{"id":374267,"date":"2026-01-31T10:00:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T04:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/?p=374267"},"modified":"2026-01-30T18:41:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T13:11:18","slug":"xth-cipr-essay-writing-competition-nuals-public-domain-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2026\/01\/31\/xth-cipr-essay-writing-competition-nuals-public-domain-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"Call for Participation | The Xth CIPR Essay Writing Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Centre for Intellectual Property Rights, National University of Advanced Legal Studies is organizing the Xth<\/span> edition of its Essay Competition. The event aims to foster interest and award excellent research in the field of IP. It seeks to further encourage discourse on contemporary topics related to the subject, its increased importance in a developing world and at the same time, its relationship with equity and public welfare.<\/p>\n

The Centre seeks essays on the theme, “The Public Domain in the Age of Technology: Emerging Challenges for Intellectual Property Law”.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Centre was established to promote Intellectual Property awareness among students and to encourage research in the emerging arena of Intellectual Property. It aims to and has been fostering research and development activities that blend with its central mission of intellectual pursuit as well as link related inter-disciplinary involvement to develop an intellectual law database which would benefit the nation at large. The Centre is a host not only to legal contributors to the intellectual property domain but also experts from every emerging field of technology, thus creating a very significant and effective interface between the creator community and the legal populace.<\/p>\n

1. Entry to this edition of the Essay Competition is open to Undergraduate\/Postgraduate students enrolled in any recognised programme\/course in any recognised university in India.<\/p>\n

Submission and General guidelines<\/h3>\n

2. All entries must be submitted by 11.59 pm IST on the submission deadline: Friday, 27th<\/span> February 2026. All submissions must be made via this google form<\/a>. No other mode of submission shall be allowed. Further, no re-submission shall be allowed. CIPR reserves the right to reject all submissions made after the deadline. Please note that the file needs to be submitted in both<\/span> .pdf and .doc\/.docx file formats.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

3. There is no registration fee.<\/span><\/p>\n

4. Participants who secured positions within the top three ranks in any previous edition of the competition shall not be eligible to participate in the current edition.<\/p>\n

5. Each essay must address the theme, and must not exceed 2500 words<\/span> (exclusive of abstract, diagrams, tables of data, footnotes, bibliography or authorship declaration). <\/p>\n

6. Co-authoring of papers among individuals of the same or different institutions is permissible. A maximum of one co-author is allowed.<\/p>\n

7. The filename of your pdf must be in this format: Name(Of Submitting Author)- Name(Of Author 02, If Applicable)—TitleOfTheSubmittedEssay.pdf; so, for instance, Peter Parker would submit his essay titled “The Jurisprudence of Overlapping Patents in the Multiverse” with the following file name:<\/p>\n

PeterParker-TheJurisprudenceOfOverlappingPatentsInTheMultiverse.pdf<\/p>\n

Essays with filenames which are not in this format will NOT be accepted<\/span>.<\/p>\n

8. Candidates should cite all sources referenced to and should avoid plagiarism of any kind. Use of AI writing tools, if detected, would result in summary rejection of the submission.<\/p>\n

9. All the entries will be blind coded for the purpose of review.<\/p>\n

10. Formatting Guidelines<\/span>:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n

    The submission must be word-processed and the font to be used is Times New Roman\/ Garamond.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    The main text should be in font size 12 and footnotes in font size 10.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. \n

    A one line gap must be maintained between all paragraphs and headings.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  4. \n

    All citations must be made in the OSCOLA 4th<\/span> edition format.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    11. Acceptance of your essay depends on your granting us permission to use your data for the purposes of receiving and processing your entry as well as communicating with you about any and all awards. Hence, please fill and sign the author(s) declaration form available on our website<\/a>, and on our social media handles. Alternatively, you may email us and we’d be happy to share the same with you.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    12. No part of the submission should have been published earlier, nor should it be under consideration for publication or a contest elsewhere. The essay should not contain names or any other marks which reveal the identity of the author.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    Assessment<\/h3>\n

    13. Essays will be judged on the following parameters:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. \n

      knowledge and understanding of the relevant material<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    2. \n

      the competent use of evidence<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    3. \n

      quality of argumentation<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    4. \n

      originality, structure<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    5. \n

      writing style<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    6. \n

      persuasive force.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      The very best essays are likely to be those which would be capable of changing somebody’s mind or kickstarting a thought process regarding the essay topic in somebody’s mind. Essays which ignore or fail to address the strongest objections and counter-arguments to the central theme are unlikely to be successful.<\/p>\n

      Prizes<\/h3>\n

      First Prize- INR 10,000\/-<\/p>\n

      Second Prize- INR 5,000\/-<\/p>\n

      Third Prize – INR 3,000\/-<\/p>\n

      The judges’ decisions are final, and no correspondence will be entered into. The awards are issued by the University administration and we aim to expedite the process in whatever way possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Key Dates<\/h3>\n