4iP Council Research Award 2019


4iP Council is pleased to announce the winning paper and author in the 2019 4iP Council Research Award


Winner:
Pirates of the 3D Realm: Strategies for IP protection from the widespread adoption of additive manufacturing by consumers
by Alessandro Burro, Candidate at Bocconi University LL.M. in Law of Internet Technology.

Alessandro graduated in March 2019 from Trento's Law School with a thesis on personal data monetisation. He subsequently started the traditional law traineeship while he was also enrolled in the innovative Bocconi University LL.M. in Law of Internet Technologies. At first he was mainly interested in Privacy, but thanks to the LL.M. and to the 4iP Council Award, he has widened his interest in more fields, which nonetheless still relate to the broader topic of the 4th Industrial Revolution.

Why did you enter the prize?
I started to be passionate about the complex and conflicting relationship between technology and law during my law school years. Intellectual property has a well-known history of finding difficulties to adapt to fast and unforeseen changes caused by what we usually call disruptive technologies. This prize was the perfect chance to exercise my knowledge and my capabilities of problem solving with the issues that new technologies can pose to intellectual property.

Why did you choose the topic for your paper?
Additive manufacturing is, in my opinion, one of the main pillars of the 4th Industrial Revolution. When the masses will start to adopt this disruptive technology in their everyday lives, we will face a piracy crisis like the one suffered by the movie and music industries back in the ‘2000s. Only this time it will be more widespread as most of the consumer products of today will be involved in it. Therefore, I wanted to explore the implications of such disruptive technology on intellectual property and I wanted to try to find a solution to this problem before the start of the crisis.

What are your longer-term plans?
I plan to finish my law traineeship and to pass the bar exam. I also want to expand further my knowledge in the fields of intellectual property and artificial intelligence so that I am prepared to eventually work in one of those fields as a specialised lawyer.

What will you do with the prize money?
The award money will be used to enroll in courses for learning a new language (maybe Spanish or German) and to further my legal education on personal data protection and intellectual property.


4iP Council would like to express a warm thank you to the many students and professors who participated in our award initiative this year.