Jani McCutcheon

Jani teaches and researches in the areas of intellectual property law and is the Director of the Law School's Law and Society program. 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 presented her work at conferences and workshops in many countries. She has been a visiting scholar at Berkeley Law school.

Jani is Director, Law and Society and is an elected Member of the UWA Academic Board, a member of the Law School Executive, Teaching and Learning Committee and Honours and Advanced Legal Research Committee. She is a co-director, Applied Intellectual Property Research Network, and a Member of the Law School's Law and Society Research Network.

Jani is currently writing a book, to be published by Edward Elgar in 2019, on Literary Characters in Intellectual Property Law.

Jani also has a number of projects and future papers she will undertake, including:

Writing in progress:

- Art in Law: Law in Art (edited volume)
- 'When Words Become Art: the Picturisation Right Under Copyright Law’
- ‘On The Nullians’
- ‘Works of Fiction: The Misconception of Literary Characters as Copyright Works’
- ‘Emotions, Remedies, and Intellectual Property Law’ (Remedies Forum, France, June 2018)
- ‘Feeling Art: Australian Copyright Law’s Disability Exceptions and their Application to 3D Printing of 2D Art’ (Feeling Art International experts Workshop, University of Maastricht, June 2018)
- ‘Copyright and Illustrated Fiction in the 19th C’
- ‘Contextual Infringement of the Moral Right of Integrity’
- ‘The Moral of the Story: Literary Appropriation, the Authorial Message and Harm in Moral Rights’
- ‘Literary Appropriation, the Adaptation Right and Transformative Use’
- ‘Do Australian Authors Have a Sequel Right?’
- ‘Literary Characters and the Public Domain’

Future projects:

Feeling Art, Interrogating Intellectual Property Rights Exceptions for 3D Printing of 2D Art to Facilitate Access by the Visually Impaired

'Law in Art Symposium', September 2018, with Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery and the UWA Institute of Advanced Studies. Contemporary artists engaging with law as subject matter will discuss their work with a panel of interlocutors


Future Conferences and workshops:

- Remedies Forum, Aix en Provence, France (June 2018): Emotions, Remedies, and Intellectual Property Law (with Robyn Carroll)

- Feeling Art: Disability Exceptions and their Application to 3D Printing, International experts Workshop, University of Maastricht, June 2018

Awarded grants:
1. Jani McCutcheon CI, ‘Feeling Art: Enhancing Disability Access to Artistic Works – International Experts Workshop’, Maastricht University Law School travel grant (€1600, 2018)
2. 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)
3. Jani McCutcheon CI, Art in Law in Art Conference, key note speaker travel grant, Ian Potter Foundation, $2700 (2017)
4. Jani McCutcheon CI, Art in Law in Art Conference support grant, Perth Convention Bureau, $1000, 2017
5. Jani McCutcheon CI, numerous Law school internally funded competitive sabbatical and travel research and conference grants (2006 – 2017 totalling more than $25,000)
6. 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)
7. Jani McCutcheon CI, research publication support grant, Faculty of Economics, Commerce, Education and Law, $2500 (2002).

- Solicitor, Freehill Hollingdae and Page
- Legal Research Officer for a Member of the WA Legislative Assembly

Books/monograph:

Literary Characters in Intellectual Property Law (Edward Elgar, 2019)

Projects:

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.

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

Jani teaches Intellectual Property Law in the LLB and at post graduate level in the JD and LLM, Marketing Management and the Law (an undergraduate unit offered in the Business Law Major), and Creative Expression and the Law, an undergraduate unit offered in the Law and Society Major.

- Intellectual Property Law
- literary characters and intellectual property law
- copyright
- moral rights
- trade marks
- literature and the law
- art and the law
- Internet Law

some proficiency in French