Dr. Metka Potocnik is a graduate of Queen Mary University London (PhD), King's College London (L.LM) and University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Law (L.LB), specialising in intellectual property, international arbitration and commercial law. She is qualified in Slovenia (Bar Member since 2008), with practical experience in commercial cases (Court of Appeal Ljubljana). Dr Potocnik is the Wolverhampton Law School Coordinator of the West Midlands Legal Doctoral Network and the member of the editorial board of the Wolverhampton Law Journal.

Dr. Potocnik focuses on the emerging field of Intellectual Property Arbitration and her research monograph (2019) explores trade marks and brands as investment assets. Her approach to intellectual property law and international arbitration (both commercial and investment treaty arbitration) is transnational, as she draws her case studies from national context and international forums.

 

Dr. Potocnik is also interested in the interdisciplinary nexus between the law, the arts and the science. To that end, she researches and cooperates with the Wolverhampton Faculty of Arts, Business School and the School of Pharmacy. In the search of "the interdisciplinary," Dr Potocnik also supervises PhD researchers in the areas of intellectual property and the creative industries, and the interface between patent law and non-communicable diseases.

  

ERAS Research Project

 

Title: “Breaking Monopolies: a Feminist Approach to Intellectual Property in the Creative Industries.”

 

Description:

 

The law of intellectual property (“IP”) is constantly re-examined in search of a theoretical justification, which could assist policy makers better to take into account the interests of all different stakeholders. At the same time, there is a frustration in the research literature over the growing expansion of private rights in IP law, which appears to favour big IP enterprises more than any individual creative individual. In the area of the Creative Industries (music, publishing, film, fashion, video games etc.) the stakeholders are many and the process of creating works is complex, usually involving more than one person.

 

This project will aim to develop a new, and more nuanced, theoretical framework for IP law in the Creative Industries, with the use of feminist theories of law. Feminist theories have on occasion been applied to IP law, but there is a recognised need for more research in this area. Feminist theories offer a new way to examine any traditional topic including IP law. The aim of this project is to evaluate whether a feminist approach could be used to realign IP law, to break up the existing monopolies and nurture the new and collaborative processes of creating intellectual and intangible works, especially in the Creative Industries. In order to address this research question, the project aims to rely on two methods: the doctrinal method, and the qualitative method of semi-structured interviews.