Professor Johanna Gibson, BA (Hons I), MA, PGDipAppSci, JD (Queensland), PhD (Edinburgh), Solicitor and Barrister to the Supreme Court of Victoria

Profile

Follow Professor Gibson on Instagram, Threads, Bluesky @ProfJohanna and connect on LinkedIn. Professor Gibson also convenes the Film Fashion Forum at CCLS which you can follow on LinkedIn.

Johanna Gibson is Herchel Smith Professor of Intellectual Property Law, Academic Director of the Intellectual Property Law LLM and the Deputy Director of the Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies (CCLS). She is also Editor-In-Chief of the Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property (QMJIP). She has consulted widely to industry, government, NGOs and practitioners, and has been a visiting professor to institutions around the world, including the Queensland University of Technology (Australia), Monash University (Australia), the University of Toronto (Canada) and the Institute of Musical Research (School of Advanced Studies, UK). Johanna’s research interests are in intellectual property and the creative industries, particularly fashion and film, and animal welfare law and companion animal behaviour and science.

Johanna has published extensively in the fields of intellectual property, critical theory, and animal studies, is series editor for Intellectual Property, Theory, Culture (Routledge) and series co-editor (with Trevor Cook) for Intellectual Property: Practitioner Series (Edward Elgar Publishing), and has held numerous research council grants and private research consultancies across a range of issues and areas in intellectual property, consumer behaviour and welfare. She has considerable media experience across television, radio and newspapers, including interviews with CNBC, BBC Radio 4, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian and The Times. Johanna was previously Director of the Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute (QMIPRI) 2007-2014 and Director of the Intellectual Property Institute (2010-2013). Before joining CCLS, Johanna practised law in Melbourne, Australia at Allens Arthur Robinson, specialising in Intellectual Property, Media and Communications Law and Competition Law.

Postgraduate Teaching

• SOLM025 Animal Law, Welfare and Trade
• SOLM026 Animal Law, Media and Culture
• SOLM079 Intellectual Property and Fashion: Art and Culture
• SOLM080 Intellectual Property and Fashion: Business and Law
• SOLM086 The Law of Film
• SOLM087 The Business of Film
• SOLM304 The Law of Theatre and Performing Arts

Research

Research Interests:

Professor Gibson has research interests in the creative industries, particularly fashion and film, and animal behaviour and welfare law and policy. She has a research and education background in cultural studies, critical theory, film, art history and law, and in animal behaviour science and welfare. Johanna maintains interdisciplinary research interests and publications. The Logic of Innovation (2014) explores the complex terrain of creativity, ownership and use in the digital environment. Her earlier book on the relationship between intellectual property systems, protection and the narration of culture and innovation, Creating Selves: Intellectual Property and the Narration of Culture (2006), was cited with approval in an independent government review of intellectual property.

Johanna is also researching on animal welfare and public engagement, including novel and interdisciplinary modes of dissemination and policy impact, as well as the relevance of behaviour science in development and implementation of law and policy, particularly in relation to companion animals. Part of this research is also concerned with human-animal interaction, disability legislation, assistance animals, and access, with a focus on animal behaviour and animal-assisting learning and therapy. Johanna is also an academic member of the Association for the Studies of Animal Behaviour (ASAB), a member of the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare (UFAW), the International Society for Applied Ethology (ISAE), and shares her home with four rescue dogs and four rescue cats.

Johanna has led a major research consultancy for the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) on authors’ earnings (pre-launched as “What Are Words Worth Now” in the House of Commons in 2014) which has received considerable international press. Her major report to the IPO on Lookalikes  [PDF] (co-authored with Professor Phillip Johnson and Professor Jonathan Freeman) was cited in Parliament during debates on the Intellectual Property Act 2014 and led to major a consultation by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills.

Johanna was also supported by an AHRC grant to examine patents and biotechnology in the research project, Patenting Lives, including the ethics of animal species and integrity in the context of biotechnology research. The project culminated in an international conference, with selected papers being included in the edited collection Patenting Lives: Life Patents, Culture and Development (2008) and contributed towards a monograph, Intellectual Property, Medicine and Health (2009), which she has just revised as a second edition, published 2017.

Johanna has also worked extensively in the area of traditional and indigenous knowledge, including her first book Community Resources: Intellectual Property, International Trade and the Protection of Traditional Knowledge (2005).

Examples of research funding

• ALCS (2013-2014) – The Business of Being an Author
• Intellectual Property Office (2011-2013) – The Impact of Lookalikes
• Microsoft (2010-2012) – Innovation and strategy in intellectual property education
• TELES De (2009-2012) – Computability of Inventive Step
• ECIF/HEFCE (2009) – Development of continuing professional development in a university environment
• Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) (2008)
• AHRC – Patenting Lives – Dissemination Scheme (2007)
• AHRC – Patenting Lives (2004-2007)
• Brunel University – Strategic development fund (2004).

Publications

Johanna Gibson's website

Books

• Wanted, More than Human Intellectual Property: Animal Authors and Human Machines, Routledge, 2025, ISBN 9780367356606
• Owned, an Ethological Jurisprudence of Property: From the Cave to the Commons, Routledge, 2020, ISBN 9780367356576
• Intellectual Property, Medicine and Health, 2^nd edition, Routledge, 2017. ISBN: 9781472470102
• The Logic of Innovation: Intellectual Property and What the User Found There, Routledge, 2014 ISBN - ISBN 978113825545
• Intellectual Property, Medicine and Health: Current Debates, Routledge, 2009, ISBN
• Patenting Lives: Life Patents, Culture and Development (Editor), Ashgate, 2008, ISBN: 0754671046
• Creating Selves: Intellectual Property and the Narration of Culture, Ashgate, 2006, 178, ISBN: 0754647072
• Community Resources: Intellectual Property, International Trade and Protection of Traditional Knowledge, Ashgate, 2005, 387, ISBN: 0754644367

Book Chapters

• The Pretension Is Nothing; the Performance Everything’: The Origin of Performers’ Rights and the Creation of the Performer as Artist, in Sean P Morris (ed) The Silent Peacemaker: Intellectual Property Rights and the Interwar International Legal Order, 1919–1939 (Brill 2024), 399-444. ISBN https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004714663_016
• Commentary on H Howe, Who Let the Pigs Out: Rooting for the 'Good Farmer' in Savage v Fairclough, in H Dancer et al (eds) UK Earth Law Judgments (Bloomsbury 2024) ISBN 9781509970858
• All Words and No Performance: A Revolution in Copyright Through Performance in Sound, in G Ghidini & V Falce (eds), Reforming Intellectual Property (Elgar 2022), 95-124. ISBN 978 1 80392 224 9
• Animals and property: A person possessed. Book chapter in The Routledge Handbook of Property, Law and Society, Nicole Graham, Margaret Daies and Lee Godden (eds), Routledge (2022), pp 297-311. ISBN 9780367688813
• The Man behind the Curtain: Developing Film's Double Exposure of Intellectual Property, Book Chapter in Intellectual Property and the Law of Nations, 1860-1920, Sean P Morris (ed), Brill (2022), pp 207-241. ISBN: 978-9004439818
• Fashion After COVID-19: Virtually the Same but Different, Book Chapter in Global Pandemic, Technology and Business: Comparative Explorations of COVID-19 and the Law, Luo Li et al (eds), Routledge (2021), pp 45-68. ISBN 978-1032010281
• Geographies of Taste, Fashion, Tradition and Place, in Kritika: Essays on Intellectual Property, Ghidini G et al (eds), Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2017. ISBN: 978 1 78643 898 0
• “Looks Familiar: Fashion, Design and Diverse Identities in the Digital.” Book Chapter in Diversity in Intellectual Property: Identities, Interests and Intersections, Calboli I and Ragavan S (eds), Cambridge UP, 2014.
• “The Directive Proposal on Criminal Sanctions.” Book Chapter in Criminal Enforcement: A Handbook of Contemporary Research, Geiger C (ed), Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012, ISBN 978-1849801461 
• “Community Rights to Culture: The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.” Book Chapter in Reflections on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Allen S & Xanthaki A (eds), Hart Publishing, 2011, ISBN 978-1841138787
• “Future Developments.” Book Chapter in Modern Law of Patents, Roughton A et al (eds), 2nd ed, LexisNexis, 2010.
• “Access to Medicines and the Right to (Cultural) Life.” Book Chapter in The Right to Life and the Value of Life, York J (ed), Routledge, 2010, ISBN 978-0754677611
• “The Lay of the Land: The Geography of Traditional Cultural Expression.” Book Chapter in Intellectual Property and Traditional Cultural Expressions in a Digital Environment, Graber C & Burri-Nenova M (eds), Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008, ISBN 9781847209214
• “Patent Publics, Patent Cultures.” Book Chapter in Patenting Lives: Life Patents, Culture and Development, Gibson J (ed), Routledge, 2008, ISBN 07546871046
• “Traditional Knowledge and the Public Domain.” Book Chapter in Intellectual Property: The Many Faces of the Public Domain, MacQueen H & Waelde C (eds), Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007, ISBN 9781845428747
• “Knowledge and Other Values: Traditional Knowledge and the Limitations of Intellectual Property.” Book Chapter in Emerging Issues in Intellectual Property: Trade, Technology and Market Freedom Essays in Honour of Herchel Smith, Westkamp G (ed), Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007, ISBN 1845427750
• “Communities Beyond Place.” Book Chapter in Sustainability and Communities of Place, Maida C (ed), Bergahn Books, 2007, ISBN 1845450167
• “Open Access, Open Source, and Free Software: Is There a Copy Left?” Book Chapter in New Directions in Copyright IV, Macmillan F (ed), Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007, ISBN 1845422635
• “A Right to My Public: Human Right, Copyright, or Privacy?” Book Chapter in New Directions in Copyright III, Macmillan F (ed), Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006, ISBN 1845422627
• “Community and the Exhaustion of Culture: Creative Territories in Traditional Cultural Expressions.” Book Chapter in New Directions in Copyright III, Macmillan F (ed), Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006, ISBN 1845422627
• “Freedoms and Knowledge, Access and Silence: Traditional Knowledge and Freedom of Speech.” Book Chapter in New Directions in Copyright II, Macmillan F (ed), Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006, ISBN 1845422615
• “Community in Resources, Traditional in Knowledge.” Book Chapter in Returning (to) Communities: Theory, Culture and Political Practice of the Communal, Herbechter S & Higgins M (eds), Rodopi, 2006, ISBN 9042018984
• “Open to Question: The Open Congress Event and Its Users.” Book Chapter in Media Mutandis: A NODE London Reader, Surveying Art, Technologies and Politics, Francis MA et al (ed), NODE/Arts Council, 2006, ISBN 0955243505
• “Community Resources: Intellectual Property Systems, Traditional Knowledge, and the Global Legal Authority of Local Community.” Book Chapter in Managing the Commons: Indigenous Rights, Economic Development and Identity, Merino L & Robson J (eds), Instituto de Ecologia (INE), 2005, ISBN 9688177377.

Journal Articles

• Let a thousand Flowers bloom? Music and the cultural bias of copyright, 14(4) Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property, 2024, 341-347
• ‘I think you’re a liar!’ Ladies Lounge, Picassos in toilets, and other original performances of conceptual art, 14(3) Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property, 2024, 237-247
• Why Look at Authors? IIC, 2024, 1-4
• Thirty years of legal research: An empirical analysis of outputs submitted to RAE and REF (1990-2021) (co-authored with Phillip Johnson), 00(0) Modern Law Review, 2024, 1-39
• Is copyright some kind of funhouse? The literary work of character, storyworlds, and the play of adaptation, 14(2) Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property, 2024, 107-121
• People or patents, inventors or owners: why the Supreme Court decision on artificial intelligence and invention in Thaler is significant for all intellectual property, 14(1), Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property, 2024, 1-6.
• Living in the pastiche: from Barbieland to Computer World, all the world's a paste, 13(4), Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property, 2023, 379-391.
• Page against the machine: the death of the author and the rise of the producer? 13(3), Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property, 2023, 275-284.
• The intellectual property in sustainable fashion: standards are up to the mark, 13(2), Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property, 2023, 141-152.
• The authorial fallacy: what literary theory, Roald Dahl, Donald Trump, and artificial intelligence have in common, 13(1) Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property, 2023 1-10.
• Temporal parts and free space: an anecdotal explanation of intellectual property and the metaverse, or, how I met Bill Cornish, 12(4) Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property, 2022, 433-440.
• The nostalgia of copyright: how performers make movies, and other sounds of authorship, 12(3) Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property, 2022, 307-311
• Choose your plan: Amazon's acquisition of MGM and the streaming wars for our cinematic heritage, 12(2) Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property, 2022, 165-171
• And just like that ... he's alive! Transactions in character from television to brand, 12(1) Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property, 2022, 1-8.
• Artificial intelligence and patents: DABUS and methods for attracting enhanced attention to inventors, 11(4) Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property, 2021, 401-408
• The thousand-and-second tale of NFTs, as foretold by Edgar Allan Poe, 11(3), Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property, 2021, 249-269
• When games are the only fashion in town: Covid-19, Animal Crossing and the future of fashion, 11(2), Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property, 2021, 117-123
• Sine qua non-sense: Originality and the end of copyright, 10(4), Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property, 2020, 411-417
• No More, 10(3) Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property, 2020, 271-282
• Brands make believe: ethical veganism and labelling in fashion, 10(2) Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property, 2020, 143-151
• Where have you been? CGI film stars and reanimation horrors, 10(1) Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property, 2020, 1-6
• Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel? Animals in art and morality in copyright, 9(4) Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property, 2019, 359-363
• Tilting at windmills: the law of evocation in geographical indications and designations of origin, 9(3) Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property, 2019, 239-243
• ‘Gimme the prize’: the author dysfunction, 9(2) Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property, 2019, 127-133
• An aristocracy of authors, 9(1) Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property, 2019, 1-2
• The “new” tort of passing off. Law Quarterly Review 131, 2015, 474-494 (co-authored with P Johnson). ISSN: 0023-933X
• Let me tell you a story … intellectual property, character, narration, 1(2) Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property, 2011, 112-129, ISSN: 20459815
• The UDHR and the Group: Individual and Community Rights to Culture, 30(1) Hamline Journal of Public Law and Policy, Fall 2008, ISSN 07361033
• The Discovery of Invention: Gene Patents and the Question of Patentability, [2007] 12 Journal of Intellectual Property Rights 45-56, ISSN: 0971-5544
• Consumer Protection: Consumer Strategies and the European Market in Genetically Modified Foods, [2006], 5 Northwestern Journal of Technology & Intellectual Property, 176-191
• Markets in Tradition: Traditional Agricultural Communities and the Impact of GMOs [2006] 3(3) SCRIPT-ed 216-225, ISSN: 1744-2567 
• Zur Durchsetzbarkeit von Immaterialgüterrechten in Bulgarien (Co-author with M. Blakeney and G. Westkamp) [2006] 15(9) Wirtschaft und Recht in Osteuropa 271-276, ISSN: 0941-6293 
• The Gowers Review of Intellectual Property: A Valuable Affair [2006] 3(1) SCRIPT-ed 2, ISSN: 1744-2567 
• Patenting Lives: Life Patents, Culture, and Development [2006] 11(2) Journal of Intellectual Property Rights 103-112, ISSN: 0971-5544
• Patenting Lives [2005] 2(3) SCRIPT-ed 319, ISSN: 1744-2567
• Intellectual Property Systems, Traditional Knowledge, and the Legal Authority of Community [2004] 26 European Intellectual Property Review 280-290, ISSN: 0142-0461 
• Indigenous Resources and the International Context for Protection [2004] 1(1) SCRIPT-ed 48-82, ISSN: 1744-2567 
• Trading Places With Communities: Toward the Protection of Traditional Knowledge in the Context of International Trade and Global Markets [2003] 2(1) Journal of International Trade Law and Policy, ISSN: 1477-0024
• The National Encroachment Upon Community Space: Recent Australian Decisions in Indigenous Rights to Natural Resources [2003] 2(2) Xchanges
• Self-Preservation is the First Law of Nature: Conserving the Cultural Diversity in India's Biological Resources [2003] 24(1) South Asian Review 62-75, ISSN: 0275-9527
• The Cultural Diversity in Biodiversity: The Protection of Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Resources in a Global Context [2003] 2 (Spring) Situation Analysis 46-61, ISSN: 1478-2014
• Justice of Precedent, Justness of Equity: Equitable Protection and Remedies for Indigenous Intellectual Property [2001] 6(4) Australian Indigenous Law Reporter 1-21, ISSN: 1323-7756 
• Human Rites: The Very Public Affair of Genetic Engineering and Policy, 33(1) Southern Review, 2000, 22-51, ISSN 00374526
• An Ethical Speech for Dumb Animals, 30(1) Southern Review, 1997, 81-93, ISSN 00384526

Other Publications

• Contributing Editor (Intellectual Property), Jowitt’s Dictionary of English Law, Greenberg D (ed), 3rd edition, Sweet & Maxwell, 2010, ISBN 9781847036261
• Contributing author, Sterling on World Copyright Law, Trevor Cook (ed), Sweet & Maxwell

Commissioned Reports

• The Future of Futures: Participatory Futures Research in the ASC - Home Office, Animals in Science Committee, Futures Sub-Group (Chair and Lead Author, Johanna Gibson) - March 2024
• Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) – The Business of Being an Author - A Survey of Author’s Earning and Contracts [PDF 2,933KB], 2015
• Intellectual Property Office (IPO) – The Impact of Lookalikes, 2013
• Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, European Commission – International Knowledge Transfer, 2011
• European Patent Office/ European Patent Academy and Norway Intellectual Property Office – The Dissemination of Intellectual Property Knowledge in Universities: Road Map for Norway, 2009
• European Patent Office/European Patent Academy and Bulgarian Patent Office – The Dissemination of Intellectual Property Knowledge in Universities: Road Map for Bulgaria, 2008
• Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) - P6, A New Approach: A Review of Revised Models for the Education, Training and Examination of Patent Attorney Trainees, 2008
• Scottish Executive – Generation Scotland: Legal and Ethical Aspects (co-author G Laurie), 2003.

Supervision

Professor Gibson welcomes students in all areas of intellectual property, legal theory and culture, with a particular interest in the creative industries (particularly fashion, literature, film and visual arts and theory). Professor Gibson also welcomes students in animal law and policy.

Public Engagement

Appointments

• Chair, Home Office ASC Futures Working Group, 2020--
• Expert member, Home Office Animals in Science Committee (Public Appointment), 2019--
• Intellectual Property Office Expert Advisory Group, Member, 2014--
• Editor-In-Chief, Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property (QMJIP), 2013--
• International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property (ISHTIP), founding and executive member, 2007—
• Deputy Director, Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute (QMIPRI), 2021-2024
• Intellectual Property Office Expert Advisory Group Trade and Development, Chair, 2011-14
• Consultant Editor (with Lord Hoffmann), Queen Mary Intellectual Property Journal of Intellectual Property (QMJIP), 2011-2013
• Academic Member, Patents County Court/Intellectual Property Enterprise Court Users’ Committee, 2012-14
• CIPA Academic Liaison Committee, 2011-2012
• Director, Intellectual Property Institute, 2010-2013
• Expert Member, DG Research and Innovation Advisory Panel, International Knowledge Transfer, 2010-2011
• EPO Road-Map Author, Norway, 2009-2010
• Academic Director, QUEDOS, 2009
• EPO Road-Map Author, Bulgaria, 2008-2009
• Director, Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute (QMIPRI), 2007-2014
• CIPA Education Sub-Committee, 2006-2011
• Legal Advisor, UK EU Presidency Creative Economy Conference, 2005

Memberships

• Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA)
• Association for the Teaching and Research of Intellectual Property (ATRIP)
• British Literary and Artistic Copyright Association (BLACA)
• Society of Legal Scholars (SLS)
• Association for the Studies of Animal Behaviour (ASAB)
• Universities Federation for Animal Welfare (UFAW)
• International Society for Applied Ethology (ISAE)

Related news

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  30 August 2024
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  17 October 2022
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  23 November 2021
• 'It's a Crazy Issue' – The Bizarre World of Scam Audiobooks
  22 April 2021
• Could The Simpsons replace its voice actors with AI deepfakes?
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  2 September 2020
• Disney and chill
  14 April 2020
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  25 November 2019
• The messy legal scrap to bring celebrities back from the dead
  17 November 2019
• Authors could become an 'endangered species' thanks to e-book deals
  11 January 2016
• Bottom 50 per cent of UK authors made less than £10,500 in 2013
  21 April 2015
• The Business of Being an Author - A Survey of Author’s Earnings and Contracts - report published
  20 April 2015
• Innovation falling away in parts of developing world - Professor Johanna Gibson interviewed by SciDev.Net
  17 April 2015
• Professor Johanna Gibson to speak at the Westminster Legal Policy Forum conference on Patent Law
  14 October 2014
• Professor Johanna Gibson - Ink twice: Do you own your tattoos?
  17 July 2014
• Professor Johanna Gibson's new book 'The Logic of Innovation - Intellectual Property, and What the User Found There' is published
  22 April 2014
• Professor Johanna Gibson to brief MEPs and US politicians on current European developments in intellectual property
  8 May 2012