3rd Shamnad Basheer Essay Competition on Intellectual Property Law (Prizes Worth 30k) by Spicy IP: Submit by 14th July 2022

On the occasion of our founder Prof. (Dr.) Shamnad Basheer’s 46th birth anniversary today, SpicyIP are proud to announce the third edition of the Shamnad Basheer Essay Competition on Intellectual Property Law.

SpicyIP started this competition in 2020 to celebrate his memory and his legacy of outstanding scholarship. The response to the competition was overwhelming in the previous years and we’ve received entries from law students across India on an impressive range of topics. The past two years saw the competition being open to current law students. This year, we will be accepting entries from not only current law students but also those who completed their first law degree in 2019 or later.

Submission Guidelines

The details of the competition are as follows:

Eligibility:

The competition will be open to students currently enrolled in any LL.B. program (or its equivalent – meaning students enrolled in J.D. programs can take part) across the world, as well as to those who have completed their first law degree in 2019 or later.

Registration:

There is no registration fee or registration process for the competition. You may e-mail us your essay whenever it is ready.

Co-authorship:

Only single author submissions will be accepted for the essay competition. A submission cannot have two or more authors. Submissions with more than one author will not be considered.

Selection of Topic: 

The topic of the essay can be anything related to intellectual property rights – the more creative the better. We encourage participants to take inspiration from Shamnad’s work, which has challenged the orthodoxy of conventional IP wisdom by looking at the subject through the lens of the global south and its development needs. Two values that guided Shamnad through the course of his academic writing, were the need for transparency and democratic participation, during the process of making the law and implementation.

His commitment to transparency in enforcement of India’s patent law led him to suing the Patent Office on two occasions in order to secure our right to information. He was also playful in his writing, never afraid to think and communicate unconventionally. He brought rigour and substance to his non-conforming ways and we encourage you to bring the same spirit into your entries.

Word Limit: 

The word limit for submissions is 5,000 words (inclusive of footnotes).

Format:

Please submit the essays in a MS Word format, with 1.5 line spacing. Please do not submit essays in a PDF format.

We are not prescribing any specific format for footnoting. As long as it is consistent, it should not be a problem.

Deadline and Other Details:

All submissions must be original and unpublished.

The deadline for submissions is July 14, 2022 (23:59 IST).

Please e-mail all submissions and queries to submissions@spicyip.com (only).

Please submit a covering letter stating the law school where you are enrolled as a student, along with your essay. If you are a recent graduate, please mention the law school and year of graduation in the covering letter.

Prizes for Winning Essays

The winning essays will receive the following prizes:

First prize: INR 15,000

Second prize : INR 10,000

Third prize : INR 5,000

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