Dr. Dinusha Mendis, Senior Lecturer in Law and Co-Director of the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management has featured in recent articles, interviews and guest talks for her research into 3D printing and its implications for Intellectual Property (IP) Laws.

Her research in this area led to an interview for the United Nations Agency, World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) Geneva, for their prestigious magazine the World Intellectual Property Review (WIPR). Dr. Mendis was featured in the article ‘The Shape of things to Come: 3D Printing’ published on 1 May 2013. In this article, Dr. Mendis suggests that in looking to the future and in adapting to 3D printing, businesses should look to market-driven business models—for example, by setting up an iTunes-style store for spare product parts, or by licensing 3D files more widely.  It is important for businesses to ‘adapt’ to this new technology and ‘adopt’ new business models.

Also during the month of May, Dr. Mendis was invited by the Open Rights Group, London to write for their magazine ORGZine, on 3D Printing and its implications for IP Laws.  The article titled ‘Unravelling 3D Printing and Intellectual Property Laws: From Napster to Thingiverse and Beyond‘ was published on 21 May 2013.

On the 28th May 2013, Dr. Mendis was invited to speak at the University of Glasgow, at an event organised by CREATe titled ‘Conversations in Copyright’.  At this event, Dr. Mendis was invited to speak about her research into 3D Printing with a specific focus on copyright law.

At present, Dr. Mendis is in the process of authoring a paper on 3D Printing with a specific focus on copyright which will be published in autumn.  She will also be presenting her research into 3D Printing and IP Law at the Festival of Learning on Thursday 6th June and Tuesday 11th June 2013.

Dr. Mendis is the author of  ‘Clone Wars’: Episode 1 – The Rise of 3D Printing and its Implications for Intellectual Property Law’ which was published in a 3-star journal and was followed by an interview for the BBC Radio 5 Live in February 2013. In April 2013, Dr. Mendis spoke on the topic at the 28th BILETA Conference at the University of Liverpool and was interviewed by the organisers about her research in this area.