Professor Marketa Trimble Shapes the Global Practice of IP Law
Professor Marketa Trimble’s new book, Intellectual Property and Conflict of Laws, brings together her key areas of research: intellectual property law and conflict of laws, known in many countries as private international law. Designed for practitioners, graduate students, and academics, the book examines how conflict-of-laws principles apply to cross-border disputes involving copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets, and other types of intellectual property. As Professor Trimble explains, the intersection has become “very much of a hot topic these days,” even as relatively few legal experts specialize in both areas at the same time.
Her research informs her work on the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property’s (AIPPI’s) Study Question 299, in which she is involved on behalf of the U.S. chapter of AIPPI. The study question examines conflict-of-laws issues in online copyright infringement cases, as well as geoblocking, and will be discussed at AIPPI’s World Congress this month. For Professor Trimble, it is an opportunity to connect scholarship directly with the profession, which she calls “a good example of how my research can contribute to practitioners” as they consider new solutions to emerging legal challenges.
The increasingly global nature of intellectual property — and the rise of artificial intelligence — are making these questions especially timely. Professor Trimble points to disputes involving AI companies and copyright owners as one example: when a U.S.-based AI company trains its technology using copyrighted works belonging to authors in another country, which country’s laws apply, and which courts have the authority to decide the dispute? These cases illustrate a broader challenge because, as she notes, “Many scholars who focus on conflict of laws tend to know very little about intellectual property law, and very often intellectual property law experts know very little about conflict of laws.” Her book helps bridge that divide by providing both a foundation and an up-to-date examination of the issues emerging at this intersection.
Professor Trimble continues to extend her scholarship into other areas, including research on U.S. state laws concerning copyright and the extraterritorial reach of intellectual property laws. She presented her research on these topics, for example, at the 29th Annual BTLJ-BCLT Spring Symposium: Origins, Evolution, and Possible Futures of the 1976 Copyright Act at Berkeley Law and at the 26th Annual Intellectual Property Scholars Conference at Stanford Law School.