A global policy advisor is due to address the Eastern Caribbean Collective Orgnisation for Music Rights (ECCO) 12th Annual General Meeting (AGM), scheduled for February 18. This distinguished young professional has gained vast knowledge in the areas of international law, intellectual property rights and other related fields.
Kimani F. Goddard is an experienced, Senior Intellectual Property Law and Policy Advisor. She has been a Senior Consulting IP Advisor for more than ten years, with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), specialising in copyright law, collective management of copyright, digital copyright law and TRIPS flexibilities.
Among Ms. Goddard’s key policy projects is the WIPO Guidelines on Assessing the Economic, Social and Cultural Impact of Copyright Law in the Creative Industries (Economy). She is also a certified member of the WIPO Academy Experts group.
Additionally, she held the Senior Policy Advisor role, with the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC), contributing to European Union copyright reform efforts in the JURI Committee. Her career has also taken her to Saudi Arabia, where she was an Intellectual Property and International Law Lecturer at Prince Mohammed bin Fahd University, as well as advising Saudi law firms on copyright issues.
Ms. Goddard is a Non-Resident Fellow of the World Trade Institute in Bern Switzerland, specialising in intellectual property, international investment law and digital trade issues. She holds a Master of Laws in International Law [Specialised in International Economic Law], from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva Switzerland, as well as a Master of Research (quantitative) International Relations (International Trade Policy) from Keele University in the United Kingdom.
Kimani is currently a PhD Fellow and Researcher at the Maastricht University Faculty of Law, where her work focuses on networks of explicit and implicit intellectual property clauses within international investment agreements, and their importance for global trade and investment.
Ms. Goddard is also a member of the Maastricht University Law & Technology Lab, working on AI & Intellectual Property Rights, in addition to mapping biological patent data. She is interested in the evolution of intangible property norms as a driver of global trade flows and digital trade, as well as the future of intangible property rights in personal and biological data.