Professor Aplin’s research lies in the field of intellectual property law. She has published extensively on how digital technologies are regulated by copyright law at an international, European and UK level, e.g. see Copyright law in the digital society: the challenges of multimedia (Hart: 2005) and T Aplin (ed) Research Handbook on Intellectual Property and Digital Technologies (Elgar: 2020).

Her research also focuses on the protection of trade secrets and confidential information in the UK, Commonwealth jurisdictions and the EU.  She has co-authored one of the leading texts in this field (see Gurry on Confidence: The Protection of Confidential Information OUP, 2012) and has also published extensively on how fundamental rights may affect trade secrets and privacy protection.

Professor Aplin is co-author of two leading Intellectual Property Law textbooks: Intellectual Property Law: Text, Cases and Materials 4th ed (OUP, 2021) and Intellectual Property: Patents, Copyright, Trade Marks and Allied Rights 9th ed (Sweet & Maxwell, 2019).

Her latest book is a co-authored monograph (with Prof. Bently) Global Mandatory Fair Use: The Nature and Scope of the Right to Quote Copyright Works (CUP, 2020).  Her ongoing research interests include EU trade secret policy and protection; UK protection of confidential information; AI and trade secrets; the role of intention in intellectual property law; and copyright exceptions.

Teaching

• Intellectual Property Law
• Patents & Trade Secrets
• International & Comparative Copyright Law
• Postgraduate Diploma in UK, EU and US Copyright Law

Ph D

Prof. Aplin welcomes applications from potential Ph D students in areas of her research expertise.

IP and new technologies, role of IP in cultural production; trade secrets and the data economy

Professor Aplin specialises in the area of Intellectual Property Law, having joined the Dickson Poon School of Law in September 2002 as a Lecturer. She was previously a Lecturer in Law at Robinson College, Cambridge (2000-2002), and a Research Fellow at Murdoch University (1997-1999). Professor Aplin graduated from Murdoch University, Western Australia with LLB and BA degrees (1994) and from the University of Oxford with a BCL (1997) and D Phil (2002). She has been a visiting scholar at Boalt School of Law, UCB (2006); a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the TC Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland (2009); Visiting Fellow at the School of Law, University of New South Wales (2009, 2013, 2014), a Senior Fellow at Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne (2013) and Global Distinguished Professor at the University of Notre Dame. Professor Aplin has also been a visiting lecturer on numerous law programmes, including those offered by the IP Academy Singapore, Pepperdine School of Law, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, Melbourne Law School, Turin Law School, and Paris II, College de droit. She was formerly Head of Education in the School of Law (2008-2012) and Vice-Dean (Research) (2016-2021) and is presently Director of the LLM in Intellectual Property and Information Law and Director of the King’s Postgraduate Diploma/MA in UK, EU and US Copyright Law. In 2015 and 2017 she was the recipient of the Law School's Supervisory Excellence Award.