Women and Intellectual Property (2 Days)

This 2-day hybrid event will examine the very nature of intellectual property (IP) law, evaluating its accessibility and inclusive character. New technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) have made it urgent for us to consider who we envisage when talking about creativity (authors, performers) and innovation (inventors) in order to safeguard our wellbeing and problem-solving capability as a human race. This is recognised by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in its Development Agenda, which is at the core of the work at the Committee for Development and IP.[1] For several years now, the CDIP considered the exclusion of women from IP systems.

In 2019 WIPO started reporting the Intellectual Property Gender Gap,[2] accompanied by a commitment to fully understand the scale of the problem. This resulted in the WIPO IP Gender Action Plan (2023),[3] which asks WIPO Member States to strategically plan and consider better access and inclusion of women in IP systems. The UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) reported in 2019 a significant under-representation of women inventors in its patent registry,[4] and in 2021, reported women earning, on average, a third less than men, from music.[5] Since then, the IPO has commissioned several similar reports. Women are not only missing from IP. The under-representation of women in the legal profession and academia has been at the forefront of several campaigns in the UK: (a) since 2019, the First 100 Years campaign focused on the legal profession (now the Next 100 Years);[6] and (b) since 2005, the ATHENA Swan project in Higher Education focuses on women in academia.[7]

To take measure of how the UK is approaching the problem in the three years since the adoption of the WIPO IP GAP, this two-day event will bring together women from the judiciary, IP Office, policymakers, not-for-profit sector and academia, to discuss these issues. Participants will explore two key areas. First, through inclusion of women in STEM[8] fields and patents, participants will explore the area of women’s health and consequences we must consider, when women are not represented in clinical trials, or given voice on scientific teams, entrusted with innovating new medical solutions.[9] Second, participants will consider the position of women in creative industries, through the case study of music. In 2024, the Women and Equalities Committee issued a damning report on “Misogyny in Music,” finding that gender discrimination in the music sector is endemic and systemic.[10] Participants of the seminar will consider access and inclusion of women creators in copyright systems and how this affects them and their audiences.

Through intergenerational dialogue of women and gender-diverse people from multiple sectors and disciplines, we will identify future research, best practice and law curriculum that includes women in IP. We were told in March 2025,[11] at the 69th session of the UN Commission on Status of Women that none of the UN Member States are on track to achieve any of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. In 2026, the theme of the 70th CSW session is Access to Justice for all women and girls, focusing on the promotion of “inclusive and equitable legal systems, eliminating discriminatory laws, policies, and practices, and addressing structural barriers.”[12] If we want to achieve meaningful change, whilst dealing with contemporary challenges of AI, war and climate change, we must listen to all, including women.

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Participation in person is by invitation only.

To view the event online, please register here, for free. If you want to attend both days, please make sure to book two tickets (one for Day 1, and one for Day 2).

All joining instructions will be shared closer to time. The event will be facilitated via zoom.

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PROGRAMME

Day 1: Monday, 8 June 2026.

FEMINIST SCHOLARSHIP IN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, TEACHING AND RESEARCH

08:30-09:00

Registration with Coffee (30 minutes).

09:00-10:30

Feminist Critique of Patent Law (90 minutes): with Professor Jessica C Lai.

Women Inventors and Access to Patents: the Data (20 minutes).

Gender Bias in Substantive Patent Law: Women’s Health and Failure to Invent (20 minutes).

Feminist IP Judgement Rewrite: The Person Skilled in the Art (15 minutes).

Q&A (15 minutes).

[Speakers on feminist approaches in patent law.]

10:30-11:00

Break (30 minutes).

11:00-12:30

Feminist Critique of Copyright Law (90 minutes): with Dr Metka Potočnik.

Women Authors and Performers: the Data (20 minutes).

Gender Bias in Substantive Copyright Law: Gender Credit Gap and Creative Censorship in Music (20 minutes).

Feminist IP Judgement Rewrite: Joint Authorship and Originality (15 minutes).

Q&A (15 minutes).

[Speakers on feminist approaches in copyright law.]

12:30-13:45

Lunch with Poster Presentations (75 minutes).

[Poster Presentations by ECRs presenting on Women and IP, FIPS, Women’s Health or Women in the Creative Industries.]

13:45-15:15

Feminist Critique of Trade Marks, Designs and Image Rights (90 minutes): with Professor Johanna Gibson and Professor Ilanah Fhima.

Celebrity Trade Marks and Designs: the Data (20 minutes).

Gender Bias in Substantive Trade Mark and Design Law: the Average Consumer and the Informed User (20 minutes).

Feminist IP Judgement Rewrite: Immoral Marks (15 minutes).

Q&A (15 minutes).

[Speakers on feminist approaches in trade mark and design law.]

15:15-15:45

Break (30 minutes).

15:45-17:15

Inclusive Teaching in IP Incubator Session (90 minutes).

[Participants from Day 2 will discuss inclusive curriculum design; decolonialisation; academic publishing and textbooks; diverse justifications and theories of IP, especially IP Social Justice, feminist theories in IP and critical race theory in IP; and creative, interdisciplinary methodologies, such as “Songwriting-as-Method(ology) (“SAM”).[1]]

17:15-17:30

Close of Day 1.

[All participants will discuss the questions they might want to bring to all presenters and participants on Day 2.]

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Day 2: Tuesday, 9 June 2026.

WOMEN AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: POLICY AND PRACTICE

08:30-09:00

Registration with Coffee (30 minutes).

09:00-09:15

Welcome and Plan for the Day (15 minutes).

09:15-10:15

Inclusion in Intellectual Property: International IP Policy (60 minutes).

[An introduction to the 2023 WIPO IP Gender Action Plan, with the WIPO IP and Gender team]

10:15-10:30

Comfort Break (15 minutes).

10:30-11:30

Inclusion in Intellectual Property: Domestic IP Policy (60 minutes).

Pauline Beck and Brady Bowes, Intellectual Property Office.

11:30-11:45

Comfort Break (15 minutes).

11:45-12:45

Keynote Address (60 minutes).

Chief Master Karen Shuman, Business & Property Courts, London.

12:45-13:45

Lunch.

13:45-15:30

Townhall Discussion (105 minutes).

The Gender Innovation Gap: Women’s Health (20 minutes).

With Dr Rosie Malhas, Consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Early Pregnancy, Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust; and Dr Aziza Sesay, a GP, GP Educator, Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer, Host, Speaker and Health Content Creator.

The Gender Credit Gap: Women in Music (20 minutes).

With Professor Sophie Daniels, Institute for Contemporary Music Performance; and Nicole Schulze, Independent Music Publishers Forum.

Discussion (65 minutes).

[Informed by the lived experience of women innovators and creators, all participants will reflect on the day and consider strategies to develop gender informed IP policy for the future.]

15:30 – 16:00

Break (30 minutes).

16:00-17:15

Access to Justice and Alternative Dispute Resolution in IP Disputes (75 minutes).

With Chief Master Karen Shuman, Business & Property Courts, London; Chiara Accornero, World Intellectual Property Organization, Arbitration and Mediation Centre.

17:15-17:30

Comfort Break (15 minutes).

17:30-19:00

Networking for Participants (90 minutes).

Art Exhibit on Women’s Health

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Host or Publisher University of Wolverhampton, FABSS, the Law School