Daniel J. Gervais

Biography

Daniel Gervais focuses on international intellectual property law and the law of artificial intelligence. He spent 10 years researching and addressing policy issues as a legal officer at the World Trade Organization, head of the Copyright Projects section of the World Intellectual Property Organization, deputy secretary general of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC), and vice chair of the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organizations. He is the author of The TRIPS Agreement: Drafting History and Analysis, a leading guide to the text that governs international intellectual property rights, now in its fifth edition. 

Before joining the Vanderbilt Law faculty in 2008, Professor Gervais served as Acting Dean and Vice Dean for Research of the Common Law Section at the University of Ottawa. Before entering the academy, he practiced law as a partner with the technology law firm BCF in Montreal. He was also a consultant with the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. He has been a visiting professor at numerous international universities and a visiting scholar at Stanford Law School. In 2012, he was the Gide Loyrette Nouel Visiting Chair at Sciences Po Law School in Paris. He is editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed Journal of World Intellectual Property. In 2012, he was the first North American law professor admitted to the Academy of Europe. In 2017, he became chairman of the International Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research in Intellectual Property (ATRIP). In 2022, he was a Distinguished Fulbright Chair at Carleton University. He is a member of the American Law Institute, where he serves as Associate Reporter on the Restatement of the Law, Copyright Project.