College Contact Details
Room: H6 (Gibbs Building), King's
Tel: +44 1223 76712
Professor of Law; Co-Director of the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Law (CIPIL); Fellow and Director of Studies (King's College)
Interests
My research, teaching and expert advice focuses on International and European Intellectual Property (IP) protection and development issues, World Trade and Investment Law; as well as on interfaces among different legal regimes and private orders in international law (see THE PROTECTION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN INTERNATIONAL LAW, Oxford University Press, 2016 and THE PROTECTION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS UNDER INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT LAW, OUP 2020). In this context, I am particularly interested in broader interface between law, automation and technology, and in particular the global regulation of and private ordering by online platforms. Recently, I have also embarked on projects related to questions of responsibility for historic wrongs and injustices, in particular related to transatlantic chattel slavery. Some of my publications are available online.
Dear prospective PhD students with an interest in research on International, European, UK IP, trade and investment Law, and/or related private ordering: The Faculty welcomes applications to undertake doctoral research across all fields of legal scholarship, including those within my own field of research. For further details of the Faculty’s application process, please see: https://www.law.cam.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate-research
I try to maximize the practical impact of my research: For many years, I have been serving as a legal expert for the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and for other international organizations with a focus on on tailoring IP law and policy to suit the domestic economic, social, and technological environment (see for example the UN ESCAP Handbook on Negotiating Development Oriented Provisions in Trade and Investment Agreements. I also advise NGOs as well as developing- and developed country governments on international IP, trade and investment law.
Research centres and interest groups
CV / Biography
After working at the Universities of Muenster (Germany), Leicester (UK), and the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in Munich, I joined the University of Cambridge in 2013. At Cambridge I am a Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Law (CIPIL), a Fellow at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, and Director of Studies and Fellow at King’s College, Cambridge.
Outside Cambridge, I have been appointed as Global Hauser Visiting Professor at New York University (NYU) for 2024, and have had various visiting appointments, including as Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Studies at Munich University (LMU) in 2021, at the Weizenbaum Institute in Berlin in 2020, as a Visiting Professor at Australian National University (2018-2019) and had been elected as Distinguished Fellow at the Hanken School of Economics (Helsinki) for 2016 and 2017. I also served as an external research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in Munich (Germany) from 2013-2022; and am a Fellow at McLaughlin College, York University, Toronto (Canada) as well as at the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (McGill University, Montreal).
I am passionate about a contextual and critical approach to teaching International, European and UK IP Law. At Cambridge, I teach and supervise International, European and UK IP Law, as well as WTO Law and IP aspects of Global Governance.
For many years now, I have been teaching International IP Law and Policy at institutions such as:
- the Munich Intellectual Property Law Centre (MIPLC),
- the Universities of Oxford, Berlin, Strasbourg (CEIPI) and Alicante,
- Australian National University (Canberra), and
- the Hanken School of Economics (Helsinki).
I am a member of the editorial board of the World Trade Institute (WTI) Advanced Studies Series and co-founder of the international IP network at the Society of International Economic Law (SIEL).
Prior to joining the University of Cambridge in 2013, I have held various permanent and visiting faculty positions in academia in Europe, the Americas and Asia: I worked as as a senior research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property and Competition Law (2007-2013), as a lecturer in international trade law at the University of Leicester (2005-2007) and a research fellow on IT and Media Law at the University of Muenster, Germany (1999-2005). Next to my recent monograph on THE PROTECTION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN INTERNATIONAL LAW (OUP, 2016), and an earlier monograph on European and International IP Law (Peter Lang, 2004), I have published widely in peer-reviewed international academic journals, edited volumes and research handbooks, as well as policy papers and reports for International Organizations and NGOs (with some of my publications available online at http://ssrn.com/author=1144871).
I have been a visiting scholar on WTO-, international trade- and IP law at Universities in Islamabad, Pakistan (2004-2005), Frankfurt, Germany (2007), and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2011). I also taught IP and international economic law at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) and at the International Max Planck Research School for Competition and Innovation (IMPRS CI).
Publications
Books
Intellectual Property Ordering Beyond Borders (Edited Volume) (ed), 2022)
The Protection of Intellectual Property Rights Under International Investment Law (with Simon Klopschinski, Christopher Gibson ) (OUP), forthcoming
The Protection of Intellectual Property in International Law (Oxford University Press, 2016)
EU Bilateral Trade Agreements and Intellectual Property: For Better or Worse? (Edited Volume) (with Josef Drexl, Soheir Nadde-Phlix (Co-Editors)) (eds) (Springer International, 2013)
Nutzergenerierte Inhalte als Gegenstand des Privatrechts – Aktuelle Probleme des Web 2.0 (user-generated content and private law), Edited Volume (with Nadine Klass, Silke von Lewinski (Co-Editors)) (eds) (Springer International, 2010)
DER EUROPÄISCHE INVESTITIONSSCHUTZ FÜR DATENBANKEN VOR DEM HINTERGRUND INTERNATIONALER ABKOMMEN (The European Legal Protection of Investments in Databases in Relation to International Treaties on Intellectual Property and International Trade) (Peter Lang International , 2004)
Articles
"Is IP Good for Our Planet?" GRUR International, Volume 71, Issue 8, pp.683–684
"Work and works on digital platforms in capitalism: conceptual and regulatory challenges for labour and copyright law" nternational Journal of Law and Information Technology, Volume 28, Issue 4, Winter 2020, Pages 329–370,
"Global Content Protection Through Automation – A Transnational Law Perspective" IIC Vol.49 (2018), pp.1017-1021
"From TRIPS to FTAs and back: Re-conceptualising the Role of a Multilateral Intellectual Property Framework in a TRIPS-plus World" Netherlands Yearbook of International Law 2017, (Springer, 2018), pp.57-107
"Challenging Compliance with international Intellectual Property Norms in Investor-State Dispute Settlement" Journal of International Economic Law (JIEL), Special Issue on Intellectual Property and Investment Protection, Vol.19 No.1 (Spring 2016), pp. 241-277
"The Protection of Intellectual Property and International Investment Law" Guest Editorial for Special Issue on Intellectual Property and Investment Protection, Journal of International Economic Law Vol.19 No.1 (Spring 2016), pp.87-90
"Principles for Intellectual Property Provisions in Bilateral and Regional Agreements" European Intellectual Property Review (EIPR), Vol.36 Issue 4 (2014), pp. 207-211
"Introducing the Principles for Intellectual Property Provisions in Bilateral and Regional Agreements" International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law (IIC), Volume 44, Issue 8 (2013), pp. 873-877
"The International Legal Framework for the Protection of Utility Models" The WIPO Journal, Vol.4 (2013), pp.175-190, [reprinted in: European Intellectual Property Law (edited by Jan Rosen), Edward Elgar (2015), pp 629-644
"An International Trade Perspective on Transit Seizures" Tijdschrift op het gebied van Merken- en Modellenrecht / Magazine dans le domaine du droit des marques et modèles (BMM Bulletin), Vol.39 No.3-4 (2013), pp.142-149
"A Conflict-of-Laws Approach to Competing Rationalities in International Law: The Case of Plain Packaging between IP, Trade, Investment and Health" Journal of Private International Law, Vol.9 No.2 (2013), pp.309-348
"The Role of TRIPS in a Fragmented IP World" International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law Vol.43 No.8 (2012), pp.881-884
"Internationaler Investitionsschutz und geistiges Eigentum (International Investment Law and Intellectual Property)" Zeitschrift für Geistiges Eigentum (Intellectual Property Journal), Vol.4 No.1 (2012), p. 1-33, [translated into Portuguese (by Karin Grau-Kuntz) and reprinted in REVISTA JURÍDICA DO CESUCA as “PROTEÇÃO INTERNACIONAL DO INVESTIMENTO E PROPRIEDA
"Opinion of European Academics on ACTA" Journal of Intellectual Property, Information Technology and E-Commerce Law (JIPITEC) Vol. 2 Issue 1 (2011), pp. 65-72
"A Trade Agreement Creating Barriers to International Trade? ACTA Border Measures and Goods in Transit" American University International Law Review Vol.26, No.3 (2011), pp. 645-726
"The International Law Relation Between TRIPS and Subsequent TRIPS-Plus Free Trade Agreements: Towards Safeguarding TRIPS Flexibilities?" Journal of Intellectual Property Law, Vol.18, No.2 (2011), pp. 327-365
"The Role of Atypical Acts in EU External Trade and Intellectual Property Policy " European Journal of International Law, Vol. 21 No.4 (2010), pp. 901-939
"China – Intellectual Property Rights: Implications for TRIPS-plus Border Measures" Journal of World Intellectual Property (JWIP) Vol.13, No 5 (2010), pp. 620-638
"A Real Partnership for Development? Sustainable Development as Treaty Objective in European Economic Partnership Agreements and Beyond " the Journal of International Economic Law (JIEL), Vol. 13 No.1 (March 2010), pp. 139-180
"Policing Patents Worldwide? EC Border Measures against Transiting Generic Drugs under EC- and WTO Intellectual Property Regimes" International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law, (IIC) Vol.40, No.5 (2009), pp. 502-538, 37 pages
"Time for a Paradigm Shift? Exploring Maximum Standards in International Intellectual Property Protection" published in the Journal Trade, Law and Development (JTLD), Vol.1 No.1 (2009), pp.56-102
"A Pirate of the Caribbean? The Attractions of Suspending TRIPS Obligations " Journal of International Economic Law (JIEL), Vol.11 No.2 (2008), pp. 313-364
"The Role of Chairman’s Statements in the WTO " Journal of World Trade, Vol.41 No.3 (2007), pp. 475-534
"Materielle Gegenseitigkeit bei Immaterialgüterrechten gegenüber internationalem Handelsrecht – Zum Rechtsschutz amerikanischer Datenbankhersteller in der EU (Reciprocal protection of Intellectual Property Rights versus international Obligations) " Archiv für Urheber und Medienrecht (UFITA) No. III (2004), pp. 859-900
"Electronic Agents and the Legal Protection of Non-creative Databases " International Journal of Law and Information Technology (JLIT) – Special Issue on Electronic Agents, Vol.9 No.3 (2001), pp. 295-326
"Markenrecht versus Domainrecht – ein Plädoyer für die Paradigmen des Markenrechts im Rechtsvergleich (Trademark Law versus Law of Domain Names)" Wettbewerb in Recht und Praxis (WRP), Vol.46 No.9 (2000), pp. 816-824
Book Chapters
"The Role of Customary International Law in Intellectual Property Protection beyond Borders" in H Grosse Ruse-Khan & A Metzger (ed(s)), Intellectual Property Ordering Beyond Borders (CUP, 2022), pp. 121-156
"Intellectual property issues affecting the environment in PTAs" in Panagiotis Delimatsis and Leonie Reins (ed(s)), Trade and Environmental Law (Elgar Encyclopaedia of Environmental Law Series (Edward Elgar, 2021), pp. Chapter XI.59
"Effects of combined hedging: overlapping and accumulating protection for IP assets on a global scale" in Tuomas Mylly & Jonathan Griffiths (ed(s)), Global Intellectual Property Protection and New Constitutionalism (Oxford University Press, 2021), pp. 1-27
"Transition through Automation" in Brunn, Dinwoodie, Levin & Ohly (ed(s)), Transition and Coherence in Intellectual Property Law Essays In Honour Of Annette Kur (Cambridge University Press, 2020)
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