Home
Courses
Research
People
Events
Contact
About
In this area:
Uma Suthersanen LLB (Singapore), LLM (London), PhD (London)
Uma Suthersanen is Chair of the British Literary and Artistic Copyright Association (ALAI-UK), Chair of the Legal Advisory Board, Creative Commons (England & Wales) and sits on the boards of the Executive Committee of the Association Litteraire et Artistique Internationale (ALAI), the Legal Advisory Committee, the British Computer Society, the DIME Network of Excellence (Conference Advisory Board) and the Copyright and Technology Working Group of the British Copyright Council. She is also a partner/participant in the AHRB Copyright Research Network (Birkbeck College, London), the eDiversity Project (University of Lucerne, Switzerland) and Intellectual Property and the Public Sphere Project at the Institute for Public Policy Research.
Uma has worked as a consultant on international copyright law, collective management of copyright, computer software, utility models and designs for the following UN agencies: WIPO, UNCTAD, and UNESCO. She has also been a short-term consultant to the European Commission [DG-Trade], the European Patent Office and the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD). She has given recommendations and evidence on the implementation of laws before the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (on software patents), the Ministry of Justice of the Government of Israel (designs) and the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore/Singapore IP Academy (utility models).
She is a joint General Editor of the Queen Mary Studies in Intellectual Property (Edward Elgar) with Graham Dutfield and Ilanah Simon and will be Editor of the European Copyright and Design Reports (Sweet & Maxwell) from 2007.
Research Interests
Most of her current work focus on the historical and/or stakeholder analysis perspectives of intellectual property. The sole research project from 2005-2008 is the "Creativity and Human Society" project. The central theme of the research is that, irrespective of the genesis of and divergences in legal systems and rationales for protecting ideas, we can nevertheless draw a coherent, relevant and universal map of the legal rules concerning the creation and consumption of knowledge.
Publications Since 2001
Innovation without Patents: Harnessing the Innovative Spirit in a Diverse World (Co-editor with Dutfield & Chow), Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2007, ISBN: 1845429591 [ URL ]
Copyright in the Courts: The Da Vinci Code [2006] 9(3) WIPO Magazine 12-13, ISSN: 1020-7074 [URL]
Utility Models and Innovation in Developing Countries, Geneva: UNCTAD-ICTSD, 2006, 68, ISSN: 1681-8954 [URL]
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, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2006, 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, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2006, 230-267, ISBN: 1845420381 [URL]
Europe Rejects The Linguistic Struggle....and the Software Patents Directive [2005] 1(8) Know IP 3-5 [URL]
Huzzah for Kazaa or R.I.P. Kazaa?, in A.K. Jensen and M.P. Pugatch (Editors), Intellectual Property Frontiers: Expanding the Borders of Discussion, London: Stockholm Network, 2005, 22-23 [URL]
DNA Music: Intellectual Property and the Law of Unintended Consequences (Co-author with G. Dutfield) [2005] 18(1) Science Studies 5-29, ISSN: 0786-3012 [URL]
Copyright and Free Speech: A Comparative and International Analysis (Co-editor with J. Griffiths), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN: 0199276048 [URL]
Human Rights and International Copyright Law, in J. Griffiths and U. Suthersanen (Editors), Copyright and Free Speech, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, 97-124, ISBN: 0199276048 [URL]
Identifying Stakeholders' Interests in Copyright and Commerce, in Intellectual Property and Rights Ownership, London: Westminster Forum Projects, 2005, 42-45, ISBN: 1905029101 [URL]
Harmonisation or Differentiation in Intellectual Property Protection? The Lessons of History (Co-author with G. Dutfield) [2005] 23(2) Prometheus 131-147, ISSN: 0810-9028 [URL]
Copyright: World Law and Practice, Volumes 1 and 2 (Co-author with M. Macdonald), London: Sweet & Maxwell, 2004, ISBN: 0421758600 [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, The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 2004, 57-92, ISBN: 9041122923 [URL]
The Innovation Dilemma: Intellectual Property and the Historical Legacy of Cumulative Creativity, (Co-author with G. Dutfield) [2004] 8 Intellectual Property Quarterly 379-421, ISSN: 1364-906X [URL]
The Economic Efficacy of Utility Model Protection, in C. Heath and A. Kamperman-Sanders (Editors), Industrial Property in the Bio-Medical Age, The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 2003, 231-256, ISBN: 9041199268 [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]
The Role and Structure of the United Kingdom Copyright Tribunal, in Y. Gendreau (Editor), Institutions administratives du droit d'auteur/Copyright Administrative Institutions, Montreal: Éditions Yvon Blais, 2002, 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, Lausanne: CEDIDAC, 2002, 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), Yearbook of Copyright and Media Law, Volume 6, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, 207-250, ISBN: 0199245843 [URL]
The Legislative Experience of Collecting Societies in European Union Member States, in Gestão Colectiva do Direito de Autor e Direitos Conexos no Ambiente Digital, Lisbon: Portuguese Ministry of Culture/The E.U. Presidency/European Commission, 2001, 111-154, ISBN: 9729868301 [URL]
The Law of Copyrights, in I. Purvis and J. Pierce (Editors), Working with Technology: Law & Practice, London: Sweet & Maxwell, 2001, 195-230, ISBN: 0421598107 [URL]
The Law of Designs, in I. Purvis and J. Pierce (Editors), Working with Technology: Law & Practice, London: Sweet & Maxwell, 2001, 231-256, ISBN: 0421598107 [URL]
An Assessment of Educational Exceptions in Copyright Law, in Copyright: Whose Flexible Friend in the Information Society? London: Intellectual Property Institute, 2001, 30-56, ISBN: 1874001618 [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]
Other Selected Publications
Design Law in Europe, London: Sweet & Maxwell, 2000, ISBN: 0421576103 [URL]
Design and Copyright Protection of Products: World Law and Practice (Co-editor with M. Macdonald and C. Garrigues), London: Sweet & Maxwell, 1997, ISBN: 0752003976 [URL]
