Thursday 13 August 2009

Seminar on UNCITRAL and security rights in IP: advance notice

As previously reported on this weblog (see here, with links to all the previous articles on this topic), work has been continuing on a Draft Supplement to the UNCITRAL Legislative Guide on Secured Transactions dealing with security rights in intellectual property, as revised further to the April-May 2009 session of the UNCITRAL Working Group VI (Security Interests) and the approval of the insolvency discussion by the UNCITRAL Working Group V (Insolvency Law) at its May 2009 session. This Draft Supplement forms the basis for discussions at the next session of Working Group VI (Vienna, 2-6 November 2009).

As an aid to better understanding of the proposed Supplement and the practical issues which it raises for both lenders and IP borrowers, this weblog is pleased to announce that a seminar has been arranged for the afternoon of 14 October 2009 in Central London. Spiros Bazinas (Senior Legal Officer, UNCITRAL's International Trade Law Division) has kindly agreed to address the seminar, following which a panel comprising both financial and IP interests will comment. There will then follow a question-and-answer session in which all participants will be invited to seek explanations and clarification. To aid the smooth running of the seminar, all who attend will receive two 4-side memos, one written from the perspective of the lender, the other from the perspective of the IP sector, which will crystallise the issues.

Professor Graham Penn, a banking partner in Sidley Austin LLP with particular expertise in securitisation, will chair the seminar. Membership of the panel is still being finalised. As soon as further details are available, they will be announced on this blog. If you hope to attend, please mark the date in your diary now. If you want to read up, all the publicly available UNCITRAL documents on the subject can be accessed here.

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