Vanderbilt University Law School
Daniel J. Gervais
Professor of Law Co-Director, Technology & Entertainment Law Program
Voice: 615-343-7202
Fax: 615-322-6631
Email: daniel.gervais@vanderbilt.edu
Office: Room 271
Personal Website
Links
Research Interest(s)
International intellectual property law
Education
Doctorate, University of Nantes (France)
Diploma of Advanced International Studies, Geneva, Switzerland
LL.M. University of Montreal
LL.B. McGill University/University of Montreal
D.E.C. Jean-de-Brébeuf College, Montreal
Biography
Daniel Gervais focuses on international intellectual property law, having spent 10 years researching and addressing policy issues on behalf of the World Trade Organization (GATT), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) and Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) before entering the academy. Before joining Vanderbilt Law School in 2008, Professor Gervais was Acting Dean of the Common Law Section at the University of Ottawa, where he also served as Acting Dean from February 1, 2006 until July 31, 2006, and as Vice-Dean for Research from 2003 until January 2007. Professor Gervais practiced law in Montreal from 1985 to 1990 as an associate with Clark Woods and later as a partner with the technology law firm BCF. In 1990-91, he was a consultant and legal officer with the World Trade Organization, where he was actively involved in the TRIPS Agreement negotiations. In 1992, he joined WIPO and was promoted the following year to Head of the Copyright Projects section, where he prepared WIPO studies and international meetings on the impact of digital technology on copyright and neighboring rights. In 1995, Professor Gervais joined CISAC as Assistant Secretary General, and in 1997 he moved to the United States to become director of international relations at CCC, the largest reprographic rights organization in the world. He chaired the sectoral work on culture, communications and information at the Canadian Commission for UNESCO. Professor Gervais currently serves as a panelist (domain name) at the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Centre and was a consultant with the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). He has been a visiting professor at the Universities of Grenoble, Montpellier and Nantes in France; at the University of Haifa; and at the University of Puerto Rico, and a visiting scholar at Stanford Law School. He is a visiting lecturer at the University of Amsterdam and has lectured at the Institute of European Studies of Macau. He was the 2004 Trilateral Distinguished Scholar at Michigan State University. He received an Early Researcher Award from Ontario, Canada's Ministry of Research and Innovation, the only law professor in the province to receive the award in that round. He currently serves as editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed Journal of World Intellectual Property.
Representative Publications
Books
The TRIPS Agreement: Drafting History and Analysis, 3rd edition, Sweet & Maxwell (2008)
Intellectual Property, Trade and Development, Oxford University Press (2007) (editor)
Collective Management of Copyright and Related Rights, Kluwer Law International (2006)
Articles
"Making Copyright Whole," University of Ottawa Journal of Law & Technology (forthcoming 2010)
"Of Clusters and Assumptions: Innovation as Part of a Full TRIPS Implementation," 77:5 Fordham Law Review 2353 (2009)
"Of Silos and Constellations: Comparing Notions of Originality in Copyright Law," 27 Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal 2 (2009) (with Elizabeth Judge)
"The Tangled Web of User-Generated Content," 11Vanderbilt Journal of Technology And Entertainment Law 841 (2009)
"The Protection of Databases," Chicago Kent Law Review (2007)
"The Changing Landscape of International Intellectual Property," 2 Journal of Intellectual Law & Practice 1 (2006)
"Feist Goes Global: A Comparative Analysis of the Notion of Originality in Copyright Law," 49:4 Journal of Copyright Society of the USA 949 (2002) (Winner, Charles Best Seton Award, Best Article of 2002-3, Copyright Society of the USA)
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