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Professor Abbe Brown

Professor Abbe Brown
MA (Cantab), Dip IP (Bristol), PhD (Edinburgh), FHEA, Solicitor (non practising) England and Wales, Victoria and Scotland

Dean for Student Support
Professor in Intellectual Property

I am currently accepting PhDs in Law.

Overview
Professor Abbe Brown
Professor Abbe Brown

Contact Details

Telephone
work +44 (0)1224 273129
Email
Address
The University of Aberdeen C59B Taylor Building Old Aberdeen AB24
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Biography

Abbe's research, teaching and policy engagement explores intellectual property and its intersection with other legal fields, in addressing key societal challenges.  Abbe is the Chair of the British and Irish Law Education and Technology Association (BILETA) and is an NERC Constructing a Digital Environment Senior Expert.  

Abbe is honoured to be a signatory of the 2021 Academic Open Letter in Support of the TRIPS Intellectual Property Waiver Proposal.  

Abbe's 2018 inaugural lecture "Saving the world and delivering equality? Law, innovation and power" is here. 

Abbe spent almost 10 years in professional legal practice in London, Melbourne and Edinburgh. 

Since 2018 Abbe is involved in negotiations relating to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction, in collaboration with colleagues from Chemistry and in developing the Song of the Ocean. 

Abbe provides consultancy activities and is most interested in further opportunities.   Abbe maintains links with the legal profession and industry and is involved in public engagement activities.

Abbe is University Dean for Student Support and she regularly attends and presents at sector events at national and global level, such as WONKHE, Advance HE, QAA and Universities UK and was a member of the Quality Enhancement institutional review team of the University of Iceland.   

 

PhD Supervision

Abbe is interested in PhD supervision in any aspect of technology and innovation law. Abbe is supervising projects incorporate governance and patents, and IP and climate change. 

Office hours (hours available to students for informal discussion, in person or online) 

1.30-2.30pm UK time on Thursdays in term time, or at other times. Please email abbe.brown@abdn.ac.uk  

 

Memberships and Affiliations

Internal

University Dean for Student Support

REF 21 School Lead

Member of two of the School's Research Centres, the Centre for Commercial Law (which she directed in 2018-19) and the Centre for Energy Law.

Member of ATRIP, SLS, SCL, IUCN, DOSI and the Scottish Law and Innovation Network (@LawScottish).   

Member of a high-level expert working group on genome editing and patents, led by Professor Duncan Matthews.

Chair of BILETA (British and Irish Law Education and Technology Association) and in 2018 she coordinated the teaching recording policy building on the Aberdeen conference see here. 

Former roles: Deputy Head of Law School, Senior Personal Tutor, Academic Line Manager, Programme Co-ordinator LLM in Intellectual Property Law, Programme Director LLB Law with English Law.  

   

External

Technology Committee of the Law Society of Scotland

COP26 & Climate Change Working Group of the Law Society of Scotland

Executive British and Irish Law, Education and Technology Association  

Lay member, NHSScotland Public Benefit and Privacy Panel and NHSCR Governance Board

Member of Online Identity Assurance Expert Group of the Scottish Government

Peer reviewer AHRC, Leverhulme Trust, British Academy, National University of Ireland, Irish Research Council, Research Foundation of Flanders, ACM, European Law Review, European Law Journal, Marine Policy, European Journal of Law and Technology, Legal Studies, Latvian Council of Science, Institution Wide Review of the University of Iceland. Member of Editorial Board of International Review of Computers, Law and Technology.

Member of Steering Group, Women in Renewables in Scotland and Mentor (2014-16)  

External examiner: University of Hertfordshire, University of Exeter, University of Stirling, Bournemouth University, Queen Mary University of London, University of Cape Town, University of Bristol, University of Sussex, London School of Economics. 

Previous roles: Chair Privacy Advisory Committee NSSScotland (2013-5), TSB Director's Ad Hoc Group on Intellectual Property Rights of the International Telecommunication Union (2010-2013), Committee of the Licensing Executive Society (Scotland) (2008-2015), Expert Panel member, Academy of Finland, 2013-4, Member of the editorial board of SCRIPT-ed. 

Research

Research Areas

Please get in touch if you would like to discuss your research ideas further.

Email Me

Specialisms

  • Climate Change
  • Dance and Culture
  • Disability Studies
  • Information Technology
  • Law

Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is HESA open data, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Research Overview

Abbe's research explores the interaction between legal fields relevant to innovation and creativity, with a strong interest on key societal challenges. She is a member of two of the School's Research Centres, the Centre for Commercial Law and the Centre for Energy Law. Abbe was the School of Law lead for REF2021.  

Abbe was part of the interdisciplinary interinstitutional team which won the Coventry University Research Team of the Year 2017 for the InVisible Difference project.  Abbe frequently contributes to public consultations relevant to her research, eg EU "Multilateral Reform of Investment Dispute Resolution" (2017), UK BEIS "Clean Growth Strategy" (2017), UK Human Rights Committee inquiry "Defending Rights: attitudes to enforcement" (2018) and the Strategic Priorities of the Scottish Human Rights Commission (2019).  Abbe organised a public engagement event "Careful what we wish for? Clashing laws, energy and society" as part of the 2015 Being Human Festival.   Since 2018 Abbe has been part of an interdisciplinary team exploring Marine Genetic Resources in the UN Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction negotiations and inspired by this has qualified as a PADI open water diver, and in 2021 engaged in new forms of public engagement through song at local and global levels with the Song of the Ocean, and in online enlightenment salons through the Royal Society of Edinburgh's "Tea and Talk".       

Abbe published a monograph in 2012 with Edward Elgar Intellectual Property, Human Rights and Competition: Access to Essential Innovation and Technology, an edited collection in 2013 with Edward Elgar Environmental Technologies, Intellectual Property and Climate Change, with Charlotte Waelde an edited collection in 2018 with Edward Elgar Research Handbook on Intellectual Property and Creative Industries and in 2019 a monograph with Edward Elgar Intellectual Property, Climate Change and Technology.    Her research has been supported by the Modern Law Review, the Clark Foundation for Legal Education, the British Academy (see website), the Carnegie Trust, the Wellcome Trust (see IGBE here), the British and Irish Law, Education and Technology Association and the Arts and Humanities Reseach Council (see eg InVisible Difference here and blog here).  

Abbe has also contributed to leading textbooks in the intellectual property and information technology field, notably Contemporary Intellectual Property Law and Policy with Oxford University Press.  

Current Research

Present projects involve culture, disability and heritage; innovation, energy and sustainability; access to marine genetic resources; and underpinning common themes and intertwining of relevant laws.  

Find her work via Google Scholar and Researchgate 

ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2222-4537

Abbe is delighted to receive requests regarding PhD supervision in any aspect of intellectual property and technology law. 

 

 

Knowledge Exchange and Public Engagement

 

Abbe is interested in PhD supervision in any aspect of technology and innovation law. Abbe is supervising projects incorporate governance and patents, and IP and climate change. 

Supervision

My current supervision areas are: Law.

Abbe is interested in PhD supervision in any aspect of technology and innovation law. Abbe is supervising projects incorporate governance and patents, and IP and climate change. 

Research Funding and Grants

"InVisible Difference" and "Resilience and Inclusion - Dancers as Agents of Change" funded by the AHRC, Co-I. P-I Professor Sarah Whatley, Coventry and other Co-Is Professor Charlotte Waelde (Exeter) and Dr Shawn Harmon (Edinburgh)

"Decision making across the information, technology and sustainability landscape: towards breadth and coherence"  funded by British and Irish Law Education and Technology Association

"Identity, Governance and Bodily Extensions" funded by the Wellcome Trust

Teaching

Courses

Teaching Responsibilities

Intellectual Property

Professional Skills in Intellectual Property 

Publications

Publications 

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  • The Role of Patents and Licensing in the Governance of Human Genome Editing: A White Paper

    Brown, A., Matthews, D., Emanuella, G., Timo, M., Ana, N., Jacob S, S., Jakob, W., van Zimmerman, E., Aisling, M.

    Working Papers and Discussion Papers: Working Papers

  • Rights to do, rights to prevent, and an intersected approach? Lessons from intellectual property, information control and oil and gas

    Brown, A.

    The Future of Intellectual Property. Gervais, D. J. (ed.). Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 104-126, 23 pages

    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters

    Additional Links
    Book

  • Intellectual Property Rights, the Public Interest and COVID-19

    Brown, A., Ng, C. W., Adebola, T.

    School of Law Blog, University of Aberdeen (School of Law Blog).

    Other Contributions: Other Contributions

  • Intellectual Property, Human Rights and Climate Change

    Brown, A.

    Intellectual Property Law and Human Rights. Torremans, P. (ed.). 4 edition. Wolter Kluwer International, pp. 813-839, 27 pages

    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters

    Additional Links
    Publisher/book

  • Intellectual Property, Climate Change and Technology: Managing National Legal Intersections, Relationships and Conflicts

    Brown, A. E. L.

    Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham. 368 pages

    Books and Reports: Books

  • Dance, Disability and Law: InVisible Difference

    Whatley, S., Waelde, C., Harmon, S. H., Brown, A. E. L., Wood, K., Blades, H.

    Intellect Books. 350 pages

    Books and Reports: Books

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