Staff Profile

Introduction

After studying Law at Oxford, I qualified as a solicitor and practised commercial law in London and Bristol for several years before becoming a lecturer at the University of Manchester. I joined Newcastle Law School in 2014.

My main research and teaching interests are in trade mark law (and branding) and company law. I also have interests and teaching experience in intellectual property law in general, corporate governance, business organisation and law and economics. I was for several years the co-ordinator of Manchester’s participation in the European Master’s in Law and Economics, an international consortium under the Erasmus Mundus scheme. I have drawn on the insights of law and economics in my research.

Among other publications, I have written two monographs: Contracting with Companies (Hart Publishing, 2005) and An Economic Perspective on Trade Mark Law (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011).

http://www.bloomsburyprofessional.com/uk/contracting-with-companies-9781847312228/

http://www.e-elgar.com/shop/an-economic-perspective-on-trade-mark-law

I am currently working on projects which examine the relationship between trade marks and brands and (variously) business organisation, corporate social responsibility, innovation, consumerism and the free movement of goods.

Role

Degree Programme Director for LLM programmes (since 2015)

Memberships

Society of Legal Scholars

International Trade Mark Association (Impact Studies Committee)

European Association of Law and Economics

Research Interests

My main current research interest is in the area of trade mark law and branding. I am also interested in the relationship between this area and company law/ business organisation and in the application of law and economics.

I am currently working on projects which examine the relationship between trade marks/ brands and business organisation, corporate social responsibility, innovation, consumerism and the free movement of goods. Since trade mark law is currently harmonised at the European level, I am also planning to develop projects on the impact of Brexit in this area.

I have supervised successful Ph.D candidates on various topics in the areas of trade mark law, general intellectual property law, company law and corporate governance.

Selected Publications

An Economic Perspective on Trade Mark Law (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Contracting with Companies  (Hart Publishing, 2005)

“Brands, Firms and Competition” in I. Lianos et al (ed), Brands, Competition Law and IP (CUP, 2015) at 238-260.

“Trade Marks and Quality Assurance” in G. Dinwoodie (ed), Methods and Perspectives in Intellectual Property (Edward Elgar, 2013)) at 129-150

“The Contribution of Branding to Enforcing Corporate Social Responsibility” in Enriquez and Robles (eds), Law, Institutions and Development (Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, 2012) at 334-358

“Quality in European Trade Mark Law”, (2013) 11 Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property 621-641

“Trade Marks and Responsible Capitalism”, (2012) 43 International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law 798-824

“An Economic Perspective on Shared Name Issues in Trade Mark Law” in I. Simon Fhima (ed), Trade Mark Law and Sharing Names (Edward Elgar, 2009) at 13-27

“A Law-and-Economics Perspective on Trade Marks” in L. Bently, J. Davis and J. Ginsberg (eds), Trade Marks and Brands: An Interdisciplinary Critique (CUP, 2008) at 241-266

“The Trade Mark Monopoly: An Analysis of the Core Zone of Absolute Protection” [2007] Intellectual Property Quarterly at 312-349

“Trade Marks Plus? The Role of Trade Marks in the Global Economy” (2007) 28 Liverpool Law Review 107-141 (special edition on Intellectual Property, TRIPs and Globalisation)

Conference and Workshop Papers

“Trade Marks and Consumerism”, SLS Annual Conference at the University of Oxford, September 2016

 “Branding and Production”, Annual Conference of the European Association of Law and Economics, University of Vienna, September 2015

 “Branding and Corporate Power”, SLS Annual Conference at the University of York (delivered to both the Company Law and IP groups), September 2015

 “Brands, Branding and Corporate Social Responsibility”, Seminar at Centre for Business Law and Practice, University of Leeds, November 2014

 “Brands, Weightless Firms and Complex Supply Chains”, Workshop on Corporate Accountability for Human Rights, University of Bristol, November 2014

 “Branding and Innovation”, Research Development Workshop, Newcastle University, May 2014

 “From Firms to Brands: The Organisational Role of Trade Mark Law”, seminar at Sheffield Institute of Corporate and Commercial Law, University of Sheffield, October 2013

 “Trade Marks and the Evolution of the Firm”, seminar on Law and Development at the Law and Development Institute, University of Manchester, April 2013

 “Trade Marks and Business Models”, Workshop on Trade Marks and Trade Mark Data, University of Oxford, December 2012; and EMLE Workshop in Law & Economics, University of Hamburg, February 2013

 “Trade Marks and Quality Assurance”, Annual Congress of the Association of Teachers and Researchers in Intellectual Property, Chicago-Kent University, July 2012

 “Branding as an Incentive for Social Responsibility”, Annual Conference of the European Association of Law and Economics, University of Hamburg, September 2011

 “‘Quality’ in Trade Mark Law”, EMLE Workshop in Law & Economics, Erasmus University or Rotterdam, February, 2011

 “The Economic Case for Protecting the ‘Auras’ of Prestigious Brands”, Erasmus Workshop in Law & Economics, University of Bologna, February 2010

 “Trade Marks and Global Business Organisation”, Workshop on Global Law, Université Paul-Cézanne, Aix-Marseille III, Aix-en-Provence, October 2009

 “The Organisational Role of Trade Marks”, European Policy on Intellectual Property Workshop on Trade Marks and Trade Mark Data, Inno-tec and OECD, Paris, July 2009

Undergraduate

LAW 3010            Company Law

LAW 3043            Patent & Trade Mark Law

Postgraduate

LAW 8561            Legal Simulation

Law 8565              Globalisation, Brands & Business Organisation

• Firth A, Cornford P, Griffiths A. Trade Marks: Law and Practice. London, UK: LexisNexis, 2020.
• Griffiths AP. Brands, ‘weightless’ firms and global value chains: the organisational impact of trade mark law. Legal Studies 2019, 39(2), 284-301.
• Griffiths AP. Kerly's Law of Trade Marks and Trade Names, 16th edition [Book review]. Intellectual Property Quarterly 2018, 2018(4), 348-351.
• Griffiths A. Brands and Corporate Power. Journal of Corporate Law Studies 2018, 18(1), 75-112.
• Griffiths AP. Trade Marks and the Consumer Society. SCRIPTed 2018, 15(2), 209-241.
• Griffiths AP. Trade Mark Monopolies in the Digital Age. Intellectual Property Quarterly 2017, 2017(2), 123-151.
• Griffiths AP. Brands, Firms and Competition. In: Deven R. Desai, Ioannis Lianos and Spencer Weber Waller, ed. Brands, Competition Law and IP. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2015, pp.238-260.
• Griffiths AP. An Economic Perspective on Trade Mark Law. Cheltenham & Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011.
• Griffiths AP. Contracting with Companies. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2005.