IP, Media and Technology Law

The work of the IP, media and technology research area at Edinburgh Law School covers some of the most dynamic areas of modern law, and encompasses two distinct disciplines, those of intellectual property law and IT and media law.

Technological and social changes over the last thirty years, in particular in the ways in which we gather, give, and access information of all kinds, pose huge issues requiring a legal response.  The research area, therefore, deals with questions about how the law encourages and supports inventiveness, creativity and self-identification in both private and business life; how it regulates the collection, storage, processing, access, and dissemination of information by private and public actors; and how it controls use of mass information by government, business, and academe in their research and decision-making. 

Questions about artificial intelligence, blockchain technology, robotics, and autonomous machines are increasingly significant as well. The law on these matters cannot be considered only in its domestic setting.  The issues transcend national frontiers and require an international response.  The European Union has been especially important for the United Kingdom, but other regimes are virtually global in scope.  Comparison with other national systems, whether in the Americas, Asia, Africa or the Pacific, is also key, however, especially where there are political and trading ties with the United Kingdom.

Research and teaching range from the not very simple question of what the law is, through issues about how we got there and how it all works in practice, and on to debate about its justifications and how the law might be changed the better to protect its beneficiaries while also giving effect to legitimate public concerns.