Associate Professor Alexandra   George
Alexandra
George
Associate Professor
+61 2 9385 9626

BA(Hons), LLB(Hons), LLM(Hons), MJur(Hons) (Sydney); GDLP (College of Law); PGCAP (London); PhD (ANU); FHEA

Dr Alexandra George specialises in intellectual property law. She joined the UNSW Faculty of Law & Justice in 2007, having had earlier academic appointments at Queen Mary, University of London, the University of Wales, Swansea, and the University of Exeter in the UK. She has also worked at the European University Institute (EUI), Florence, Italy and taught courses at the University of Sydney, the National University of Singapore, and Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. She has practised as an intellectual property and media lawyer, and continues to give legal advice on a pro bono basis through the ArtsLaw Centre of Australia (a community legal centre that supports artists). She was Associate to Justice MF Moore in the Federal Court of Australia and the Industrial Relations Court of Australia and, while studying, worked for the international news organisation Reuters.

Alexandra’s research focuses on international intellectual property and the philosophy of intellectual property law. Recent publications examine issues of jurisdiction and enforcement in international intellectual property law, and the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and intellectual property. Her philosophical research examines issues such as the metaphysics and structure of intellectual property law, and ‘property’ concepts in the commodification of intangible objects. She is currently undertaking applied research in this area. Alexandra also has an interest in Chinese law, and is a member of the Herbert Smith Freehills China International Business and Economic Law Centre (CIBEL) at UNSW Sydney.

Her book Constructing Intellectual Property (Cambridge University Press, 2012) examines the ways in which the legal system defines into existence and regulates intellectual property. By analyzing the metaphysical structure of intellectual property law and the concepts the legal system uses to construct 'intellectual property', the book helps to explain the role of intellectual property from a structural — rather than the traditional normative — perspective.

Alexandra was named 'Academic of the Year' at the Australian Lawyers Weekly Women in Law Awards (2016). She has also received a Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence at UNSW (2013), and a Pro Bono Award for her work for The Arts Law Centre of Australia (2016).

Journal articles

2022, 'Artificial intelligence is breaking patent law', Nature, 605, pp. 616 - 618, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01391-x

2022, 'Can AI invent?', Nature Machine Intelligence, 4, pp. 1057 - 1060, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s42256-022-00582-5

2018, 'Transcending Territoriality: International Cooperation and Harmonization in Intellectual Property Enforcement & Dispute Resolution', Tsinghua China Law Review, 2018, pp. 225 - 273, http://www.tsinghuachinalawreview.org/articles/1002_George.htm

George A, 2018, 'Restructuring Intellectual Property Jurisdiction Post-Brexit: Strategic Considerations for the European Union and Britain', Brooklyn Journal of International Law, 43, pp. 131 - 189, https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/bjil/vol43/iss1/27

George A, 2017, 'Just Keep Calm & Carry On: The Impact of Brexit on Intellectual Property Laws in Britain and the European Union', Journal of Intellectual Property Studies, 1, pp. 90 - 130, https://journalofipstudies.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/brexit-ip.pdf

George A, 2015, 'The Metaphysics of Intellectual Property', The WIPO Journal: analysis and debate of global intellectual property issues, 7, pp. 16 - 28, http://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo_journal_wpj7n1.pdf

George A, 2014, 'Legal Protection of Brands in a World of Social Media', Inhouse Counsel, 18, pp. 109 - 114

George A, 2014, 'Reforming Australia's Copyright Law: An opportunity to Address the Issues of Authorship and Originality', University of New South Wales Law Journal, 37, pp. 939 - 971, http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=778737583934157;res=IELHSS

George A, 2009, 'Intellectual Property in the South Pacific', Socio-Legal Newsletter, 58, pp. 8 - 9

George A, 2007, 'The (In)Justice of Globalisation by Intellectual Propertisation', Archiv fur Rechts- und Sozialphilosophie, 109, pp. 17 - 31

George A, 2006, 'Brand Rules: When Branding Lore Meets Trademark Law', Journal of Brand Management, 13, pp. 215 - 232, http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.bm.2540265

2006, 'BrandsTM: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Trademarks and Branding', Journal of Brand Management, 13, pp. 175 - 177

George A, 2006, 'Marketing Humanity: Should We Allow the Sale of Human Body Parts?', UTS Law Review, 7

2005, 'The Difficulty of Defining 'Property'', Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, 25, pp. 793 - 813, http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ojls/gqi037

George A, 2004, 'Is 'Property' Necessary? On Owning the Human Body and its Parts', Res Publica, pp. 15 - 42

George A, 2003, 'The Problem of Property in Human Body Parts', Archiv fur Rechts- und Sozialphilosophie, 88, pp. 168 - 176

George A, 2003, 'E-shopping for Fakes: The Internet Business in Trademark Counterfeits', World Internet Law Report, 12, pp. 7 - 11

George A, 1998, 'Australian Franchising Code: New Obligations for Trade Mark Licensing Agreements', World Licensing Law Report, pp. 3 - 5

George A, 1996, 'Sterilisation and Intellectually Disabled Children', The Sydney Law Review, 18, pp. 218 - 233, http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/SydLawRw/1996/10.html

Conference Presentations

2022, 'Creative AI & IP Incentives', presented at 2022 IP Scholars Forum, Akron Law IP Center, University of Akron, Ohio, USA, 09 December 2022 - 09 December 2022, https://www.uakron.edu/law/intellectual-property/events/forum

2022, 'AI-IP and the Incentivisation of Creative Artificial Intelligence Systems', presented at LawAsia2022: 35th LawAsia Conference, Sydney, Australia, 18 November 2022 - 21 November 2022, https://lawasia2022.com/

2022, 'Copyright and Humanity in the Fourth Industrial Revolution', presented at APCA Conference 2022: Copyright in the Age of Disruption, NUS, Singapore, 14 November 2022 - 15 November 2022, https://law.nus.edu.sg/ewbclb/apca2022-home/

2022, 'Fit for Purpose? AI and Copyright Law', presented at COPYRIGHT N©W: Authorship, AI & Access Post-Pandemic (20th Copyright Law & Practice Symposium), Sydney, Australia, 20 October 2022 - 20 November 2022, https://copyright.asn.au/2022-copyright-law-and-practice-symposium/

2022, 'AI-inventorship: Possible Alternative Solutions', presented at Sixth session of the WIPO Conversation “Frontier technologies – AI Inventions”, Hybrid, 21 September 2022 - 22 September 2022, https://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/details.jsp?meeting_id=72090

2022, 'When AI Invents', presented at Asian Patent Attorneys Association (APAA) webinar, Online, 29 July 2022 - 29 July 2022, https://apaaonline.org/webinars/

2020, 'Specialised Forums for Intellectual Property Dispute Resolution: Evolving Trends', presented at Inaugural Tsinghua-UNSW Joint Research Centre for International Commercial and Economic Law (JCICEL) conference, “Law and Technology: International Regulations”, Sydney, Australia, 21 September 2020 - 21 September 2020

2019, 'Cultural Heritage, Art and Technology', presented at 19th Biennial Copyright Law & Practice Symposium 2019, Sydney, Australia, 22 October 2019 - 23 October 2019

2019, 'Intelligent Design or Natural Selection? The Contested Future of Intellectual Property Law', presented at ATRIP Congress 2019, Nashville, USA, 28 August 2019 - 28 April 2021

2019, 'Copyright, Jurisdiction and Enforcing Judgments Abroad', presented at Copyright Society of Australia seminar, Sydney, 21 March 2019 - 19 April 2021

2019, 'China’s FinTech Disruption: Intellectual Property’s Role in the Revolution', presented at Works-in-Progress Intellectual Property Colloquium (WIPIP), University of Houston Law Center, Houston, USA, 08 February 2019 - 09 February 2019

2019, 'Transported for Stealing Copyright? Extradition as a Tool for the Cross-Border Enforcement of Intellectual Property Laws', presented at Institute for Intellectual Property & Information Law (‘IPIL’) seminar, University of Houston Law Center, Houston, 06 February 2019 - 06 February 2019

2018, 'Extradition and Overseas Prison Time: A Developing Trend in the Cross-Border Enforcement of Intellectual Property Laws?', presented at International Law Association conference, Sydney, Australia, 19 August 2018 - 24 August 2018

2018, 'The Future of Globalisation of Intellectual Property Jurisdiction/Enforcement', presented at UNSW Workshop on Private International Law and Intellectual Property, Sydney, Australia, 18 August 2018 - 18 August 2018

2018, 'Brexit & Intellectual Property Law: Implications for Australia', presented at Symposium - The Australia-European Union Free Trade Agreement and Brexit, QUT, Brisbane, Australia, 26 July 2018 - 26 July 2018

2018, 'Uncle Sam Wants You! Extradition to the US in Copyright Cases', presented at Law and Society Association, 2018 Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada, 07 June 2018 - 10 June 2018

2018, 'Catching Pirates: Copyright, Extradition & Human Rights', presented at HKU-UNSW Symposium, Hong Kong University, Hong Kong, 02 March 2018 - 02 March 2018

2018, 'Intellectual Property Laws in an AI Future: A Metaphysical Approach', presented at Bracing for Impact: The Artificial Intelligence Challenge, Osgoode Hall, Toronto, Canada, 02 February 2018 - 02 February 2018

2017, 'Sci-Tech Disruption and Intellectual Property: A Metaphysical Approach to the Future of Intellectual Property Laws', presented at 1st Future of Law Conference —The Internet of Things, Smart Contracts and Intelligent Machines, Singapore Management University, Singapore, 26 October 2017 - 27 October 2017

2017, 'The (Im)Possibility of Reconciling Indigenous and Western ‘Intellectual Property’ Laws', presented at Copyright Symposium 2017, Sydney, Australia, 12 October 2017 - 13 October 2017

2017, 'Transcending Territoriality: International Intellectual Property Enforcement & Dispute Resolution in the Fourth Industrial Revolution', presented at Tsinghua-UNSW Workshop, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, 27 September 2017 - 27 September 2017

2017, 'Transcending Geography: Trends Towards the Globalization of Intellectual Property Enforcement', presented at European Policy for Intellectual Property (EPIP), Bordeaux, France, 04 September 2017 - 06 September 2017

2017, 'Embedding Emerging Practice Technologies in Law Teaching', presented at The Future of Australian Legal Education Conference, Sydney, Australia, 11 August 2017 - 13 August 2017

2017, 'Materializing the Immaterial: Intellectual Property Law as a Mechanism for Commodification', presented at Law and Society Association, 2017 Annual Meeting, Mexico City, Mexico, 20 June 2017 - 23 June 2017

2016, 'Designing Laws to Protect Indigenous Knowledge: Lessons from Metaphysics', presented at Indigenous Knowledge Roundtable, University of Technology Sydney, Australia, 14 December 2016 - 14 December 2016

2016, 'Mind Downloads & Intellectual Property Futurism', presented at Law and Society Association, 2016 Annual Meeting, New Orleans, USA, 02 June 2016 - 05 June 2016

2016, 'Alternative Dispute Resolution in Intellectual Property Disputes: A Solution to Jurisdictional Challenges?', presented at Thirteenth Annual Works-in-Progress Intellectual Property Colloquium (WIPIP), University of Washington School of Law, Seattle, USA, 19 February 2016 - 20 February 2016

2016, 'Intellectual Property in a Globalized World: Overcoming Jurisdictional Impediments to Cross-Border Enforcement', presented at 4th Asia Pacific Intellectual Property Forum (‘Comparative Transnational IP Law in Practice’), University of Washington School of Law, Seattle, USA, 18 February 2016 - 18 February 2016

2015, 'Testing Boundaries? Protecting Intellectual Property Interests Across National Borders', presented at UNSW-HKU Law Symposium, Sydney, Australia, 04 December 2015 - 05 December 2015

2015, 'Human Rights & the Cross-Border Enforcement of Intellectual Property Laws', presented at Colloquium on Social Responsibility of IP Rights Holders, University of Pretoria, South Africa, 02 October 2015 - 02 October 2015

2015, 'Intellectual Property Law as a Knowledge System: Law Reform Lessons from Indigenous Societies', presented at ATRIP Congress 2015: “Intellectual Property in Action in Society: New Perspectives from the North, the South and the Cloud”, Cape Town, South Africa, 27 September 2015 - 30 September 2015

2015, 'Globalising Jurisdiction: New Developments in Cross-Territorial Protection of Intellectual Property', presented at 7th Annual Conference on Innovation and Communications Law, Xiamen University, China, 06 July 2015 - 07 July 2015

2015, 'Indigenous Knowledge and Social Systems: A Case Study of Customary ‘Copyright’ in the South Pacific', presented at Law and Society Association, 2015 Annual Meeting, Seattle, USA, 27 May 2015 - 31 May 2015

2015, 'Spiritual Property: Indigenous Knowledge Systems in an Intellectual Property Environment', presented at WIPIP 2015, USPTO, Alexandria, VA, USA, 06 February 2015 - 07 February 2015

2014, 'Copyright’s Conundrum: The Problem of How to Protect National Rights in a Globalised World', presented at Trans-Pacific Intellectual Property Roundtable, UNSW, Sydney Australia, 21 November 2014 - 21 November 2014

2014, 'The Law of Authenticity: Fashion, Fakes and Fame', presented at Charting the New Frontiers of Intellectual Property Protection of Fashion Brands and Designs, Hong Kong, 10 May 2014 - 10 May 2014

2014, 'How Long is Uncle Sam's Arm? Extraterritorial Enforcement of Domestic Intellectual Property Laws', presented at WIPIP 2014, San Jose, USA, 07 February 2014 - 09 February 2014

2013, 'Australia's Gene Patenting Environment (discussing J.Liddicoat,"New perspectives on Genetic Sequence Patents")', presented at European Policy for Intellectual Property ('EPIP'), 2013 Annual Conference, Paris, France, 05 September 2013 - 06 September 2013

2013, 'Intellectual Property as Religion', presented at Law and Society Association, 2013 Annual Meeting, Boston, USA, 30 May 2013 - 02 June 2013

2012, '‘Literary’ Authorship, Commerce, & Cultural Innovation', presented at Creativity and Authorship: Law and Changing Practices Symposium, Canberra, Australia, 17 December 2012 - 18 December 2012

2012, 'Global Intellectual Property Regulation: A Changing Trajectory?', presented at 2nd HKU-UNSW Research Symposium, Hong Kong, 06 December 2012 - 07 December 2012

2012, 'Pester Power and Intellectual Property Reform', presented at UNSW Law Society and Gilbert + Tobin Intellectual Property Seminar, Sydney, Australia, 29 May 2012 - 29 May 2012

2011, 'The Metaphysics of Intellectual Property & the Challenges of Scientific Progress', presented at World Congress of the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (IVR), Frankfurt, Germany, 14 August 2011 - 20 August 2011

2011, 'When is Intellectual Property Not ‘Intellectual Property’?', presented at Law and Society Association, 2011 Annual Meeting, San Francisco, California, USA, 02 June 2011 - 05 June 2011

2008, 'Resisting Counterfeiting: Cultural Dimensions of Intellectual Property Enforcement', presented at Law and Society Association, 2008 Annual Meeting, Montreal, Canada, 29 May 2008 - 01 June 2008

2008, 'Comparative Perspectives on Intellectual Property Law and Theory', presented at ANJEL (The Australian Network for Japanese Law) international conference: Beyond 'Country and Western' Law: Towards New Australia-Japan Partnerships in Legal Research, Ritsumeikan Law School, Kyoto, Japan, 16 February 2008 - 16 February 2008

2007, 'Legal Imperialism? The Application of Western Intellectual Property Laws to Ideas, Information and Knowledge in Non-Commercial Settings, Seminar Series', presented at Faculty of Law, University of the South Pacific, Port Vila, Vanuatu, Faculty of Law, University of the South Pacific, Port Vila, Vanuatu, 03 September 2007 - 03 September 2007

2007, 'Whose Property? ‘Intellectual Property’ as a Contested Concept', presented at World Congress of the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (IVR), Krakow, Poland, 06 August 2007 - 06 August 2007

2006, 'Branding Trademarks', presented at Seminar to the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, London, UK, 14 December 2006 - 14 December 2006

2006, 'Branding Law / Trademarking Culture', presented at Law and Society Association, 2006 Annual Meeting, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, 06 July 2006 - 09 July 2006

2006, 'Intangible Property; Tangible Justice?', presented at Social Justice in Practice, Association for Legal and Social Philosophy 2006 Conference, Dublin, Ireland, 28 June 2006 - 01 July 2006

2005, 'Propertising the Immaterial: The Commodification of Valuable (In)tangibles', presented at Material Worlds Conference, University of Glasgow, 30 October 2005 - 30 October 2005

2005, 'Trademark Law-Branding Lore: The Jurisprudence of a Branding Culture', presented at Trade Marks and Branding: An Interdisciplinary Colloquium, Queen Mary, University of London, UK, 16 September 2005 - 16 September 2005

2005, 'Brand New World: The (In)Justice of Global Intellectual Propertisation', presented at World Congress of the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (IVR), Granada, Spain, 25 May 2005 - 25 May 2005

2005, 'Symbolic Symbiosis: The Branding-Trademark Nexus', presented at Brands: A Workshop, Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK, 08 April 2005 - 08 April 2005

2004, 'Commercial Liberalism and Law-Making: Regulating Intellectual Properties', presented at UK Legal Theory Group Inaugural Conference, University of Edinburgh, UK, 16 April 2004 - 16 April 2004

2004, ''Intellectual 'Property’?', presented at First Annual Intellectual Property & Communications Law and Policy Scholars Roundtable, Michigan State University-DCL College of Law, USA, 20 February 2004 - 21 February 2004

2003, 'Intellectual Property and Commercial Liberalism', presented at RegNet Seminar, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, 25 November 2003 - 25 November 2003

2003, 'Counterfeiting in Context, Makers, Takers and Fakers: A Sideways Look at IP Enforcement', presented at Anti-Counterfeiting Group Autumn Conference, UK, 17 October 2003 - 17 October 2003

2003, 'Legal Developments in the Enforcement of Trade Mark Rights, Anti-Counterfeiting and Enforcement Practices Conference', presented at Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM), Alicante, Spain, 02 April 2003 - 02 April 2003

2003, 'Global Cooling: Copyright and the Regulation of Communication', presented at RegNet Seminar, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, 08 January 2003 - 08 January 2003

2003, 'Intellectual Property in the Post-Colonial World', presented at World Congress of the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (IVR), Lund, Sweden, -

2003, 'The Criminalisation of Intellectual Property Infringement: Shifting Conceptions from Civil Infringement to Criminal Counterfeiting', presented at 3rd Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology: Crime and Crime Control in an Integrating Europe, Helsinki, Finland, -

2002, 'Unregistered Marks in the EU and the World', presented at Seminar at the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM), Alicante, Spain, 27 November 2002 - 27 November 2002

2001, 'Property in the Human Body and its Parts: Reflections on Self-Determination in Liberal Society', presented at World Congress of the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, -

2001, 'Legal Control of the Human Body: How and Why?', presented at Law and Society Annual Conference, Budapest, Hungary, -

Reports

Wang M; Bennett Moses L; George A, 2018, Submission to Copyright Modernization Consultation, https://www.communications.gov.au/sites/default/files/submissions/allens_hub_for_technology_law_and_innovation_unsw.pdf

George A, 2018, Submission concerning Digital Assets upon Death or Incapacity to the Law Reform Commission NSW, https://www.lawreform.justice.nsw.gov.au/Documents/Current-projects/Digital%20assets/Preliminary%20submissions/PDI15.pdf

Other

2018, The Future of Cross-Border Enforcement of Intellectual Property Laws, Special Lecture, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan,

2015, All in the Mind? The Metaphysics of Intellectual Property Law, Faculty Seminar, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand,

2013, Intellectual Property Roundtable guest speaker, National Law University, Jodhpur, India,

Books

George A, 2012, Constructing Intellectual Property, 1, Cambridge University Press, US, http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139035361

Book Chapters

2012, 'Filmography', in Constructing Intellectual Property, Cambridge University Press, pp. 389 - 390, http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139035361.010

2012, 'Bibliography', in Constructing Intellectual Property, Cambridge University Press, pp. 351 - 388, http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139035361.009

2012, 'Concluding Remarks', in Constructing Intellectual Property, Cambridge University Press, pp. 329 - 340, http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139035361.007

2012, 'Authorities', in Constructing Intellectual Property, Cambridge University Press, pp. xxi - xxvi, http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139035361.001

George A, 2012, '“Owning Life"', in Chatterjee D (ed.), Encyclopedia of Global Justice, Springer Science & Business Media, pp. 791 - 791

2011, 'Essential Medicines, Access to', in Encyclopedia of Global Justice, Springer Netherlands, pp. 312 - 318, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9160-5_681

George A, 2011, 'Organ Trafficking', in Chatterjee D (ed.), Encyclopedia of Global Justice, Springer, New York, pp. 783 - 784

George A, 2011, 'Bio-Prospecting and Biopiracy', in Chatterjee D (ed.), Encyclopedia of Global Justice, Springer, New York, pp. 77 - 80

George A, 2011, 'Human Genome', in Chatterjee D (ed.), Encyclopedia of Global Justice, Springer, New York, pp. 490 - 494

George A, 2011, 'Access to Essential Medicines', in Chatterjee D (ed.), Encyclopedia of Global Justice, Springer, New York, pp. 312 - 318

George A, 2010, 'What is 'Intellectual Property'? Standard Definitional Methods and their Flaws', in Gizbert-Studnicki T; Klinowski M (ed.), Law, Liberty, Morality and Rights, edn. Original, Wolters Kluwer Polska-Oficyna, Warsaw, pp. 164 - 175

George A, 2009, 'Trade Marks', in Southerton D (ed.), Encyclopedia of Consumer Culture, edn. 1st, Routledge, London, UK, pp. 1473 - 1477

2007, 'Intellectual Property and the Internet', in Freire M; Pereira M (ed.), Encyclopedia of Internet Technologies and Applications, Idea Group Reference, Hershey, Pennsylvania, pp. 222 - 227, http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/978-1-59140-993-9.ch032

George A, 2006, 'How to Globalize the World: The Jurisprudence of International Intellectual Propertization', in George A (ed.), Globalization and Intellectual Property, edn. Original, Ashgate, Surrey, UK, pp. xi - xl

George A, 2005, 'Propertizing the Immaterial: The Commodification of Valuable Intangibles', in Material Worlds, Cambridge Scholars Pub, Newcastle, U.K

Edited Books

George A, (ed.), 2006, Globalization and Intellectual Property, Ashgate, Surrey, UK

Working Papers

2001, Property in the Human Body and its Parts: Reflections on Self-Determination in Liberal Society, European University Institute, 8, http://dx.doi.org, http://0.0.0.8/

2001, Law and Public Management: Starting to Talk – Part II / Droit et gestion publique: la gestion des reseaux – IIe partie, European University Institute, 13, http://dx.doi.org, http://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/177/law01-13.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

2001, Law and Public Management: Starting to Talk – Part I, European University Institute, 12, http://dx.doi.org, http://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/176/law01-12.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y