CALENDAR OF UPCOMING & PREVIOUS EVENTS
Emma Arakelyan is a WCIT 2019 (www.wcit2019.org) Congress Content Committee Member and is leading Lightening Rounds Innovation Program at a Congress.
This year the Congress will be held in Yerevan, Armenia from October 6 to 9 and will include sessions on topics ranging from artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and smart cities to cybersecurity, climate change, and more.This year, WCIT will address The Power of Decentralization: Promise and Peril and explore how information and communications technology is transforming our lives for better and for worse—its impact on profits and prosperity, safety and security, democracy and humanity.
During the Lightening Rounds Innovation Program over 3 days, 15 companies and/or technologies will be showcased at the plenary session attended by 2,000 information and communications technology (ICT) leaders-CEOs and investors, policy makers and government officials, academics and technologists.
About WCIT
WCIT is the signature event of the World Information Technology & Services Alliance (WITSA), a consortium of ICT associations from 83 countries, representing 90% of the industry. For 40 years, technology leaders—CEOs and investors, policymakers and government officials, academics and technologists—have joined in this annual event to discuss the state of the industry, where it is headed and what it means for our future. Past speakers include Bill Clinton, Vint Cerf, Bill Gates, Ginni Rometty, Larry Ellison, Anne Mulcahey, Faqir Chand Kohli, and Michael Dell.
Emma Arakelyan is co-leading the IP/IT Transformation for Armenia Innovation Summit (The Summit), which is organized by the Armenian Bar Association, Orion Worldwide Innovations and the Ministry of High-Tech Industry of Republic of Armenia.
The Summit covers the following areas of target are: Laws and Regulations, Institutional Framework and Capacities, Human Capacities, Cooperation Systems and Learning and Innovation.
The target audience includes: government ministers, members of parliament and officials; professionals in law, public and private businesses including startups and investors; academy of sciences and universities, and other constituencies engaged with innovation, development and research.
The specific objectives of the 2-day summit will be to engage all interested parties in discussions about, and propose solutions to, the following six sets of critical issues that the IP/IT Committee, working with its partners in Armenia, has identified as the key impediments to innovation in Armenia:
– The lack of statutory damages and administrative sanctions under Armenian IP law, for IP violations.
– The impossibility of patenting or otherwise protecting software innovation.
– The limited capacity of the Armenian patent office (AIPA).
– The poor suitability of Armenian corporate law for VC/angel investment.
– Insufficient protection of minority shareholders under Armenian corporate law.
– Insufficient protection of IP in educational and scientific institutions.
About the IP/IT Committee of the US Armenian Bar Association
The IP/IT Committee of the US Armenian Bar Association was established in November 2018 with the following objectives:
– Establish, grow and mutually benefit from the collaborative and business relationships among legal, education and business (including startups and science) professionals in the U.S. and Armenia.
– Facilitate an exchange of knowledge in the IP Management area between different jurisdictions, in particular the U.S. and Armenia, and Europe and Armenia.
– Facilitate knowledge exchange and learning by providing a conduit of access for IP practitioners, judiciary and academicians in Armenia, to their counterparts in the Diaspora.
– Facilitate the development and implementation of a more robust IP protection and enforcement framework in Armenia.
– Become a key advisor, partner and sponsor of the Armenian Global Innovation Hub.
– Educate fellow attorneys as well as business people and the community at-large about IP and its impact/importance.
– Assist students and new attorneys to break into the IP field, professionally.
Emma Arakelyan will be attending European Model Company Act (EMCA) meeting in Vienna, Austria on January 31, 2020. She will be representing IP Protection and Corporate Law Improvement program sponsored by the Armenian Bar Association and supported by the Ministry of High-tech Industry of Armenia, Orion Worldwide Innovations and TheChisel along with the delegation from Armenia: Rafik Grigoryan, First Deputy Minister of Justice, Armenia and Ara Khzmalyan, Partner, Adwise Consulting. The discussion will be about Corporate Law reforms and directions taking place in Armenia and The Corporate Law Improvements submitted to the government. The meeting will cover company act other topics and also have representatives from other countries: distinguished professors, attorneys and business leaders from Austria, Luxembourg, Germany, Lithuenia, Georgia, Croatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Macedonia.
About EMCA
The EMCA was established in 2007 and is designed as a free-standing general corporation statute that can be enacted substantially in its entirety by the Member States, or they may enact selected provisions of the Model Act.
The EMCA offers the Member States a model company law, which leaves it to each Member State to decide whether it will offer its businesses the advantages given by harmonisation. The major benefit from an integrated company law framework is that it establishes similar conditions for company shareholders and third parties all over the EU, thus facilitating cross-border investment and trading by ensuring shareholder rights and rebuilding investor confidence.
However, at the same time the EMCA allows special local considerations and for experimentation with new or different ideas, as Member States are free to opt out of parts of the Model Law in order to implement national company law innovations.
Thus, the EMCA can be a tool for better regulation in the EU, as it will prove to be a coherent, dynamic and responsive European legislative framework. Member States will benefit from using the Model Act as a company law paradigm, as it will be a modern competitive company law