Professor in the Spotlight: Eleonora Rosati’s passion for IP has helped her overcome any career obstacle

The professor of IP law at Stockholm University had a moment to share with IPRinfo to shed light on her thoughts about the future of EU copyright, her career, and what she has learned from it.

Eleonora Rosati’s name is well-known to anyone interested in EU copyright law, and IP law in general. She is one of the most active academic commentators of topical issues, such as the DSM Directive and IP judgements of the CJEU. Her list of publications is breath-taking. She is also a frequent guest speaker at various conferences and seminars concerning IP law, an active blogger on IPKat and an editor of one of the most remarkable European IP law journals, Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (JIPLP). She joined the Nordic IP community in 2019, when she started as the professor of IP law at the Stockholm University. She can therefore be characterized as one of the most remarkable IP people in the Nordics. Now the readers of IPRinfo get a chance to know Eleonora Rosati a bit better: we will learn about her career, the lessons she has learned, tips for younger scholars, and future-oriented thoughts on EU copyright law.

Copyright from a newspaper

Being a copyright lawyer was not Eleonora Rosati’s childhood dream. In fact, her first encounter with IP law was by accident when she was a law student in Florence in the early 2000s.

‘The first time I read about copyright, it was from a newspaper, not from a course book. The article was authored by a professor of copyright law, and it discussed the challenges brought forth by digitalization and internet. The article sparked my interested, because copyright seemed to touch upon various fields that interest me: art, literature, and technological advancement.’

Being inspired by the article, Rosati wrote her dissertation on copyright. As a freshly graduated lawyer, she was also exploring the practical side of IP by doing her bar traineeship at Bird & Bird in Milan.

From Italy through the UK, all the way to Scandinavia

A spark for studying IP law remained even after Rosati finalized her law degree in Italy. She ended up doing an LL.M. degree at the University of Cambridge, and a doctoral degree at the European University Institute in Florence. Her doctoral dissertation (2012) concerned perhaps the most important copyright concept and its harmonization in the EU: the standard of originality. The dissertation was later published as an extended and updated version by Edward Elgar Publishing (2013). It is probably hard to find a European copyright lawyer who has not opened the monograph Originality in EU Copyright. Full Harmonization through Case Law, which can still be characterized as one of the most important commentaries on the EU standard of originality.

After her doctoral degree, Eleonora Rosati decided to focus on the academic side of intellectual property law and continued her career as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge. Afterwards, she worked as a tenured university lecturer and a tenured associate professor at the University of Southampton.

Rosati’s research has always focused on the EU aspects of IP law. Thus, Brexit also made the decision of leaving a British university a bit easier when an exciting opportunity in Sweden opened. She has really enjoyed being a professor at Stockholm University. Nice colleagues and various, exciting projects make work interesting. Stockholm University also gets compliments for understanding the importance of sector-specific IP.

Specialisation is unavoidable, but only after mastering the basics

Eleonora Rosati is an active commentator of industry-specific IP events, such as those occurring in the field of fashion and entertainment. She considers that often the most interesting issues are the ones that show how IP rights function in different sectors.

‘The importance of specialization in IP will grow. There are peculiarities in different creative sectors. Take fashion, for instance: imitation, inspiration, homage, derivation, and originality all interlink in the world of fashion design. Understanding these nuances is vital.’, says Rosati, who is also the founder of Fashion Law London, an association which aims at building and delivering knowledge in relation to the legal issues affecting the fashion sector. To give another example of her ‘law-in-context’ approach to IP, in 2018 she edited the JIPLP’s ‘Fashion law special issue’ (Vol 13, N:o 11).

‘Specialisation must never come at the expense of general knowledge of the foundations of IP law.’

Specialisation, however, must never come at the expense of general knowledge of the foundations of IP law. Rosati highlights that one must first build a solid understanding of, for instance, copyright, trademark law and design law, and how they work in general. Only then can one apply their rules and doctrines around a special context, like fashion. A ‘tunnel vision’ must be avoided: one cannot only follow one sector where IP is relevant. She also points out that it is important to see how different IP rights are in dialogue with each other. For instance, the copyright requirement of ‘identifiable with sufficient precision and objectivity’ (established in Case C-310/17 Levola Hengelo) bears resemblance to the representation requirement in trademark law.

Professor Rosati is keen on finding new ways of thinking within the IP scholarship. Questioning and shaking established traditions are vital for the development of research.

The future of copyright and EU harmonisation?

Resulting from rigorous harmonisation efforts from the CJEU, there is now an EU-wide approach to the foundational requirements of copyright law, such as ‘work’ and ‘originality’. This theme belongs to the core of Professor Rosati’s research. If one has read her earlier texts, they might have noticed that she interpreted that the EU originality standard ‘author’s own intellectual creation’ (established in the judgement C-5/08 Infopaq) applies to all categories of works long before the CJEU made it clear in Cofemel (C-683/17) for anyone who doubted it. Rosati thus accurately anticipated the future of EU copyright law. Bearing that in mind, one is eager to ask her, what should happen next in EU harmonization – is there, for instance, a particular concept that still requires a harmonized definition from the CJEU?

‘The notion of authorship still lacks a uniform definition. An intriguing question is, what makes one an author? The concept of authorship is not only relevant because of the development of AI creativity, but also in the context of joint authorship.’ Rosati furthermore notes that the definition of authorship is not only philosophical but has practical significance as well, because authorship is the key to copyright ownership.

The great DSM discussion

For the past few years, the DSM Directive and especially its article 17 on rights and liabilities of online content sharing providers in relation to copyright infringing content have been a hot topic for European copyright lawyers. Now the Digital Services Act (DSA) appears to be stirring the pot even more. One might ask, do Member States have the freedom to set national, additional requirements for online content sharing providers, or would this conflict with the DSA, which seems to suggest that Member States do not have such freedom?

Eleonora Rosati recommends that Member States remain cautious in this sense. The most correct and the safest way to transpose the DSM Directive article 17 is the most minimalistic way.

‘After all, the goal is to create a digital single market. Diverging interpretations on the platforms’ rights and liabilities only create fragmentation.’, she sums up.

Follow your heart

Looking at Eleonora Rosati’s research and career from the outside, it is impossible not to notice how incredibly productive she is. Her name appears to be everywhere in IP law: she has authored monographs, edited books and countless peer-reviewed articles. She is an editor of JIPLP and an active contributor of IPKat, and a frequent speaker in various conferences and seminars. And of course, the position of a professor comes with teaching obligations, as well. IPRinfo cannot pass the opportunity to ask her, how is she able to do all of this?

‘When you work with what you love, it does not always feel like work.’

When asked, professor Rosati laughs and humbly doubts whether such a praising description of her work is accurate. She believes that her genuine passion towards intellectual property law plays a great role.

‘When you work with what you love, it does not always feel like work. I really enjoy the topics I am working with, and I find my work fun and meaningful. That is not to say that it is always a walk in a park, but a genuine enthusiasm truly helps.’

As a tip for someone in the beginning of their career, she gives the following:

‘Think about what you want to do. What do you feel passionate about? Only you can answer that: not, for instance, your boss or your professor.’

One’s career is full of D-tours and obstacles, and that’s fine!

Typically, interviews like this one make a person’s career sound very linear and like a walk in a park. Eleonora Rosati does not want to enforce this narrative of success, because it is often misleading. She does not want to hide the fact that she has faced quite a lot of obstacles in her career. But what matters is that she survived them.

‘One’s career is a mix of success and a lot of failures.’

‘One’s career is always full of obstacles. But I have always wanted to work with copyright, and I regardless of the obstacles, I managed to do so.’

She underlines that one’s career is a mix of success and a lot of failures. Learning to react to failures and learning from them is important. Not all failures and obstacles are worth the pain, and it is important to be able to move on – an encouraging advice for anyone at the beginning of their career!

As colleagues who have had the most influence in her career, she mentions Jeremy Phillips, the founder of IPKat, and Lionel Bently, professor of IP (University of Cambridge).

‘I met Jeremy Phillips in the beginning of my career. He has always been extremely generous and supportive. And there is always something to learn from Lionel Bently, whether you agree with him or not.’

It seems that professor Rosati has followed the footprints of Phillips and Bently. She has herself encouraged and supported younger academics in the field of IP law, including yours truly.

Warm memories from Finland

In her spare time, Eleonora Rosati enjoys doing various activities in relation to things IP law likes to protect. For example, she likes to watch TV shows and browse in shops. Rosati also confesses that she is a fan of Finnish creativity. She particularly loves the world created by Tove Jansson: everything related to Moomins is close to her heart. She considers that Finland has contributed substantially to the world of IP – not just Moomins, but also Finnish design and technology, for instance.

Rosati also likes to travel, and often extends her work trips so that she can explore cities and visit new places. This summer she is hoping to do a tour of Italy by travelling around the country by the coast, starting from the border with France and ending at the border with Slovenia.

‘I have always had outstanding experiences in Finland!’

‘Nordiskt samarbete’ is a familiar concept for the Italian-born professor of a Swedish University. She has very fond memories from Finland and Finnish IP colleagues.

‘I have had the privilege to work with Finnish IP people quite a lot. In 2019, I participated the IP Summit as a speaker. I have also visited Rovaniemi and University of Lapland as an opponent for a doctoral defence, and last December I was a speaker at a DSM Directive related seminar arranged by University of Turku. I have always had outstanding experiences in Finland!’, she compliments our country. Sounds promising for the future academic cooperation between Finland and Sweden!

‘Kiitos for inviting me to this interview!’ she says smiling and sends her greetings to the readers of IPRinfo.