Professor Tanya Aplin
Contact details
Email: tanya.aplin@kcl.ac.uk
Room: SW2.19
Biography
Professor Aplin specialises in the area of Intellectual Property Law, having joined the Dickson Poon School of Law in September 2002 as a Lecturer. She was previously a Lecturer in Law at Robinson College, Cambridge (2000-2002), and a Research Fellow at Murdoch University (1997-1999). Professor Aplin graduated from Murdoch University, Western Australia with LLB and BA degrees (1994) and from the University of Oxford with a BCL (1997) and D Phil (2002). She has been a visiting scholar at Boalt School of Law, UCB (2006); a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the TC Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland (2009); a Senior Visiting Fellow at the School of Law, University of New South Wales (2009, 2013) and a Senior Fellow at Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne (2013). Professor Aplin has also been a visiting lecturer on numerous law programmes, including those offered by the IP Academy Singapore, Pepperdine School of Law, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, Melbourne Law School and Turin Law School. She was formerly Head of Education in the School of Law (2008-2012) and is presently Director of the King’s Postgraduate Diploma/MA in UK, EU and US Copyright Law and Director of the LLM in Intellectual Property and Information Law.
Research
Professor Aplin’s research lies in the field of intellectual property law. She has published extensively on how digital technologies are regulated by copyright law at an international, European and UK level (Copyright law in the digital society: the challenges of multimedia (Hart: 2005)).
Her most recent work concerns the protection of trade secrets and confidential information, with a particular emphasis on the way in which privacy-based decisions are affecting the shape of the action as a whole (see Gurry on Confidence: The Protection of Confidential Information OUP, 2012).
She is currently working on the ‘Europeanization’ of copyright law; the possible harmonization of trade secret protection in the EU; the impact of the ECHR on trade secret protection; and the implications of reputation and privacy falling within Article 8 ECHR.
Professor Aplin is co-author of two leading Intellectual Property Law textbooks: Intellectual Property Law: Text, Cases and Materials 2nd ed (OUP, 2013) and Intellectual Property: Patents, Copyright, Trade Marks and Allied Rights 8th ed (Sweet & Maxwell, 2013).
Selection of Publications
Confidentiality and privacy
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‘Trade secrets as (intellectual) property’ King’s Law Journal (forthcoming, 2013)
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“Commercialising privacy and privatising the commercial: the difficulties arising from the protection of privacy via breach of confidence” in A Kur, N Lee, A Ohly and G Westkamp (eds), Intellectual Property, Unfair Competition and Publicity – Convergence and Development EIPIN Series Vol II (Edward Elgar, forthcoming 2013)
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‘Reverse engineering and commercial secrets’ (2013) Current Legal Problems pp. 1-37
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Aplin, Bently, Johnson & Malynicz, Gurry on Confidence: The Protection of Confidential Information (OUP, 2012) 976 pp
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‘Recent developments in commercial confidentiality’ (2010) Media and Arts Law Review pp. 1-8
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‘A right of privacy for corporations?’ (in Torremans, P (ed), Intellectual Property & Human Rights (Kluwer, 2008), pp. 475-505
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‘The Future Of Breach Of Confidence And The Protection Of Privacy’ (2007) 7(2) Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal pp. 137-173
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‘Commercial Confidences After The Human Rights Act’ (2007) 10 European Intellectual Property Review pp. 411-419
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‘The Relationship Between Breach Of Confidence And The Tort Of Misuse Of Private Information’ (2007) 18(2) King’s Law Journal pp. 329-336
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‘The Development Of The Action For Breach Of Confidence In A Post-HRA Era’ (2007) Intellectual Property Quarterly pp. 19-59
Intellectual property law and new technologies
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“Reproduction” and “Communication to the Public” Rights in EU Copyright Law: FAPL v QC Leisure’ (2011) 22 King’s Law Journal pp. 209-219
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‘United Kingdom’ in B Lindner and T Shapiro (eds), Copyright in the Information Society: A Guide to National Implementation of the EU Directive, (Edward Elgar, 2011), ch 27
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“Commentary on ‘Measuring Text Re-use in Journalism’”, in L Bently, J Davis & J Ginsburg (eds), Copyright and Piracy: An Interdisciplinary Critique (CUP, 2010), pp. 260-268
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‘A global digital register for the preservation and access to cultural heritage: problems, challenges and possibilities’ in Derclaye, E (ed), Copyright and Cultural Heritage: Preservation and Access to Works in a Digital World (Edward Elgar, 2010), pp. 3-27
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‘Subject matter’ in Derclaye, E (ed), Research Handbook on the Future of EU Copyright Law (Edward Elgar, 2009), pp. 94-135
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‘Patenting of computer programs: a glimmer of convergence’ (2008) 9 EIPR pp. 379-382
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Encyclopaedia of IT Law, chapter on Intellectual Property (Sweet & Maxwell, 2008)
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Copyright law in the digital society: the challenges of multimedia (Hart: 2005) (+288 pp)
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‘The ECJ elucidates the database right’ (2005) Intellectual Property Quarterly pp. 204-221
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‘The EU Database Directive: Taking Stock’ in New Directions in Copyright, Volume 2 , (Edward Elgar, 2005), pp. 99-126
Intellectual property law textbooks
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T Aplin and J Davis, Intellectual Property Law: Text, Cases and Materials 2nd ed (OUP, forthcoming 2013)
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T Aplin and J Davis, Intellectual Property Law: Text, Cases and Materials (OUP, 2009) (861 pp)
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W R Cornish, D Llewelyn and T Aplin, Intellectual Property: Patents, Copyright, Trade Marks and Allied Rights 8th ed (Sweet & Maxwell, forthcoming 2013)
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W R Cornish, D Llewelyn and T Aplin, Intellectual Property: Patents, Copyright, Trade Marks and Allied Rights 7th ed (Sweet & Maxwell, 2010) (974 pp.)
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S Hedley and T Aplin (eds), Statutes on IT and E-Commerce 4th ed (OUP, 2008)
Completed PhD students & topics
Marta Iljadica, PhD: “Graffiti Rules: Parallel Norms of Copyright in Public Space”
Current PhD students & topics
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Jacqueline Nwozo, PhD: “The corporate entity and privacy protection: To what extent should English Law be developed to accommodate the privacy interests of corporations?”
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Justin Koo, “Where should EU copyright law draw the line between the reproduction right and the communication to the public right in the 21st century?”
Teaching
Undergraduate
Elements of the Law of Contract
Copyright & Designs
Patents & Breach of Confidence
Postgraduate
International & Comparative Law of Copyright & Related Rights
Copyright & Designs
Patents & Trade Secrets