Lecture: Saving the world and delivering equality? Law, innovation and power

9 March 2018

18:15 - 19:15

King’s Conference Centre,

Aberdeen University

In her inaugural lecture “Saving the world and delivering equality? Law, innovation and power”, Professor Abbe Brown will present the key themes of her academic and professional career to date; her personal and professional debts and thanks; and her plans for the future as chair in intellectual property law at the University of Aberdeen.

The starting point is the power to control the outputs of innovation which is held by intellectual property owners. Although this power is a reward for having carried out the innovation, it can have negative implications. This is not always recognised in intellectual property and innovation related treaty, legislation and policy making. Further, the power of intellectual property is often not addressed fully in other areas of law (such as human rights, climate change and equality), which are relevant to the substantive areas in which innovation can be used.

Accordingly, the key theme of Professor Brown’s research is the drawing together of legal fields. The goal is to enable more holistic and legally based outcomes to be reached when innovation and its control can clash with fundamental societal challenges. Examples can be delivering wider access to renewable energy technologies, and to literature, educational material and prosthetic limbs by people with disabilities. In so doing, an emerging focus of Professor Brown’s research is the extent to which there are common themes of intersection and solution across these apparently disparate fields.

Professor Brown’s exploration of these points in her inaugural lecture aims to be both challenging and engaging, and all are welcome.