Intellectual property law research at LSE Law School sits at the confluence of the use, circulation and protection of intangible resources through property rights, emerging technologies and innovation and the renewed applications of normative ideas across the subject matter of such rights. Policy engagement within this sub group is often interdisciplinary and collaborative funded by bodies such as the Wellcome Trust, the EPSRC and EU Horizon 2020 funds. Questions addressed in these projects span issues as wide as a study of the generative limits of synthetic biology, the creation of original works by AI authors and creators and the legal response to such works, the role of copyright intermediaries in the distribution and regulation of copyright protected materials, Free and Open Source (FOSS) and alternative licensing models, global copyright enforcement, blockchain technology for algorithmic regulation and compliance, and the use of competition law to regulate IP abuses.
Members regularly contribute to conferences globally and speak on topics such as blockchain technology and the law, and antitrust concerns related to IP and property in the digital age, e-commerce issues, CRISPR gene editing technologies and commodification of the ocean genome. Public consultations span formally commissioned expert reports to the Nuffield bioethics council, a report to the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity on domestic measures related to the access and benefits sharing of digital sequence information associated with genetic resources, and on commodification of the ocean genome to the Norwegian led High Level Panel on a Sustainable Ocean Economy 2020.
Lectures and events organised in the recent past include a workshop on synthetic biology, a symposium on the Nagoya Protocol and a workshop dedicated to developing country negotiators dealing with BBNJ under UNCLOS at the UN, and a live experiment on hindsight bias with a large group of patent law practitioners in London. LTS experts have been quoted in, among other venue, the New York Times, Financial Times and features on the BBC.
Staff in the IPRs and Digitial Property Group
Professor Niamh Dunne
Dr Martin Husovec
Dr Luke McDonagh
Dr Eva Micheler
Mr Edmund Schuster
Dr Siva Thambisetty