussels. Over the last decades, he undertook numerous projects bringing him to some 145 countries and works in French, English, Italian, Spanish, and German.
Micaela
MANTEGNA
Known as the ‘Abogamer’, Micaela Mantegna is an affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center, where she started the Video Game and XR Working Policy Group.
She is a TED Fellow, a Chatham House’s AI Taskforce member and part of World Economic Forum’s ‘Global Council on the Future of the Metaverse’.
Early on she was recognized for her research on AI governance, being awarded the 2017 Google Policy Fellowship, and collaborating in drafting the Ethics and Regulation chapter for Argentina’s 2019 AI Plan.
She holds a Master on Intellectual Property from WIPO/ San Andres with a dissertation on Generative AI, Creativity and Copyright.
Result of over 6 years of research, her debut book, «ARTficial: Creativity, Artificial Intelligence, and Copyright» (2022) predicted a lot of the current questions and problems posed by the rise of Generative AI.
She has also contributed to OpenAI’s DALL·E 2 external red teaming process in March 2022.
Currently she is writing her next book, «Braindancing in the Metaverse : a capitalism of cognitive surveillance» (2024), presenting the trajectory of the metaverse as an evolution of digital capitalism at the interplay of neurotechnology, XR,AI and intellectual property.
Vagelis
PAPAKONSTANTINOU
Vagelis Papakonstantinou is a Professor on Personal Data Protection Law at the Faculty of Law & Criminology of the Free University of Brussels (VUB, Vrije Universiteit Brussel), focusing also on Cybersecurity, Intellectual Property, and the broader topic of technology regulation. He is the Coordinator of VUB’s Cyber and Data Security Lab (CDSL), a core member of VUB’s Research Group on Law Science Technology & Society (LSTS), and a member of the Brussels Privacy Hub. Since the early 2000s, he has participated in the law-making committees for the release of all major EU, Council of Europe and Greek laws and regulations on personal data protection (the Council Framework Decision 2008/977/JHA, the EU PNR Directive, Convention 108+, the GDPR, the Police and Criminal Justice Data Protection Directive, Greek law n.4624/2019). For the period 2016-2021 Vagelis has been a member (alternate) of the (managing) Collegial Body of the Greek Data Protection Authority. Before that, he had served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Hellenic Copyright Organisation (for two terms) For more information, his personal website may be found at https://vpapakonstantinou.com
Paul Przemyslaw
POLAŃSKI
Paul Przemyslaw Polański (PhD, MelbU) is a programmer and a professor of law. Author of over 100 scientific publications in the field of IT law, including 3 books, e.g. «Customary law of the Internet», published by T.M.C Asser Press in 2007. He is one of the leading experts in Poland in the field of European and international new technologies law. He has also extensive experience as a designer of complex IT systems (chief architect of the Legalis legal information system since 2007) and as a programmer (author of applications for the B2B sector). Paul is also the Principal Investigator in several EU grants dealing with the intersection of code and law.
Teresa
RODRÍGUEZ DE LAS HERAS BALLELL
Dr. Teresa Rodríguez de las Heras Ballell is an Associate Professor of Commercial Law at University Carlos III of Madrid, Spain. She is currently an Academic Visitor at the University of Cambridge, and was Sir Roy Goode Scholar at UNIDROIT in 2021-2022. She is a delegate of Spain at UNCITRAL for WG VI on secured transactions and WG IV on ecommerce (AI in international trade), and an Expert for UNCITRAL and UNIDROIT on digital economy projects. Teresa is an arbitrator at the Madrid Court of Arbitration and the Spanish Court of Arbitration. She is also a member of the European Commission Expert Group on Liability and New Technologies, the EU Expert Group for the Observatory on Online Platform Economy, and the EU Expert Group on B2B Data Sharing and Cloud Computing. She is member of the European Law Institute (ELI) Executive Committee and Council and author of the ELI Guiding Principles on ADM in Europe, 2022. Her past academic appointments include the James J Coleman Sr Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Tulane Law School, Marie Curie Fellow at Centre of European Law and Politics of University of Bremen (Germany), and Chair of Excellence at Oxford University.
Idoia
SALAZAR
Prof. Idoia Salazar (PhD) is the Founder and president of the Observatory of the Social and Ethical Impact of Artificial Intelligence (OdiseIA). She is an specialist in Ethics and legislation in Artificial Intelligence and she is one of the experts that assist the European Parliament´s Artificial Intelligence Observatory (EPAIO). She is also the Principal Investigator of the SIMPAIR Research Group (Social Impact of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics) -which focuses mainly on the need for a multicultural approach to Ethics in AI- and she is Professor in international degrees at CEU San Pablo University. In addition, Idoia is the author of 4 books about AI and its impact. The last one is called: ‘The Algorithm and I: guide to coexistence between human and artificial beings’. The others are: ‘The Myth of the Algorithm: Tales and truths of Artificial Intelligence´; The Revolution of robots: How Artificial Intelligence and robotics affect our future´; The depths of the Internet: Access information that search engines cannot find and discover the intelligent future of the Internet (written in spanish). She developes a scientific and informative activity through articles oriented to investigate and raise awareness about the impact of Artificial Intelligence. Idoia is a founding member of Springer ‘AI and Ethics’ journal and member of the Global AI Ethics Consortium (GAIEC) and she also advises for Spain in the Advisory Council of the International Group of Artificial Intelligence (IGOAI)
Luis Ignacio
VICENTE DEL OLMO
Luis Ignacio Vicente del Olmo is a senior expert on Return on Innovation, Intellectual Property and Technical Intangible Assets Management. PhD in Physics, he is an Industrial Engineer, a graduate in Innovation Management, in Economy of Telecommunications and in European Communities and he has also completed a Master degree in Analysis and Management of Science and Technology. Luis Ignacio is former director of Return on Innovation in Telefónica. He has been developing for more than 30 years activities related with Innovation Management including the creation and the leadership of Telefonica Patent Office, one of the most relevant patent offices “in company” of the “Spanish speaking world”. His background is more than 500 international projects (including the participation in R&D Public Programs), managing 10.000 trademarks and 500 patents portfolio within a telco operator with a yearly R&D Budget over 1000 million euro. He has been working with global partners from Europe, South America, US, Asia, etc. Currently, he is Chief Innovation Officer of the Mobile Robotics Unit of ABB and Strategic of Counsel of PONS IP. Also, he is chairman of the Intellectual Property Working Group of AMETIC, the Spanish Business Association of the ICT sector, member of the Foro de Empresas Innovadoras (FEI) and Coordinator of the WG of Sovereign Technology of Cotec. Both are, probably the most prestigious think tanks in Spain focused on Innovation He is teaching Intellectual Property and Industry 4.0 lessons in Universities and Business Schools. Also, Luis Ignacio is participating in Fora promoted from OCDE and European Commission and National Administrations related to these fields.
