Just a few weeks after it was founded, we can proudly say that the LexTech Institute is a great success within the University of Neuchâtel, and it is already growing!
The LexTech Institute is a research center created with the aim of offering researchers from the University of Neuchâtel and its partners an environment that is favorable to the study of the challenges related to the development of digital technologies. Researchers at the LexTech Institute are grouped into Labs representing communities of people who share common interests.
Today, two new Labs have been added to the first three created when the LexTech Institute was founded.
The “Creative IP Lab” is dedicated to intellectual property rights in an “open source” or “creative commons” free licensing environment. Research in this Lab will not only focus on the development of new economic and knowledge-sharing models, but also on the ownership of rights to creations produced by autonomous digital entities (such as robots and artificial intelligence).
The “Digital Economy Lab” analyzes the relationships between digital platforms that offer products and services and their users. Its major challenges include defining the role of digital economy stakeholders in a rapidly changing environment, as new monopoly positions evolve, and protecting the interests of users whose personal data has acquired a market value.
With the creation of these two new Labs, the LexTech Institute strengthens the links between law and IT and continues to work to define the appropriate legal framework to guide the development of technology.
The launch of the Creative IP Lab and the Digital Economy Lab is also an opportunity to welcome researchers from the economic and social sciences interested in analyzing the digital transformation of our society from a multidisciplinary perspective.
We look forward to integrating these two new Labs and welcoming the colleagues who join us into the LexTech Institute’s research community!
Pascal Felber and Florence Guillaume, founders of the LexTech Institute
Author(s) of this blog post
Professor at the University of Neuchâtel | Head of the research group on Complex Systems in the Computer Science department, which focuses on dependable, concurrent, and distributed computing | Founder of the LexTech Institute
Professor of Private International Law at the University of Neuchâtel | Research focus on legal issues of digitalization (blockchain, platforms, AI, digital integrity) | Founder of the LexTech Institute
