King Hall 3L in Mexico City

Here's a guest blog entry from Krista Celentano '11.  Krista is about to take a trip to Mexico City to take part in an international IP conference and will contribute guest blog entries during her trip.  The Law School is pleased to help support Krista's trip to Mexico!

***

Through the gracious funding of the Students First Campaign and with the support of UC Davis Law Professor Madhavi Sunder, I am very excited to have the opportunity to travel to Mexico City and attend an international intellectual property conference hosted by The International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI).  The conference is aimed at aiding indigenous artists and is entitled “ Harnessing Intellectual Property to Protect and Promote Traditional Arts and Crafts and to Empower Women.”

As a 3L at UC Davis School of Law, I am participating in the UCDC externship program and I was lucky enough to find a placement at IIPI, which is a non-profit founded by former Commissioner of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Bruce Lehman.  IIPI focuses in aiding developing countries to use intellectual property rights as a tool for economic growth. 

IIPI is partnering with the USPTO, the Instituto Mexicano de la Propiedad Industrial, and the Organization of American States to put on this conference and will be to bringing close to 50 indigenous artists from Mexico and Central America.   During the last few months, we have also organized the participation of government officials, intellectual property experts, and folklorists from the United States and abroad to speak on issues ranging everywhere from the Identification and Preservation of Traditional Arts and Crafts, to Building Export Markets for traditional goods.

This will be a amazing opportunity for me to travel and see international law and policy in the making.  I’m so grateful that UC Davis has given me this opportunity to help indigenous artists protect and profit from their unique works of art.   While in Mexico, I will continue to post articles about my experience and hopefully provide valuable insight into an important area of Intellectual property development and culture that is rarely seen.

***

Thanks, Krista!  We look forward to reading more of your blog posts from Mexico City!