ITPI Law and Technology Policy Paper Competition In Collaboration with the Israel Ministry of Justice

Last month (January 11, 2023), the Israel Tech Policy Institute held the final event of the ‘Law and Technology Policy Paper Competition’ with the presence of Adv. Sharon Afek, Deputy Attorney General (Director of the Consulting and Legislative Division), and Saar Abramovich, a patent examiner from the Patent Office, along with the participation of students from four law faculties of universities and academic colleges in Israel who have reached the final stage of the competition – Sapir Academic College, The University of Haifa, Bar-Ilan University, and the Ono Academic College.

The winning students from Sapir Academic College were awarded a prize worth NIS 5,000 by the Ministry of Justice. The winning paper was also translated into English – courtesy of the Israel Technology Policy Institute.

The research question of competition was: Should artificial intelligence be recognized as an “inventor” for the purposes of patent law, or as a “patent owner”? The question was examined against the background of dealing with legal challenges and complexities that arise from the need to regulate the encounter between smart technologies and existing law.

The competition judges included:

• Adv. Ayelet Feldman, Consulting and Legislation (Economic Department) Israel Ministry of Justice 
• Adv. Cedric Sabbah, Director, International Cybersecurity and IT Law, Office of the Deputy Attorney General (International Law), Israel Ministry of Justice
• Adv. Asa Kling, Partner at Naschitz, Brandes, Amir & Co., Chair of IP Practice
• Adv. Amit Ashkenazi, Law and Technology Expert, Former Head of the Legal Department at Israel National Cyber Directorate
• Dr. Asaf Weiner, Managing Director of Research, Policy, and Government Affairs at ISOC-IL | Professor of Internet Law & Policy at TAU and BGU

The competition aroused great interest among scholars, academia, and government officials and will be continued next year as well. 

To read the policy papers in Hebrew of the four faculties of law that have reached the final stage of the competition, click here. 

The English version of the winning paper by Sapir Academic College written by Uri Avigal, Galit Cohen, Sharon Pustilnik, and Matt Weiser with the supervision of Dr. Sharon Bar-Ziv is available here.