I am a senior lecturer and the associate director for research at the Australian National University College of Law based in Canberra, Australia. I am also an associate director of the Australian Centre for Intellectual Property in Agriculture (ACIPA). I have a BA (Hons) and a University Medal in literature, and a LLB (Hons) from the Australian National University, and a PhD in law from the University of New South Wales. I am a member of the Copyright and Intellectual Property Advisory Group of the Australian Library and Information Association, and a director of the Australian Digital Alliance. I am the author of two books, Digital Copyright and the Consumer Revolution: Hands off my iPod, and Intellectual Property and Biotechnology: Biological Inventions, and the editor of the collection, Patent Law and Biological Inventions, and co-editor of the collection, Incentives for Global Public Health: Patent Law and Access to Essential Medicines. I have also published three book chapters and thirty-eighty refereed articles.

I have particular expertise in the field of intellectual property and biotechnology – having looked at the implications of intellectual property rights for agriculture, health-care, research, and the environment. I am the author of Intellectual Property and Biotechnology: Biological Inventions (Edward Elgar, 2008). This book documents and evaluates the dramatic expansion of intellectual property law to accommodate various forms of biotechnology from micro-organisms, plants, and animals to human genes and stem cells. It makes a unique theoretical contribution to the controversial public debate over the commercialisation of biological inventions. I also edited the thematic issue of Law in Context, entitled Patent Law and Biological Inventions (Federation Press, 2006). I was also a chief investigator in an Australian Research Council Discovery Project, "Gene Patents In Australia: Options For Reform" (2003-2005), and an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant, "The Protection of Botanical Inventions (2003). I am currently a chief investigator in an Australian Research Council Discovery Project, “Promoting Plant Innovation in Australia” (2009-2011). I have participated in inquiries into plant breeders' rights, gene patents, and access to genetic resources.

To assist the Senate Community Affairs Committee in its inquiry into gene patents, I would like to provide the members with copies of my research in respect of gene patents. This material will have to be treated as exhibits for the purposes of the inquiry.

I would be happy to appear before the Senate Community Affairs Committee to discuss the policy issues, which have arisen in respect of intellectual property and biotechnology.