Frantzeska Papadopoulou Skarp
About me
My education
I have a Maîtrise de droit privé and a Maîtrise de droit des Affaires from the University of Droit et Santé Lille II in Lille, France. I continued my studies in Sweden where I took a masters degree in Law and IT (2000), a masters degree in European Intellectual Property Law (2001) from Stockholm University as well as a masters degree in EU and American Law from Uppsala University (2001).
I defended my doctorate thesis in 2014 at the Law Faculty of Stockholm University. My thesis has the title "Opening Pandora's Box" and it concerns the protection of traditional knowledge and genetic resources under the framework of the international intellectual property rights regime.
Teaching
I am the programme director of the masters programme in European Intellectual Property Rights together with my colleague Prof. Eleonora Rosati. I am also course director of the mandatory undergraduate course Civil Law B, together with my colleague Per Jonas Nordell.
I am further teaching commitments, teaching for instance in Civil Law V, Advanced Intellectual Property Rights and in the course Swedish Law in context.
Research
I am currently involved in two research projects
- Pharmaceuticals and modern evergreening
The project presents and analyses modern strategical choices for pharmaceutical companies to prolong and extend their de facto and de jure protection on the market. The project focuses on Supllementary Protection Certificates as well as on Regulatory Rights (such as the Paediatric Extension, the Orphan Drugs Designation), presenting the weaknesses in the legal framework that make their application a very complicated matter. It also shows how the pharmaceutical industry has made use of the system in order to expand its protection and in what regards this has an impact on public health issues.
2. Women in Swedish Film: gender, film and representation
This is a interdisciplinary project financed by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. I am working on this project with my colleagues (Maria Jansson, political sciences, Ingrid Stigsdotter and Louise Wallenberg, Film and Fashion Studies). The project looks into the issue of women representation in Swedish film, the role women have played in film history, their role and participation in film productions, the way they have claimed and managed their intellectual property rights and the way they have in fact influenced the content and style of Swedish films.
Focussing on significant moments in film history, the project aims to investigate the gendered character of the system of representation in Swedish film, while asking 'How does the presence of women filmmakers impact the representation of women on the screen?'; and 'In which conditions and on what terms do women’s films gain access to the public sphere?'
The project analyzes instances where women in film culture have acted for change and identify political, social, legal, economic and cultural conditions that have circumscribed women’s work. The main contribution of the project is its multi-disciplinary approach which enables a discussion of links between women filmmakers, their working conditions, the films produced and how they enter the public sphere.
By combining the disciplines of Film, Politics and Law, the project enables the development of a theoretical framework that connects relevant debates around cultural and political representation.
Supervision of doctoral students
I am currently the supervisor of Daniel Astone. Daniel started his doctorate studies in September 2019 and the subject of research is: how intellectual property theory responds to the necessity of promoting innovation in absence of market signals, such as in the case of neglected tropical diseases.
Other positions
Since 1st of January 2018 I am the equality representative in the Law Faculty. It is a very exciting project, and also a challenge working in order to develop a working and studying environment where everyone is given equal possibilities and feels equally welcome!
I am one of the co-founders of the Stockholm Intellectual Property Law Review and the chair of its Board of Directors.
Since the 1st of January 2018 I am one of the bloggers at www.ipkitten.blogspot.com, the most higly ranked Intellectual Property Law blogg on an international level.
Research projects
Publications
A selection from Stockholm University publication database
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The Wired World of University Teaching – Legal Challenges
2017. Laura Carlson, Cecilia Magnusson Sjöberg, Frantzeska Papadopoulou.
BookRead more about The Wired World of University Teaching – Legal ChallengesThe digitalization and commercialization of teaching have greatly complicated the university world; twin processes that have wrought great changes to institutions of higher learning, both externally with respect to their roles in society, and internally with respect to the relationship between universities, teachers and students. These processes raise both new and old questions with respect to academic freedom, copyrights to teaching materials, employment rights, open access and data protection, public sector information and transparency. The recurring thread in all the chapters presented in this work is a more focused, explicit treatment of these issues in the law is needed, taking into consideration the different interests of society, the academy, academics, students or the public.
The analyses in this book give rise to the question what law, lawyers and legal systems can provide as responses. There obviously is a need to bring in legal assessments, proactively, at the early stages of e-learning development. When e-learning and e-applications are already launched, it is more costly and complicated to reactively rectify the situation, for instance, in cases of flawed personal data protection. Law needs to play an active role. Last but not least, legal systems as such must protect and strengthen the values of a democratic society. When traditional academic learning is challenged internally and externally by commercialization and digitalization, academic freedom and the protections of privacy and moral rights are essential. The need for digital humanities is compelling in learning environments where artificial intelligence and associated algorithms have become part of our daily lives.
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Opening Pandora's Box
2014. Frantzeska Papadopoulou, Marianne Levin, Jens Schovsbo.
Thesis (Doc)Read more about Opening Pandora's BoxWhat happens when resources get valuable and scarce? How is Intellectual Property dealing with market failures related to sub-patentable innovation or purely traditional knowledge with interesting applications? The protection of traditional knowledge and genetic resources (TKGR) has been one of the major modern challenges in international IP law. The entry into force of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and its implementation in national legislation has created more questions than the ones it answered.
The objective of this dissertation is to assist in the evaluation of current national and regional implementation initiatives as well in the presentation and evaluation of different forms of entitlements that could be applicable in the case of TKGR. The dissertation has employed a theoretical framework for this evaluation, by combining the Coase Theorem and Rawls' theory of justice. The choice of these two theoretical models is not a random one. In order for the entitlement covering TKGR to be successful, it has to be efficient. It has to offer a stable and efficient marketplace where access to TKGR is possible without unnecessary frictions. However, efficiency could not be the only objective. An entitlement focusing solely on efficiency would fall short of the needs and special considerations of TKGR trade. It would above all be counter to the objectives and major principles of the CBD, the “fair and equitable sharing of the benefits” and would certainly fail to address the very important North-South perspective. Fairness is thus a necessary complement to the efficiency of the proposed entitlement.
This dissertation proposes a thorough investigation of the special characteristics, of right-holders, subject-matter, market place as well as of the general expectations that an entitlement is supposed to fulfill. In parallel to that, it looks into the meaning and scope of alternative entitlements in order to be able to propose the best alternative.
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Legal Transplants and Modern Lawmaking in the Field of Pharmaceutical Patents - A Way to Achieve International Harmonisation or the Source of Deeper Divergences
2016. J. D. Frantzeska Papadopoulou. IIC-International Review of Industrial Property and Copyright Law 47 (8), 891-911
ArticleRead more about Legal Transplants and Modern Lawmaking in the Field of Pharmaceutical Patents - A Way to Achieve International Harmonisation or the Source of Deeper DivergencesModern lawmaking in the field of pharmaceutical patents and surrounding regulation is to a considerable extent based on legal transplants. Legal transplantation contributes to international harmonisation without requiring an international convention, something very attractive for actors in the pharmaceutical sector operating on an international market. Despite its informal character, and alleged efficiency and simplicity in the transfer of legal rules from one jurisdiction to the other, it requires certain caution. A legal rule may very rarely be seen in complete isolation from the rest of the legal system, since in some cases it is not possible to foresee the results of the legal rule in the exporting country before the transplant takes place. In the field of pharmaceuticals, significant examples of legal transplants are the Bolar exemption and the Supplementary Protection Certificate, both transplanted to the EU by the same US Act, the Hatch-Waxman Act. This article evaluates these two legal rules, comparing their strengths and weaknesses to those of the original provisions in order to highlight different aspects of the process of legal transplantation and the effect they have on the formation of the transplanted rules.
Show all publications by Frantzeska Papadopoulou Skarp at Stockholm University