We are delighted to announce that Ben White, one of our researchers, has just been awarded his doctorate for his thesis: The Fourth Industrial Revolution – The Functions and Impacts of Copyright and Related Rights on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. His supervisors were Professor Dinusha Mendis, Director of the Centre for Intellectual Property, Policy & Management (CIPPM) and Professor Maurizio Borghi (ex-Director of CIPPM and currently Co-Director of the Nexa Center for Internet & Society, Polytechnic University of Turin).

Ben’s thesis evaluated the extent to which copyright and sui generis database rights help or hinder the greater uptake of AI across four jurisdictions – the UK, the EU, Japan, and the United States. The thesis also explored the impact that weak copyright protection provided to many AI models has had on international trade law.

Following the successful completion of his doctoral studies, we are delighted to announce that he has secured a highly competitive 12-month postdoctoral scholarship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. The appointment is not only a significant professional achievement but also a continuation of Professor Mendis’s legacy, highlighting CIPPM’s growing expertise in UK, European, and Japanese technology law.

The postdoctoral role will be based in the Department of Law at one of Japan’s most prestigious research institutions – Waseda University. He will work alongside one of Japan’s leading intellectual property experts, Professor Tatsuhiro Ueno, on advanced research projects addressing contemporary legal and policy challenges in Japanese technology law.