Our public lectures series on topical issues of intellectual property law and policy is open to anyone to attend, but registration is required.
Attendance is free, but, registration is required. If you wish to attend, please e-mail Prof. Dinusha Mendis at dmendis@bournemouth.ac.uk
Ilanah Fhima (University College London): Average Consumers
Thursday 5 February 2026, 18.00 (BST), Room BG402
Trade mark law, with its focus on averages consumers, frequently devolves into a measure of what the majority of consumers think. This does not protect the interests of minorities – a point which this presentation will illustrate through trade mark law’s approach to languages other than English. Hence, the presentation will seek to reconceptualise the average consumer: trade mark law’s benchmark for infringement and registrability, drawing a middle ground between ascertaining consumer perception through the eyes of a single, hypothetical individual and through a purely empirical approach. Instead, Professor Fhima will argue that the focus should be on average consumers as a balancing exercise of the interests of groups of consumers. This reality-based approach allows for a consideration of a more diverse cross section of the public and reflects developments in other areas of law.
Professor Ilanah Fhima, is Professor of Intellectual Property Law at University College London, where she is also co-director of the Institute of Brand and Innovation Law. She has researched and published on many aspects of trade mark law, with a particular interest in balancing the needs of competitors, consumers and the wider public. Her two monographs, published by OUP, focus on trade mark dilution and likelihood of confusion. Ilanah’s most recent research focusses on the social impact of trade marks.
Séverine Dussolier (Sciences Po Law School, Paris): The uneasy copyright claims against generative AI
Thursday 5 March 2026, 18.00 (BST), Room EB206
Generative AI has startled the copyright owners and creative industry by its unprecedented and disruptive capacity to produce texts, images, sounds, voices and other cultural content. Copyright and related rights owners have initiated dozens of lawsuits worldwide against AI platforms, for the presence of copyrighted works in the datasets on which the AI models are trained, the resemblance of some AI-generated outputs with specific protected creations, or the unauthorised capture of value and investment of masses of works. Their legal arguments however are confronted with many contrary copyright principles, such as the idea/expression dichotomy and the lack of protection of style, the notion of derivative work, the difficulty to get remuneration for massive uses. Such difficulty might lead to a dissolution of copyright as a protection of authors and performers to an investment-related protection of aggregators of works. This public lecture will review the claims that have been articulated against the deployment of generative AI and the many dilemmas or puzzles they raise for an effective protection of creators, performers and their remuneration.
Severine Dusollier is Professor of Intellectual Property in the Law School of Sciences Po Paris and holds a Senior Chair at the Institut Universitaire de France. She is the Head of the Master in Innovation Law. She is a Qualified Member of the CSPLA (French Copyright Council), a founding member of the European Copyright Society. A long-time recognised expert of European copyright law, her current research interests are the concept of authorship, contractual protection and remuneration of authors and performers, artificial intelligence and its impact on copyright and authorship, exceptions and limitations, commons and property, public domain.
Graham Ashley (Unified Patent Court): Advocacy – A Judge’s Perspective
Thursday 26 March 2026, 18.00 (BST), Room BG110
Advocacy means more than simply representing and speaking in court on behalf of a client. It is the art of persuasion – persuading a tribunal that they should reach a particular decision.
This lecture will look at advocacy from the point of view of someone sat in a court who has to listen to submissions from attorneys – what judges want to hear and what they don’t want to hear. In particular, it will consider advocacy from a European perspective, with reference to the Unified Patent Court (UPC) and the European Patent Office (EPO).
The presentation will look at preparation for hearings, including suggestions for structuring submissions; it will consider how generally hearings are conducted, and how to speak effectively before a tribunal.
Dr Graham Ashley is a technical judge at at the UPC and has been involved in cases in Düsseldorf, Munich, Milan and in the appeal court in Luxembourg.
He was formerly chairman of an EPO board of appeal in mechanics, chairing over 500 cases in a wide range of general technology, such as the building/construction industry, oil exploration, weapons, metal processing, furniture and sanitary equipment (somebody has to do the toilets).
His background is metallurgy and has a PhD in electrochemistry from Cambridge. In 1996 he was called to the Bar (Lincoln’s Inn), but moved straight away to the EPO in Munich to work as a patent examiner. He was a member of the committee for the European Qualifying Examination (C – Paper: Opposition), and was responsible for drafting one of the exam papers.
He is currently involved in training national judges in handling patent disputes, and advises attorneys on presenting cases at hearings before the EPO.
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Past public lectures series
2025
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
