Professor Frederick Mostert

Frederick is a Professor of Practice at The Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London and a Professor of Practice at Notre Dame School of Law, London. He is also a Research Fellow at the Oxford Intellectual Property Research Centre, University of Oxford and Extraordinary Professor at the Law Faculty of the University of Stellenbosch. In addition, Frederick served as a Fellow at the London School of Economics Law Faculty, a Visiting Professor at the Law School of University College London, a Guest Professor at Peking University Law Faculty, and a Fellow at the Law School of Tsinghua University.

He received a ‘Rising Star’ Teaching Excellence Award from King’s for 2017-18 and a King’s Education Award for ‘Expanding Opportunities’ in 2021. Frederick was also inducted into the Intellectual Property Hall of Fame in 2015, which honours those who have helped to establish intellectual property as one of the key business assets of the 21st century. Frederick is a founder of the Digital Scholarship Institute and the Digital Communities Lab. He is also a co-developer of the international Unicode "Troll" emoji.

Frederick is a Past President of the International Trademark Association and is currently the President of the Luxury Law Alliance. He served as Chief Intellectual Property Counsel and Chief Legal Counsel of Richemont, which includes Cartier, Van Cleef and Arpels, Alfred Dunhill, and Chloe.

Frederick served in various capacities with the World Intellectual Property Organization (a United Nations Agency in Geneva) including as a member of the Industry Advisory Committee, a member of the Domain Name Panel of Experts, and a member of the Domain Name Arbitration Centre. In addition, he was a member of the Advisory Board of the European Union Intellectual Property Office and the McCarthy Institute for Intellectual Property at the University of San Francisco.

His opinion pieces have been featured in the Financial Times and the South China Morning Post.

Some of Frederick’s most notable pro bono legal assistance has been provided to President Nelson Mandela (South Africa) and the Shaolin Monks (China).

He is Of Counsel at Bird & Bird. He is also a member of the New York Bar and a solicitor of England and Wales. He has practised corporate law at Shearman and Sterling (New York) and international intellectual property law at Fross Zelnick Lehrman & Zissu in New York. Frederick has an LLM from Columbia University School of Law in New York and an LLD from the University of Johannesburg.

Research Interests

Current legal issues around social media, brand reputation management, artificial intelligence, use of blockchain and other digital tools to protect intellectual property, human rights and cyber security. Digital law enforcement of intellectual property rights, free speech, internet regulation, AI and Blockchain, image rights and deepfakes. International aspects of trade mark and unfair competition law.

Publications

• • Image Rights in the Digital Universe, March 2022, Oxford Journal of Intellectual Property and Practice.
  • Co-drafter of the Aequitas Principles on Online Due Process, May 2021
  • Op-Ed piece, Financial Times, 17 June 2021, “Social Media Platforms must abandon Algorithmic Secrecy”.
  • Op-Ed piece, Financial Times, 17 May 2021, “Your Day in Court: Social Media Needs a System of Due Process”.
  • Digital Date-and-Time-Stamping: the Evidentiary Value and Practical Significance of WIPO PROOF, WIPO Magazine, January 2021.
  • Op-Ed piece, Financial Times, 18 June 2020, “How to counter deepfakery in the eye of the digital deceiver”.
  • ‘Digital Due Process’: A Need for Online Justice, Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice, online 11^th March 2020. Volume 15, Issue 5, May 2020.
  • Study on IP Enforcement Measures, Especially Anti-Piracy Measures in the Digital Environment, World Intellectual Property Organization, Geneva, September 2019.
  • Free Speech and Internet Regulation, Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice, 2019, Vol. 14, No. 8.
  • The Internet: Regulators Struggle to Balance Freedom Without Risk, Financial Times, 9 July 2019.
  • Study on Approaches to Online Trademark Infringements, World Intellectual Property Organization, Geneva, September 2017.

Books

• Famous and Well-known Marks – An International Analysis, First Edition, Butterworths, 1997, Principal Author with contributions by 18 Specialist Co-authors. Second Edition, International Trademark Association, 2004, Principal Author with contributions by 32 Specialist Co-authors.
• From Edison to iPod – Protect Your Ideas and Profit, Dorling Kindersley, Published February 2007-2016. International editions published with co-authors – United States, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and South Africa.
• Great Legal Writing and Writing Your Dissertation, August 2020.
• Cambridge Handbook on International and Comparative Trademark Law by Irene Calboli and Jane Ginsburg. Contributor on a Chapter – The Protection of well-known marks under the Paris Convention, TRIPS, the WIPO Joint Recommendation Concerning Provisions on the Protection of Well-Known Marks, and FTA provisions, September 2020.
• The Oxford Handbook of Online Intermediary Liability Edited by Giancarlo Frosio. Contributor on a Chapter - Intermediary Liability and Online Trademark Infringement: Emerging international Common Approaches, May 2020.
• Research Handbook on Intellectual Property and Digital Technologies Edited by Tanya Aplin. Contributor on a Chapter – Digital Tools of Intellectual Property Enforcement – their intended and unintended norm-setting consequences, January 2020.
• Intellectual Property and Information Wealth: Issues and Practices in the Digital Age (2007) edited by Peter K. Yu (4 volumes) Contributor: Volume 3, Chapter 10: Trademark and Unfair Competition Law, International Recognition and Protection of Famous and Well-Known Marks, January 2007.
• International Intellectual Property Law and Policy by Graeme B. Dinwoodie, published 2001. Contributor to a Chapter – Famous and Well-Known Marks. Is Harmony Possible in the Global Village?
• International Trademark Treaties & Agreements, INTA, November 1998, Editor.