Note Writing Competition on World IP Day 2025 by UPES

About the Competition

The IPR Cell, UPES is delighted to announce the celebration of celebrating World IP Day on 26^th April 2025. The theme for the day, as is announced by World Intellectual Property Organization, is “IP and music: Feel the beat of IP”. The theme highlights the vital role of intellectual property  in shaping the music industry, ensuring artists, producers, and innovators protect and monetize their creations.

Copyright safeguards compositions and recordings, trademarks build artist and label identities, and patents drive technological advancements in music production and distribution. With the rise of AI-generated music, digital piracy, and evolving streaming models, IP law faces new challenges in balancing creator rights with accessibility and innovation.

This theme encourages discussions on how IP fosters creativity, preserves cultural heritage, and adapts to industry transformations, ensuring a harmonious future for music and the law.

In this context we are delighted to announce a “Note Writing” Competition on the theme “IP and music: Feel the beat of IP”. We encourage submissions from students, research scholars and academicians as per the guidelines provided on the theme.

About the Organizer – Upes, Dehradun 

UPES was established in the year 2003. It is a multidisciplinary institution with an ambitious vision and holds a unique approach to advance best among the new generations. Since its inception, it has created a vibrant scholiastic environment and strives to bring a paradigm shift in legal education.

Theme for World IP Day 2024

This year, in consonance with WIPO’s theme IPR Cell has chosen the theme, “Exploring the intersection of music, technology, and IP in a digital-first world,” to explore the interplay between music and intellectual property rights in the context of evolving digital landscapes. This is highly relevant in today’s dynamic landscape of music creation, distribution, and consumption.

As digital platforms redefine the music industry, they bring both unprecedented opportunities and significant challenges that warrant attention.  With the advent of streaming services and social media platforms, music is more accessible than ever, but unauthorized sharing, piracy, and disputes over sampling and remixing have grown exponentially.

These challenges raise critical questions about the adequacy of existing copyright frameworks in protecting artists’ rights while enabling innovation and creativity.

Another dimension of this theme is the integration of traditional and folk music into modern platforms. Digital technology has the power to preserve and share cultural heritage globally, but it also risks misappropriation and exploitation of traditional knowledge without proper acknowledgment or benefit-sharing mechanisms. Intellectual property laws play a vital role in ensuring fair protection for these cultural assets.

Furthermore, streaming platforms and AI-driven music creation have revolutionized the industry but have also highlighted gaps in royalty distribution, transparency, and ownership rights. These issues directly impact the livelihoods of creators and challenge the sustainability of the industry.

Guidelines for Submission

1. Word limit-1500-2000 words (inclusive of footnotes).
2. AI generated content or plagiarized content will be outrightly rejected.
3. The note has to be based on the theme provided above.
4. Submissions have to be made to cipr@ddn.upes.ac.in with the subject line “Submission for note writing competition”.
5. Deadline for submission is 20^th April 2025
6. Three winners will be announced during the Panel Discussion on 26^th April 2025.
7. Exciting prizes for top three winners.