On 22-23 September 2015, Dr. Dinusha Mendis was invited to the First General Assembly of the FP7-funded MAPPING Project.

MAPPING – Managing Alternatives for Privacy, Property and Internet Governance – held its First General Assembly on 22-23 September at Hannover Congress Centrum.

The event brought together stakeholders from three key areas including Internet Governance, Privacy and Intellectual Property.

Dr. Mendis took part in the Intellectual Property Panel and contributed to the discussion in the Panel titled ‘The EU IP Reform: Unlocking Culture, Stimulating Progress’.

Other speakers on the Panel included Benjamin Jean (President of Inno); Joris Pekel (Community Coordinator, Cultural Heritage); Gabriele Scipione (Head of Persistent Identifier, Rights Information and Open data, CINECA); Charlotte Waelde (Professor of Intellectual Property Law, University of Exeter); Nicolas Jondet (Teaching Fellow, University of Edinburgh) and Rihards Gulbis, Scientific Adviser, Department of Civil Cases, Supreme Court of Latvia, former legal counsel at the Ministry of Culture, Latvia.

The Hannover 2015 General Assembly also hosted a panel presentation by the new UN Special Rapporteur on Privacy, Professor Joe Cannataci; his first public speech before a live audience since he took up this new UN mandate on 1st August 2015.