Dr Abhijeet Kumar

Dr Abhijeet Kumar is a Lecturer in Law at Leicester Law School whose research examines intellectual property law in the context of technological transformation and questions of knowledge justice. His scholarship spans multiple areas of intellectual property, including copyright, patents, trademarks, and the legal governance of intangible and cultural assets, while increasingly focusing on the challenges posed by artificial intelligence and evolving systems of knowledge production. His work explores how legal regimes structure ownership, valuation, and control over cultural and informational resources, particularly in relation to indigenous and traditional knowledge systems.

Before entering academia, he practised as an advocate and later served as in-house counsel at Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, where he advised on commercial transactions, regulatory compliance, and intellectual property strategy. This professional background informs his socio-legal and policy-oriented approach to intellectual property scholarship.

He completed his PhD at Queen Mary University of London as a Herchel Smith Doctoral Fellow and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Alongside his academic role, he engages with international policy discussions concerning intellectual property, artificial intelligence, and traditional knowledge governance, including participation in WIPO processes and governmental consultations.

Dr Kumar’s research examines intellectual property law through doctrinal, socio-legal, and policy perspectives, with particular attention to copyright, intellectual property valuation, and the regulation of intangible cultural and knowledge assets. His published work has explored issues including copyright ownership and performer rights, patentability and biotechnology, trademark regulation, protection of traditional knowledge, and the commercialisation and securitisation of intellectual property. A significant strand of his scholarship analyses the legal and economic structures governing intellectual assets, reflected in his monograph A Complete Guide to Valuation of IP Assets (Thomson Reuters, 2020) and related work on auditing, managing, and monetising intangible property. His research has been presented at several international academic and policy forums.

His current and developing research focuses on the interaction between intellectual property law, artificial intelligence, and systems of knowledge production. In particular, he is interested in how emerging technological infrastructures reshape authorship, ownership, and control over cultural and informational resources, and how intellectual property regimes respond to indigenous knowledge systems, intangible cultural heritage, and questions of epistemic justice. His ongoing work investigates algorithmic governance, AI-driven extraction of cultural data, and the continuing influence of colonial legal frameworks in structuring global knowledge economies.

Book

• A Complete Guide to Valuation of IP Assets: With Discussion on Managing, Auditing and Taxing IPs, Thomson Reuters, 2020 (ISBN-10: 9390529441, ISBN-13:‎ 978-9390529445)

Film

• Directed and Produced documentary titled ‘Indigenous Products and Practices: Adivasi Narratives of Survival and Change’, screened at Phoenix Cinema and Arts Centre, Leicester, as a part of Festival of Social Science 2025, Economic and Social Research Council (02 Nov 2025)

Articles

• “My Words, My Copyright”: Justifiability of Performer Owning ‘Speech’ or ‘Address’, Journal of Intellectual Property Rights, NISCAIR. Vol 27 (2) 79-90 (2022)
• Stem Cell Patenting: Moral and Legal Dilemma, Journal of Intellectual Property Rights, NISCAIR. Vol 27 (1), 42-51 (2022). (Co-authored)
• ‘Unpackaging’ Trademark Through Tobacco Regulations, Journal of Intellectual Property Rights, NISCAIR. Vol 25 (1-2), 29-39 (2020)
• IP Protection to Software: Conflict between Indian Provision and Practice, Journal of Intellectual Property Rights. NISCAIR. Vol 22(5), 247-256 (2017)
• Protecting Smell Marks: Breaking Conventionality, Journal of Intellectual Property Rights. NISCAIR. Vol 21(3), 129-139 (2016)
• Gene Patenting vi-a-vis Notion of Patentability, Journal of Intellectual Property Rights. NISCAIR. Vol 20(6), 349-362 (2015). (Co-authored)
• Protecting Trade Secrets in India, Journal of World Intellectual Property. Volume 18(6), 335 –346 (2015). (Co-Authored)
• Underwriting Agreements in India: Existing Regulations and Needed Reforms, International Company and Commercial Law Review, Sweet & Maxwell, I.C.C.L.R. (9), 295-301 (2015)
• Communities Right and Fair Benefit Sharing: Legal Instruments and Hurdles in Implementation, Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice, Oxford University Press 10 (1): 48-57 (2015)
• Crystallisation of a Floating Charge in India: The Scope and Need of Law Reform, International Company and Commercial Law Review, Sweet & Maxwell, I.C.C.L.R. (9), 323 (2014)

Book Chapters

• The Gillette Defence - Foundations, Expansions, and Relevance, in Elgar Encyclopedia of Intellectual Property Law (Paul Torremans, Irini Stamatoudi, Peter K. Yu and Justin Jütte eds.). (In print)
• Resisting Epistemicide: Indigenous Knowledge Navigating Colonial IP Landscapes, in ‘Handbook on IP and Social Justice’ (Johanna Gibson ed.) (Submitted)
• The New Code of Empire: Algorithmic Colonisation of Indigenous Products and Practices, in ‘Intellectual Property Law, Human Rights and Welfare’ (Ogulcan Ekiz and Lowri Davis eds.), Routledge. (In print)
• Methods for Intellectual Property Valuation, in ‘Handbook of Intellectual Property Research: Lenses, Methods, and Perspectives’ (Irene Calboli and Maria Lillà Montagnani eds.), Oxford University Press, 2021. (Co-authored)
• Bioinformatics: Nuances in Granting IP Protection, in ‘Intellectual Property Issues in Microbiology’ (Prof. H.B. Singh and Chetan Keswani, eds.) Springer-Nature, 2018

Book Reviews

• Promises Made, Promises Kept: Open Access as a Tool for Breaking Barriers to Research Publications, Review of ‘Copyright’s Broken Promise: How to Restore the Law’s Ability to Promote the Progress of Science’ by John Willinsky (MIT Press), for Queen Mary Law Journal Issue 4 (2023) 92
• A Legal Tripartite for Protecting TCEs: a step forward from the IP narrative, Review of ‘Legal Shape-shifting: On the protection of traditional cultural expressions and crossing boundaries between copyright, cultural heritage and human rights law’ by J.M. Breeman (Eleven Publishing), for Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice, Oxford University Press. 16 (10): 1157-1158 (2021)
• Review of ‘Chokepoints: Global private regulation on the Internet’ by Natasha Tusikov (University of California Press, 2016), for International Criminal Justice Review, Vol. 29 (1), pp. 90-91, 2017
• From System to Culture: Heterogeneity in Indian Society, Review of ‘Adjudication in Religious Family Laws’ by Gopika Solanki (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011) for NLUO Law Journal Vol. 1, Issue 1 · Mar 1, 2014

Dr Kumar welcomes doctoral supervision in areas connected to intellectual property law and technology, particularly: 

• Copyright and related rights 
• Artificial intelligence and creative industries
• Intellectual property and indigenous or traditional knowledge and cultural expressions
• Cultural heritage and intangible assets
• Intellectual property valuation and commercialisation
• Law, technology, and regulatory governance

He currently supervises doctoral research projects examining copyright and broadcasting rights, and intersections between forensic science and evidentiary law.

Dr Kumar teaches across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in intellectual property law and related areas. His teaching emphasises the relationship between legal doctrine, technological change, and real-world regulatory problems.

Undergraduate

• LW3380 Intellectual Property Law
• LW3392 Land Law (advanced)

Postgraduate

• LW7083 Intellectual Property Law for International Business (Co-Convenor)
• LW7084 Contemporary Challenges in Intellectual Property Law (Convenor)

His pedagogy integrates comparative perspectives and practice-informed learning, drawing on professional legal experience and policy engagement. 

ESRC Impact Acceleration Account (ESRC IAA) Award

Herchel Smith Award for Doctoral Research 

PGRF Award, Queen Mary University of London

• Presented paper on ‘Treaty-making as a Tool for Extraction’ / IPIRA Conference 2026 (29-30 Jan 2026)
• Chaired panel on ‘Copyright and Creativity: A Comparative Dialogue’ / IPIRA Conference 2026 (29-30 Jan 2026)
• Participated in ‘Openness and AI in culture, arts and humanities: a BRAID roundtable’, organised by Bridging Responsible AI Divides (BRAID) at Ada Lovelace Institute, Nuffield Foundation, London (24 Nov 2025)
• Delivered a lecture on ‘Copyright Subsistence’, at Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal University, India (04 Sep 2025)
• Delivered Lectures on the WIPO-NLUD-IPO Joint LLM Programs, National Law University Delhi, India (01 Sep – 03 Sep 2025)
• Conducted workshop on ‘Intellectual Property Law vis-à-vis Intangible Cultural Heritage of Indigenous Communities in India’ during Faculty Development Program 2025 of School of Law, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, India (21-25 Jul 2025)
• Member, Review Committee for Draft Petroleum and Natural Gas Rules 2025, formulated under the Oilfields (Regulation and Development) Act, 1948, as amended in 2025, appointed by the Director General of Hydrocarbons, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (Government of India) (Report Submitted 06 Jun 2025)
• Presented paper on ‘Patents to Plunder: Colonial Echoes of the 2024 WIPO Treaty’ / Leeds Conference on A New Direction in Intellectual Property Treaty-making? Winning Against the Odds for Human Rights, Equity, and Indigenous Peoples (08-09 May 2025)
• Delivered the World IP Day Lecture 2025 on ‘IP and Music: Feel the Beat of IP’ at National Law University Odisha (India) (27 Apr 2025)
• Presented paper on ‘AI Revolution and Algorithmic Colonisation of Indigenous Knowledge System’ / IPIRA Conference 2025 (04-06 Apr 2025)
• Resource Person for conducting a session on ‘Management and Audit IP Assets’ during Winter School on Valuation of Intellectual Property Asset, by Chanakya National Law University, Patna (28th Nov – 3rd Dec 2024)
• Chaired Session on Data Privacy and Security at the International Conference on Data, Knowledge, Wisdom, and Law, organised by the Centre for Regulatory Studies, Governance and Public Policy, WBNUJS, Kolkata (India), in association with the Technology Counsel Foundation (09-10 Nov 2024)
• Chaired the panel on ‘Data Privacy and Security’, “International Conference on Data, Knowledge, Wisdom and Law”. The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata in association with Technology Counsel Foundation. (Online) (09-10 Nov 2024)
• Delivered a lecture on ‘AI and Trademark’, at National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, India (24 Jul, 2024)
• Conducted workshop on ‘AI and Law Enforcement’, during the Virtual International Faculty Development Program of Woxsen University, Hyderabad, India (05 Jul 2024)
• Presented paper on ‘The Other Facet: Exploring Ethical Implications of AI Revolution over Indigenous Products and Practices’ / Swansea University at Framing IP Rights in Legal, Economic, and Cultural Settings Conference (12-13 Jun 2024)
• Participated in the Roundtable: Intellectual property law, artificial intelligence technologies and intangible heritage inventorying in the United Kingdom, at Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, London, facilitated by DAIM, University of Hull (03 Jun 2024)
• Participated in the WIPO, Diplomatic Conference on Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge 2024 (13-24 May 2024)
• Delivered a Keynote on ‘Cybersecurity and Data Privacy in the Legal Sector’, ICFAI Law School Hyderabad Conference on ‘AI Empowered Judicial System’ (19 Apr 2024).
• Presented paper on ‘AI Revolution and Algorithmic Colonisation of Indigenous Knowledge System’ / SLSA Conference 2024 (26-28 Mar 2024)

PH.D. (Herchel Smith Fellow), Queen Mary University of London (United Kingdom)                                      

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (United Kingdom)

Queen Mary Diploma of Researcher Development (United Kingdom)

LL.M. (I.P.R.), National Law University Jodhpur (India)                                                                            

B.A., LL.B., (Pol. Sc. and I.P.R. Dual Hons.) National Law University Odisha (India)