Daniel Gervais, professor of law, is president-elect of the International Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research in Intellectual Property (ATRIP). Gervais, an international copyright and intellectual property scholar who is an expert on the TRIPS Agreement, was elected to the position at ATRIP’s Annual General Assembly in Cape Town, South Africa, Sept. 30.
ATRIP is the premier association of academics who work on intellectual property related research and teaching. Its more than 300 members include professors of law, economics and related fields representing universities on all continents. ATRIP organizes an annual congress where members present new research and publishes an annual compendium of research after each annual meeting.
Gervais will succeed ATRIP’s current president, Susy Frankel, a professor at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, in fall 2017. Immediate past presidents include Graeme Dinwoodie, professor of intellectual property and information technology law at the University of Oxford, and Tana Pistorius, professor of intellectual property and information technology law in the University of South Africa.
ATRIP’s president is responsible for selecting the venue for the annual congress, choosing the theme and organizing the program. The next congress is scheduled for June 2016 in Krakow, Poland.
“I’m honored and excited to have been elected to lead ATRIP starting in 2017,” Gervais said. “Traditionally, the second congress during a presidency takes place at the home school of the president, and I look forward to the prospect of inviting ATRIP members to Vanderbilt and Nashville in 2019.”