Marianne Levin

After retiring from her chair as professor in private law at the Department of Law at Stockholm University, Marianne Levin is re-employed and still active in research and teaching in intellectual property law and market law. Marianne Levin is chair of the Swedish Association for Intellectual Property Law (SFIR). She was promoted in 2004 to an honorary doctorate from the Swedish School of Economics in Helsinki. Marianne Levin is the author of many books and articles and comments, in Sweden and abroad on IP and marketing law issues.

She was the one who started the Master’s Programme in European Intellectual Property Law in year 2000. She was also one of four persons who at the Max Planck Institute for Competition and Innovation Law during 1989 – 1990 prepared a basis for today’s European design law.

Has participated in a large number of government inquires in the area, for example: on Utility models (1989) and Marketing practices (SOU 1993: 59), Trademarks (SOU 2001: 26), Design protection (SOU 2001: 78), the Paten Treaty Inquiry (SOU 2003: 66), she chaired the  of better Utilization of university inventions (SOU 2005: 95) and she participated in the inquiry of a Trademark law reform (SOU 2016: 79) and on Stricter sanctions for severe intellectual property infringements.

Marianne Levin has been the supervisor of a dozen successful doctoral projects and has still two in the pipeline.

To her past services belong Member of the Humanities Social Sciences Research Council (now the Swedish Research Council), and chair of its evaluation group for law, later law and philosophy, and of the evaluation group for criminology (1995-2001) ; chair of the Nordic Social Sciences Research Council (1996-1998) and she was a Member of the Scientific Committee (Fachbeirat) of the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property Law in Munich (1997-2008). She was also General member (deputy) of the Authors’ Fund’s board (2006-2012) as well as Director and Chair of the Institute for Intellectual Property and Market Law at Stockholm University (IFIM) (1995 – 2009), and she is still Chair of the Swedish Association for Industrial Legal Protection (SFIR) since 1996.

Research projects include: Intellectual Property Rights in Transition, 2001 – 2009 partly funded by the Swedish Research Council; Legal and Ethical Aspects of Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research, funded by 2004–2006 by the Swedish Research Council; Stem Cell Patents: European Patent Law and Ethics with Nottingham University (Plomer and Torremans), Montreal University (Knopper) et al. funded 200 – 2006 by the Sixth Framework program; Own picture rights in Europe; a pan-European research study for CEPIC 2006.

Publications comprise some 100 articles, long and short, including book presentations, “Länderberichte” from Sweden and case law comments. Selected monographs: The protection of shape (Formskydd), (Dissertation1984), Right to own image – on authorized personal image use in the mass media (1986) Satellite advertising and consumer protection (1987) Design protection (1987), Short stories in trademark law (1990), Marketing Act – a comment, (2014), Textbook in intellectual property law, now in 12th ed. (2019.

Selected co-editorships:  Intellectual Property Rights in a Fair World Trade System, Edward Elgar 2011 and the EU Design Approach, Edward Elgar 2018 and Transition and Coherence in Intellectual Property law, Cambridge University Press 2020.

Latest published articles: ’The Cofemel Revolution’ in Eleonora Rosati, ed. The Routledge Handbook of EU Copyright Law, 2021 (pp. 82 – 102) and ’Då  och  nu  –  några  reflektioner över   vad  som skett med fomskyddet sedan oktober 1984’ (Reflections over the developments of the protection of shapes since October 1984) in Jaan Paju and Helene Andersson eds., Ulf 85 – Då och nu; om avhandlingars beständighet, Jure 2021 (pp. 13 – 24).

In a life before law, she was active as a journalist and PR consultant. In 1986 to 1998 she also worked as head of Press and Public relations at the European Patent office.