| I. | Themes |
| 1. Copyright Law |
| ♦ Digital technology and need for adaption ♦ Access of Information, Open Source and Open Access, cultural consequences ♦ New utilization and renumeration models ♦ Economic Analysis of Copyright Law and its embodiment ♦ Protection of software and modern distribution channels ♦ Legal protection of databases, sui-generi-Law |
| 2. Industrial Property Rights, especially Patent Law |
| ♦ Modern technologies, especially software, bio- and genetic engineering, nanotechnology ♦ European Patent Law ♦ Patent protection of medicines, especially additional Protection Certificates ♦ Patent Law and Antitrust Law ♦ Patents and liability ♦ Trademark Law and modern distribution channels |
| 3. Fair Trading |
| ♦ Implementation of the Directive 2005/29/EC of the European Parliament and the Council concerning unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices in the internal market ("Unfair Commercial Practices Directive") in Europe ♦ Development of the respective UWG (Unfair Competiton Law) after the novels in Austria 2007 and in Germany 2008 ♦ New commercial practices on the internet and legal evaluation ♦ Economic analysis of fair trading |
| 4. Information Law, private Media and E-Commerce-Law |
| ♦ Legal protection IT and Internet, especially Coypright and Trademark Law ♦ Liability for use of IT and offers on the internet ♦ Contract Law and Consumer protection in the case of using IT and the use of internet ♦ Legal issues of electronic banking ♦ Data protection and new technologies, especially search engines and web 2.0. ♦ Availability of public information with regard to the Directive on the re-use of public sector information ♦ Basic principles and structure of a right to obtain information |
| 5. Legal Information |
| ♦ The use of databases and software for legal information and comparison of laws, research project KB-Law ♦ Opportunities and legal frameworks of e-learning ♦ Premature consideration of correlation between law and technology in projects - lawful design of technology |
| II. | Fields |
| 1. Focus CEE - Network New Member States |
| ♦Vienna Group - Cooperation with the universities Brno (Czech Republic), Pecs (Hungary), Bratislava and Kosice (Slovakia), Wroclaw (Polen), Vienna University of Economics and Business ♦ Annual implementation of a Summer School on European Information Law ♦ Annual implementation of the scientific conference "Lex Informatica", as of 2010 in Göttingen ♦ Göttingen International Colloquium on IT and Law |
| 2. Focus China |
| ♦ Development of Copyright Law and industrial property rights in China ♦ Close cooperation with the institute for german-chinese Law ♦ Research project EU-China IPR2-Project - Legislative Reform of Coypright ♦ Research project Co-Reach - 5 partner, including the China Academy of Social Science, Intellectual Property Center, Start in autumn 2009 |
| 3. Focus U.S.-American Law |
| ♦ Intellectual Property and ICT ♦ Transatlantic Information Law Symposium ♦ Dialogue on legal methodology (economic analysis, systems theory) |