Top publications

Research on intellectual property law is at the core of GIPLI's activities. Here is a list of recent output that we are particularly proud of:

• Vanhees, H., & Geiregat, S. (2025). Focus op intellectuele rechten en bedrijfsgeheimen. Wolters Kluwer Belgium.
• Vanhees, H., & Geiregat, S. (2024). Handboek intellectuele rechten 2024 (2nd ed.). LeA Publishers.
• Geiregat, S., & Vanhees, H. (Eds.). (2023). Copyright contracts tomorrow. LeA Publishers.
• Geiregat, S., & Vandenbossche, G. (2023). Hervorming fiscaal regime auteursrechten en naburige rechten: een hobbelige weg back to its roots? Algemeen Fiscaal Tijdschrift, 74(12), 6–67.
• Geiregat, S. (2022). Supplying and reselling digital content: digital exhaustion in EU copyright and neighbouring rights law. Edward Elgar.

For more publications, see the full publication list below or check out each of our team members' individual bibliographies.

Research scope

GIPLI aims to cover Ghent University research in all subdomains of intellectual property law (IP law), at the national, Benelux, European and international level. The main IP law topics include:

• Copyright law
• Neighbouring rights law
• Software protection
• Database protection
• Design and models
• Patent law
• Trade mark law
• Trade name law
• Trade secrets law
• IP in relation to unfair market practices

Main research focus

Although we gather and share expertise in all of these domains, our 2024-2029 research strategy is to focus on two axes: data and sustainability. The idea of those axes is to create two different strands of research that GIPLI researchers can use as backbone topics to build more concrete research questions on.

Data & IP

Digital data has become omnipresent and this has severe repercussions for IP law, especially since machine learning and AI applications have become and still are becoming more and more mainstream. As a very broad research axis, Data & IP serves as an extremely valuable source for innovative legal-academic research from various possible viewpoints. Some of the research-worthy themes include the impact of AI on patent protection requirements, the validity of the apocalyptic predictions associated with the combination of Big Data and AI for IP rights as we know them today, as well as the regulatory fitness of modified European copyright law to facilitate contemporary data applications and the overlooked impact of the recent influx of European regulatory standards on data allocation and AI applications on intellectual property rights.

Sustainability & IP

A second and more focused research line stems from one overarching question: how can IP rights contribute to a more sustainable society? While the broader theme of sustainability and law has rightfully gained significant attention nationally and internationally in recent years, the exploration of the potential of intellectual property rights was, until recently, relatively limited. Policymakers seem to have somewhat overlooked the dynamic duo of Sustainability & IP. Therefore, the crucial task at hand is to determine whether IP rights can indeed play a significant role in realizing the Sustainable Development Goals and whether they can contribute to the environmental objectives increasingly mandated by the European Union.

In theory, the various systems of intellectual property rights remain neutral regarding the environment and our living spaces: the legislator pursues neither sustainability motives nor the opposite in granting these rights. However, exploratory research has revealed that intellectual property rights do have a non-negligible impact on the environment. Building on those findings, further explorative research should result in an overview of IP norms, case law, and practice that either facilitate or impede the path to a more sustainable society, with a view of making normative suggestions.

Publication list