Jani teaches and researches in the areas of intellectual property law and is the Law School's Deputy Head of School, Teaching and Learning. Her research focuses on copyright and moral rights, particularly in the context of literature and visual art. Jani obtained her LLB and a BA (Hons) in English Literature from Monash University, and a LLM by research from UWA which focused on the potential registration of non-traditional trade marks. Before joining UWA in 1999, she worked as a solicitor for Freehill, Hollingdale and Page, and a Legal Research Officer for a Member of the WA Legislative Assembly. Since joining UWA, Jani has from time to time worked part-time as a solicitor and as a consultant to specialist intellectual property law firms. She has published internationally in numerous peer-reviewed journals and edited collections and presented her work at conferences and workshops in many countries, a number of which she has convened or co-convened. She has been a visiting scholar at Berkeley Law school.

Jani is the Law School's Deputy Head of School, Teaching and Learning and chairs the Law School Teaching and Learning Committee. She is a co-director, Applied Intellectual Property Research Hub, and a Member of the Law School's Law and Society Research Hub.

Books/monograph:

Jani is currently writing a book, Literary Characters in Intellectual Property Law, to be published by Edward Elgar in 2021. 

Recent publications:

Books:

• McCutcheon JL and Ramalho A (eds) International Perspectives on Disability Exceptions in Copyright and the Visual Arts: Feeling Art (Routledge, September 2020)

• McCutcheon, JL and McCaughey, F (eds), A Research Handbook on Art and Law, Edward Elgar, 2020.

Book chapters:

• McCutcheon, JL, ‘Making Art From Words: the Picturisation Adaptation Right Under Copyright Law’ , in McCutcheon, JL and McCaughey, F (eds), A Research Handbook on Art and Law, Edward Elgar, 2020
• McCutcheon, JL, ‘On The Nullians’, in McCutcheon, JL and McCaughey, F (eds), A Research Handbook on Art and Law, Edward Elgar, 2020
• Denby, E, Armytage, P and McCutcheon, JL, ‘Demystifying Colour Regulation In Art – Protecting Substances, Appearances And Beyond’ in McCutcheon, JL and McCaughey, F (eds), A Research Handbook on Art and Law, Edward Elgar, 2020
• McCutcheon, JL and McGaughey, F, ‘Introduction’ in McCutcheon, JL and McCaughey, F (eds), A Research Handbook on Art and Law, Edward Elgar, 2020
• McCutcheon, JL, ‘Bioart and Copyright’, in E Bonadio and N Lucchi (eds) Unconventional Copyright (Edward Elgar, 2018)

Articles:

• Leahy, J, and McCutcheon, JL ‘Do Wrongs Make a (Copy)right? Copyright Subsistence in Illegal Works’ (2019) 30 Australian Intellectual Property Journal 78
• McCutcheon, JL, ‘The Concept of the Copyright Work under EU Law: More Than a Matter of Taste’ (2019) 44:6 European Law Review 767
• McCutcheon, JL, ‘Levola v Smilde – The Hard Work of Defining a Copyright Work’ (2019) 82(5) Modern Law Review 936–950
• McCutcheon, JL and Leahy, J, ‘Copyright, Illegal Works and the Remedial Discretion of the Court’ (2019) 9:3 Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property 326
• McCutcheon, JL, ‘The Artistic Exemption in Hate Speech Regulation’, (2019) 23:1 Media and Arts Law Review 61
• McCutcheon, JL, ‘Works of Fiction: The Misconception of Literary Characters as Copyright Works’ (2019) 66:1 Journal of the Copyright Society of the USA 11
• McCutcheon, JL and Skead, N, ‘The Art of Crime: Proceeds of Crime Legislation and Visual Art’(2018) 22(3) Media and Arts Law Review 253
• McCutcheon, JL, ‘Copyrighting Culture: Photography and the Public Domain’, Photography and Culture, (2018)11 Photography and Culture 261
• McCutcheon, JL, ‘Natural Causes: When Author Meets Nature in Copyright Law and Art. Some Observations Inspired by Kelley v Chicago Park District ’ (2018) 86:2 University of Cincinnati Law Review 707

Conference presentations:

• Jani McCutcheon, 7 August 2019 ‘Point And Shoot: Modern Photography And Copyright Law’, Federal Court Of Australia Intellectual Property Twilight Seminar
• Jani McCutcheon, 24 May 2019, ‘Copyright in Bioart’, SymbioticA
• Jani McCutcheon, 3 April 2019, ‘Property in Digital Surrogates’, University of Western Australia seminar, Technology and the Public Interest Network
• Jani McCutcheon, February 2019, ‘Digital Access To Culture: Copyright In Photographic Surrogates of Two-Dimensional Cultural Objects’, IP Academics Association of Australia and New Zealand Conference, Tasmania, Australia
• Jani McCutcheon, September 2018, ‘Authorship, Art and Copyright Law’, Art + Law series, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia
• Remedies Forum, Aix en Provence, France (June 2018): Copyright, Illegal Works and the Remedial Discretion of the Court
• Feeling Art: Disability Exceptions and their Application to 3D Printing, International experts Workshop, University of Maastricht, June 2018

Immediate short term:

Completion of Literary Characters in Intellectual Property Law (Edward Elgar, 2021).

Future projects:

• AI and Intellectual Property Rights in the Arts and Design Industries in France and Australia
• Feeling Art, Interrogating Intellectual Property Rights Exceptions for 3D Printing of 2D Art to Facilitate Access by the Visually Impaired
• Point and Shoot: Modern Photogaphy and Copyright Law
• The IP Awareness Project: How IP Savvy Are Australia's Creators and Innovators? Jani recently received a UWA Law School teaching-research Nexus grant to gain insight into the teaching of intellectual property law in Australian tertiary institutions.
• Copyright and Illustrated Fiction in the 19th C
• Contextual Infringement of the Moral Right of Integrity

Jani is also currently drafting a number of grant applications concerning disability exceptions and visual art.

Awarded grants:

1. Jani McCutcheon CI and Christophe Geiger CI, ‘AI and Intellectual Property Rights in the Arts and Design Industries in France and Australia’, Australian-French Association For Research And Innovation ($1500) August 2020
2. Jani McCutcheon CI and Fiona McGaughey CI, University of Western Australia Educational Enhancement Unit for modifying LAWS5227 as a flipped learning mode unit ($5000, December 2018)Jani McCutcheon CI, ‘Feeling Art: Enhancing Disability Access to Artistic Works – International Experts Workshop’, Maastricht University Law School travel grant (€1600, 2018)
3. Jani McCutcheon CI, ‘A Pilot Study Ascertaining The Extent Of Intellectual Property Law Teaching To Australia’s Future Creators And Innovators’ Law School Teaching-Research Nexus grant, (2017, $2500)
4. Jani McCutcheon CI, Art in Law in Art Conference, key note speaker travel grant, Ian Potter Foundation, $2700 (2017)
5. Jani McCutcheon CI, Art in Law in Art Conference support grant, Perth Convention Bureau, $1000, 2017
6. Jani McCutcheon CI, numerous Law school internally funded competitive sabbatical and travel research and conference grants (2006 – 2017 totalling more than $25,000)
7. Jani McCutcheon CI, ‘Old Law, New Art: the Dissonance between Copyright and Contemporary Art’, UWA Research Development Office ARC Discovery Project research development grant , $2000 (2013)
8. Jani McCutcheon CI, research publication support grant, Faculty of Economics, Commerce, Education and Law, $2500 (2002).

Jani teaches Intellectual Property Law at post graduate level in the JD and LLM, Business Law in Practice (an undergraduate capstone unit in the Business Law Major),  Creative Expression and the Law, an undergraduate unit offered in the Law and Society Major, and LAWS4227 Foundations of Law and Legal Institutions. Jani also guest lectures in the Law and Society major undergraduate units LAWS2018 Law and Literature and LAWS3316 Law, Advocacy, Activism and Change.

- Intellectual Property Law
- literary characters and intellectual property law
- copyright
- moral rights
- trade marks
- artifical intelligence and intellectual property law

- literature and the law
- art and the law
- Internet Law