Professor Uma Suthersanen, LLB (Singapore), LLM (London), PhD (London), Advocate and Solicitor to the Supreme Court of Singapore

Suthersanen

Professor in International Intellectual Property Law

email: u.suthersanen@qmul.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)20 7882 8081
Fax: +44 (0)20 7882 8101

Professor Uma Suthersanen is the Course Director for the LLM modules “Global Policy and Economics of Intellectual Property”, and "International and Comparative Law of Copyright and Related Rights".

Current and former posts include: Series Editor, Queen Mary Studies in Intellectual Property; Editor, European Copyright and Design Reports; Updates Editor, Sterling’s World Copyright Law; British Literary and Artistic Copyright Association (Vice-Chairman, 2010-present; Chairman, 2006-10; Executive Committee Member, 2002-6); Association Litteraire et Artistique Internationale (Executive Committee Member, 2004-present); British Copyright Council (Copyright and Technology Working Group Member); British Computer Society (Legal Advisory Committee Member); Intellectual Property Academy of Singapore (Visiting Overseas Fellow, 2002–present); Working Group on Trade and Intellectual Property, Geneva Trade & Development Forum on Inclusive Globalization (Member, 2007-8); IPRs and the Public Sphere Project, Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr) (Advisory Board Member, 2006-7); AHRB Copyright Research Network, Birkbeck College, London (Core Member, 2004-7); Creative Commons (England & Wales) (Legal Advisory Board Member, 2004-10).

She has received consultancies from: United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD mission to Cambodia); United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO referee on copyright and freedom of expression); World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO missions to Oman and Bahrain); European Parliament (oral evidence on software patents); Government of Israel (advice on design law reform); Government of Singapore/ Singapore Intellectual Property Academy (commissioned report on innovation and utility models); International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (missions to Cameroon and Cambodia; commissioned reports on public domain; impact of EPAs on CEPAC countries; TRIPs and the right to education; innovation and utility models).

Publications:

Books

Global Intellectual Property

  • Graham Dutfield and Uma Suthersanen, GLOBAL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW, Edward Elgar, 370 pp, ISBN Hardback 978 184376942 2; ISBN Paperback 978 1847203649, 2008
  • Harmonisation or Differentiation in Intellectual Property Protection? The Lessons of History (with G. Dutfield) [2005] 23(2) Prometheus 131-147, ISSN: 0810-9028

Human Rights, Intellectual Property and Development

International and Comparative Copyright

  • Lionel Bently, Uma Suthersanen & Paul Torremans (eds), GLOBAL COPYRIGHT: THREE HUNDRED YEARS SINCE THE STATUTE OF ANNE, FROM 1710 TO CYBERSPACE. Edward Elgar, 544pp, ISBN 978 1 84844 7660, 2010
  • Creative Commons – the other way [2007] 20(1) Learned Publishing 59-68, ISSN: 0953-1513
  • “Copyright Law: A Stakeholder's Palimpsest”, in F. Macmillan (ed.) New Directions in Copyright Law: Volume 5, Edward Elgar, pp.119-134, ISBN: 9781 84542 264 6, 2007
  • “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, pp. 40-60, ISBN: 1845426010, 2006
  • “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, pp.230-267, ISBN:1845420381, 2006
  • “Identifying Stakeholders' Interests in Copyright and Commerce”, in Intellectual Property and Rights Ownership, Westminster Forum Projects: London, pp.42-45, ISBN: 1905029101 (commissioned policy paper), 2005
  • Morag Macdonald, Uma Suthersanen, Cristina Garrigues, COPYRIGHT: WORLD LAW AND PRACTICE, Sweet & Maxwell, ISBN: 0421758600, 2004
  • Copyright and Educational Policies: A Stakeholder Analysis [2003] 23 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 586-610, ISSN: 0143-6503
  • “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, pp.481-504, ISBN: 2894516010, 2002
  • “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, pp.49-89, ISBN: 28819750451, 2002
  • “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, pp.207-250, ISBN: 0199245843, 2002
  • “The Law of Copyright” and “The Law of Design”, in I. Purvis and J. Pierce (editors),Working with Technology: Law & Practice, Sweet & Maxwell, pp.195-230, pp.231-256, ISBN: 0421598107, 2001
  • “The Legislative Experience of Collecting Societies in European Union Member States”, in Gestão Colectiva do Direito de Autor e Direitos Conexos no Ambiente Digital (Portuguese Ministry of Culture/The E.U. Presidency/European Commission: Lisbon, pp.111-154, ISBN: 9729868301, 2001 (commissioned policy paper)
  • “An Assessment of Educational Exceptions in Copyright Law” in Copyright–Whose Flexible Friend in the Information Society?, Intellectual Property Institute: London, pp.30-56, ISBN 1874001618, 2001 (commissioned policy paper)
  • “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, pp.15-42, 2000

International and Comparative Designs

  • Uma Suthersanen, DESIGN LAW: EUROPEAN UNION AND UNITED STATES. Sweet and Maxwell, 300pp, ISBN 9781847039064. 2010.
  • “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, pp. 57-92, ISBN: 9041122923, 2004
  • Uma Suthersanen, DESIGN LAW IN EUROPE, Sweet & Maxwell, ISBN: 0421576103, 2000
  • “Exclusions to design protection: a new model”, in A Sterling (ed), Intellectual Property And Market Freedom, Sweet and Maxwell, pp.1-61, ISBN 0421607009, 1997

Innovation and Bio-prospecting

  • Uma Suthersanen, Graham Dutfield, Chow Kit Boey (authors and editors), INNOVATION WITHOUT PATENTS: HARNESSING THE INNOVATIVE SPIRIT IN A DIVERSE WORLD, Edward Elgar, ISBN: 1845429591, 2007
  • Utility Models and Innovation in Developing Countries, for the “Project on IPRs and Sustainable Development”, UNCTAD / International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, Geneva, Issue Paper 13, 68pp, ISSN: 1681-8954, 2006, cited in UNCTAD Least Developed Countries Report 2007 (commissioned policy paper)
  • DNA Music: Intellectual Property and the Law of Unintended Consequences (with G. Dutfield) [2005] 18(1) Science Studies 5-29, ISSN: 0786-3012
  • 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
  • “Legal and economic aspects of bioprospecting”, in M. Blakeney (ed), Intellectual Property Aspects Of Ethnobiology, Sweet and Maxwell, pp.43-83, ISBN 0421684305, 1999
  • Breaking down intellectual property barriers [1998] 3 Intellectual Property Quarterly 267-294

Trade Marks and Utility Models

  • “The Legal and Economic Feasibility of Utility Model Protection in Singapore” (with G. Dutfield & K.B.Chow), Singapore Intellectual Property Academy, 2005 (commissioned policy paper)]
  • The European Court of Justice in Philips v Remington: Trade Marks and Market Freedom [2003] 7 Intellectual Property Quarterly 257-283, ISSN: 1364-906X
  • “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, pp. 231-256, ISBN: 9041199268, 2003
  • Incremental Inventions in Europe: A Legal and Economic Appraisal of 2nd Tier Patents [2001] Journal of Business Law pp.319-343, ISSN: 0021-9460
  • A brief tour of the utility model law [1998] 20(2) European Intellectual Property Review 44-51

Supervision:

Professor Suthersanen will only be accepting new doctoral students from September 2012.

She has supervised the following students who have all successfully obtained their doctorates: Access to Essential Medicines and Patents in Thailand (Jairak Euarchukiate, Thai Government scholar): Free Speech and Copyright Law (Athina Loverdou; as 2nd supervisor); Law and Economics Analysis of Collective Management in the Recorded Music Industry in the EU (Maria Mercedes Frabboni, Herchel Smith scholar); Protection of Databases in the EU and US (Estelle Derclaye, as 2nd supervisor); Private International Law, Intellectual Property and the Internet (Philip Johnson); A Socio-Legal Analysis of IPRs and the Internet (John Cahir, Herchel Smith scholar); Copyright Enforcement in Sub-Saharan Africa (Marisella Ouma); Collective Management of Copyright in CARICOM (Beverley Pereira); IPRs, Health and International Relations (Johanna von Braun, as 2nd supervisor).

Her current supervision students/topics are: Copyright and Networked Technologies (Gaetano Dimita, submitted 2010); Education and Copyright in Uganda (Henry Nampandu, Commonwealth scholar); IPR and Development in the ARIPO region (Chikumbutso Namelo, Commonwealth scholar); Health and IPRs (Vivian Mak, Queen Mary scholar); Human Rights and Trade (Heesob Nam, Herchel Smith scholar); Secondary Liability for Intellectual Property Infringement (Lynda Oswald); Property Concepts and Licensing in Taiwan (Betty Chung, Taiwanese Government scholar); Music and Creativity (Mary Gani); IP and Sustainable Development (Roberto D’Erme, joint supervision with Prof. Christophe Geiger, Strasbourg, Herchel Smith scholar); Regulation of Franchising in the EU (Mark Abell, from 2010); WTO and Genetically Modified Organisms (Malakee Makhoul, joint with Prof. Spyros Maniatis); Implication of the TRIPs Agreement on Developing Countries, especially Thailand (Pawarit Lertdhamtewe, Herchel Smith Scholar).