The United Nations Climate Summit in New York will provide a focal point for a number of outstanding issues on climate change — including intellectual property. Engaging in a close analysis of legal and political discourse, Dr. Rimmer presented on conflicts over intellectual property and climate change in three key arenas: climate law; trade law; and intellectual property law. First, Dr. Rimmer discussed the debate over intellectual property and climate change under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 1992, and the establishment of the UNFCCC Climate Technology Centre and Network. Second, he examined the discussion of global issues in the World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO GREEN. Third, Dr. Rimmer discussed the dispute in the TRIPS Council at the World Trade Organization over intellectual property, climate change, and development. He argued that intellectual property law reform should promote climate justice in line with Mary Robinson’s Declaration on Climate Justice 2013.

Dr. Matthew Rimmer is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow; an associate professor at the ANU College of Law; and an associate director of the Australian Centre for Intellectual Property in Agriculture (ACIPA). He is a member of the ANU Climate Change Institute. Amongst other things, he is the author of Intellectual Property and Climate Change: Inventing Clean Technologies.  He was one of Managing IP’s 50 most influential intellectual property people in 2014.