Queen Mary, University of London

Professor Uma Suthersanen, LLB (Singapore), LLM (London), PhD (London), Advocate and Solicitor to the Supreme Court of Singapore, Professor in International Intellectual Property Law, Co-Director, Graduate Studies Board

Professor Uma Suthersanen is the Course Director for the LLM course "Global Intellectual Property Law" and the "International and Comparative Copyright Law". She is a Series Editor of Queen Mary Studies in Intellectual Property (Edward Elgar), with Professor Dutfield (University of Leeds) and Dr. Simon-Fhima (University College London), and is the Editor of the European Copyright and Design Reports (Sweet & Maxwell). Professor Suthersanen is the current Chairman of the British Literary and Artistic Copyright Association (ALAI-UK). She also sits on the boards of the Executive Committee of the Association Litteraire et Artistique Internationale (ALAI), the Legal Advisory Committee of the British Computer Society, and the Copyright and Technology Working Group of the British Copyright Council.

She has received commissions from UNCTAD, UNESCO, World Intellectual Property Organisation, European Parliament, Governments of Israel and Singapore, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), and the Singapore Intellectual Property Academy to research and advise in the following areas: IPRs and the right to education, freedom of expression, innovation and development, software patents, utility models and designs. She has been a Visiting Fellow of the Intellectual Property Academy of Singapore since 2002.

Research Interests
Professor Suthersanen's research focuses on the international and interdisciplinary aspects of intellectual property studies, especially the following areas: human rights and IPRs, comparative copyright law, the nature of creativity and innovation, and the economic histories of authors and inventors.


Key publications include:

Books

  • Global Intellectual Property Law (with G. Dutfield) (Edward Elgar:Cheltenham, forthcoming September 2008), ISBN Hardback 978 1 84376 942 2; ISBN Paperback 978 1 84720 364 9) [URL]
  • Innovation without Patents: Harnessing the Innovative Spirit in a Diverse World (co-editors with G. Dutfield & K.B.Chow) (Edward Elgar: Cheltenham, 2007, ISBN: 1845429591 [ URL ])
  • Copyright and Free Speech: A Comparative and International Analysis (co-editor with J. Griffiths) (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2005, ISBN: 0199276048 [URL])
  • Copyright: World Law and Practice (with M. Macdonald and C. Garrigues) (Sweet & Maxwell, London: 2004, ISBN: 0421758600)
  • Design Law in Europe (Sweet & Maxwell:London, 2000, ISBN: 0421576103 [URL])
  • Design and Copyright Protection of Products: World Law and Practice (with M. Macdonald and S.M. Maniatis) (Sweet & Maxwell: , London, 1997, ISBN: 0752003976 [URL])


Journal Articles

  • Creative Commons – the other way [2007] 20(1) Learned Publishing 59-68, ISSN: 0953-1513 [URL]
  • Copyright in the Courts: The Da Vinci Code [2006] 9(3) World Intellectual Property Magazine 12-13, ISSN: 1020-7074 [URL]
  • Harmonisation or Differentiation in Intellectual Property Protection? The Lessons of History (with G. Dutfield) [2005] 23(2) Prometheus 131-147, ISSN: 0810-9028 [URL]
  • DNA Music: Intellectual Property and the Law of Unintended Consequences (with G. Dutfield) [2005] 18(1) Science Studies 5-29, ISSN: 0786-3012 [URL]
  • Europe Rejects The Linguistic Struggle and the Software Patents Directive [2005] 1(8) Know IP 3-5 [URL]
  • The Innovation Dilemma: Intellectual Property and the Historical Legacy of Cumulative Creativity, (with G. Dutfield) [2004] 8 Intellectual Property Quarterly 379-421, ISSN: 1364-906X [URL]
  • Copyright and Educational Policies: A Stakeholder Analysis [2003] 23 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 586-610, ISSN: 0143-6503 [URL]
  • The European Court of Justice in Philips v Remington: Trade Marks and Market Freedom [2003] 7 Intellectual Property Quarterly 257-283, ISSN: 1364-906X [URL]
  • Incremental Inventions in Europe: A Legal and Economic Appraisal of 2nd Tier Patents [2001] Journal of Business Law 319-343, ISSN: 0021-9460 [URL]
  • Breaking down intellectual property barriers [1998] 3 Intellectual Property Quarterly 267-294
  • A brief tour of the utility model law [1998] 20(2) European Intellectual Property Review 44-51

Chapters in edited collections

  • “Copyright as an Engine of Free Speech: An English Perspective”, in Copyright And Freedom Of Expression,  Huygens Editorial, 167-187pp, ISBN 9788493598129, 2008
  •  “Copyright Law: A Stakeholder's Palimpsest”, in F. Macmillan (ed.) New Directions in Copyright Law: Volume 5 (Edward Elgar: Cheltenham, 2007, pp. 119-134, ISBN: 9781 84542 264 6)
  • “Some initial thoughts on copyright, human rights and market freedom”, in G. Westkamp (ed.), Emerging Issues in Modern Intellectual Property: Trade, Technology, Market Freedom (Edward Elgar: Cheltenham, 2007, pp. 35-53, ISBN: 1 84542 775 0)
  • Several chapters (with Dutfield), in U. Suthersanen, G. Dutfield & C. Kit (editors),  Innovation Without Patents (Edward Elgar: Cheltenham, 2007, ISBN: 1845429591 [URL]
    • “Innovation and development”, pp. 3-12
    • “Innovation and the law of intellectual property”, pp 13-17
    • “Utility models and other alternatives to patents”, pp 18-63
    • “Policy considerations for governments, pp 64-69
    • “Japan and South Korea, pp. 142-151
    • “The ASEAN states” (sole), pp 169-187
  • “Bleak House or Great Expectations? The Literary Author as a Stakeholder in Nineteenth-Century International Copyright Politics”, in H. Porsdam (editor), Copyright and Other Fairy Tales (Edward Elgar: Cheltenham, 2006, pp 40-60, ISBN: 1845426010 [URL])
  • “Technology, Time and Market Forces: The Stakeholder in the Kazaa Era”, in M. Pugatch (editor), The Intellectual Property Debate: Perspectives from Law, Economics and Political Economy (Edward Elgar: Cheltenham, 2006, pp. 230-267, ISBN: 1845420381 [URL])
  • “Human Rights and International Copyright Law”, in J. Griffiths and U. Suthersanen (Editors), Copyright and Free Speech (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2005, pp 97-124, ISBN: 0199276048 [URL])
  • “Harmonising Design Law in a Free Trade Area: Jurisprudential Lessons from the European Union and the United States”, in C. Antons, M. Blakeney and C. Heath (editors), Intellectual Property Harmonisation within ASEAN and APEC (Kluwer Law International: The Hague, 2004, pp. 57-92, ISBN: 9041122923 [URL])
  •  “The Economic Efficacy of Utility Model Protection, in C. Heath and A. Kamperman-Sanders” (editors), Industrial Property in the Bio-Medical Age (Kluwer Law International: The Hague, 2003, pp 231-256, ISBN: 9041199268 [URL])
  • “The Role and Structure of the United Kingdom Copyright Tribunal”, in Y. Gendreau (editor), Institutions administratives du droit d'auteur/Copyright Administrative Institutions, (Éditions Yvon Blais: Montreal, 2002, pp 481-504, ISBN: 2894516010 [URL])
  • “A Comparative Review of Database Protection in the European Union and United States”, in F. Dessemontet and R. Gani (editors), Creative Ideas for Intellectual Property, CEDIDAC: Lausanne, 2002, pp 49-89, ISBN: 28819750451 [URL])
  • “Napster, DVD and All That: Developing a Coherent Copyright Grid for Internet Entertainment”, in E. Barendt and A. Firth (editors), The Yearbook of Copyright and Media Law (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2002, pp 207-250, ISBN: 0199245843)
  • “The Law of Copyright”, in I. Purvis and J. Pierce (editors), Working with Technology: Law & Practice (Sweet & Maxwell: London, 2001, pp 195-230, ISBN: 0421598107)
  • “The Law of Design”, in I. Purvis and J. Pierce (editors), Working with Technology: Law & Practice (Sweet & Maxwell: London, 2001, pp 231-256, ISBN: 0421598107)
  • “Collectivism of copyright: the future of rights management in the European Union” in E. Barendt and A. Firth (editors), The Yearbook of Copyright and Media Law (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2000, pp 15-42)
  • “Legal and economic aspects of bioprospecting”, in M. Blakeney (ed), Intellectual Property Aspects Of Ethnobiology (Sweet and Maxwell:London, 1999, pp 43-83, ISBN 0421684305)
  • “Exclusions to design protection: a new model”, in A Sterling (ed), Intellectual Property And Market Freedom (Sweet and Maxwell:London, 1997, pp 1-61, ISBN 0421607009)


Commissioned policy papers


Postgraduate supervision
She has supervised doctoral students in the following topics: access to education in developing countries; access to essential medicines and patents in Thailand: free speech and copyright law; an economics analysis of the recorded music industry in the EU; regulation of electronic databases in the EU; private international law and the internet; socio-legal analysis of the internet; socio-economic analysis of enforcement in Sub-Saharan Africa; IPRs, health and international relations; copyright regulation in a Web 2.0 and P2P environment.
Uma Suthersanen welcomes proposals for postgraduate research in the interdisciplinary and comparative study of intellectual property. Suggested areas are: IPRs and history; IPRs and innovation/creativity; IPRs and human rights (especially dignity, education, and indigenous peoples); IPRs and the environment/bioprospecting; IPRs and scientific culture; IPRs and art; IPRs and development.

 

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