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Tesh Dagne

Associate Professor

LLB (AAU), LLM (Calgary), JSD (Dalhousie)

Before joining TRU, Dr. Dagne taught at the Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University, where he was a Schulich Research Fellow. He won numerous scholarships and awards as a graduate student at Dalhousie University and the University of Calgary. Dr. Dagne was also Visiting Scholar at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law in Vienna and worked at the Canadian Institute of Resources Law at the University of Calgary and the Law and Technology Institute at Dalhousie University.

Dr. Dagne has diverse research interests in the theoretical, legal and policy dimensions of intellectual property law in traditional knowledge, emerging technologies, development, trade, and environment. With a focus on national and international frameworks, his publications explore the role of intellectual property law in the marginalization of indigenous and local knowledge systems in an era of global knowledge governance and adopt anthropological insights, cultural economics perspectives, and development theories as frameworks for equity and justice.

Dr. Dagne’s most recent work examines the intersections between Canadian intellectual property law and emerging technologies, with particular attention to the challenges brought by 3D Printing technology to different regimes of intellectual property law. His current research, funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), investigates legal and regulatory issues surrounding 3D Printing technology, analyzing the technology’s impact on liability laws, regulatory regimes, and innovation policy both within the framework of Canadian law and from a comparative perspective of Canadian, US and European law.

Dr. Dagne also researches the challenges of big data governance that digitalization and application of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and related technologies bring to the interests of data originators in different spheres of activities. His work in this regard explores the intersection between intellectual property law and privacy norms about access and control of data, investigating frameworks and models for allocating rights in data and ensuring control over data by data subjects and originators.

Dr. Dagne is the author of the book, Intellectual Property and Traditional Knowledge in the Global Economy (2014). His work is published in highly regarded national and international journals, such as the Canadian Journal of Law and Technology, the Columbia Science and Technology Law Review, the Intellectual Property Journal and the International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law. He has been frequently invited to speak at different conferences and proceedings on intellectual property in Canada, South Africa, Kenya, England, the United States, Brazil, and India.

Dr. Dagne teaches Property Law in the first-year curriculum, Intellectual Property Law, International Intellectual Property Law, and International Trade Law courses in the upper year curriculum. He is a member of the Law Society of British Columbia (the BC Bar).

Publications

Book

  1. Tesh W. Dagne, Intellectual Property and Traditional Knowledge in the Global Economy: Translating Geographical Indications for Development (London: Routledge, 2014).
  2. Gregory Hagen, Cameron Hutchison, Graham Reynolds, Teresa Scassa, Margaret Ann Wilkinson, Tesh W. Dagne, Canadian Intellectual Property Law: Cases and Materials 3rd edition (Emond, 2022) – in preparation.

Book Chapter

  1. Tesh W. Dagne, "Subsistence of Copyright over CAD files in 3D Printing: The Canadian, the U.S. and European Outlook" in Enrico Bonadio & Nicola Lucchi, Non-Conventional Copyright (Cheltenham, Northampton: Edward Elgar, 2018)
  2. Tesh Dagne and Chidi Oguamanam, "Geographical Indication (GI) Options for Ethiopian Coffee and Ghanaian Cocoa" (with Dr. Chidi Oguamanam) in De Beer, J., Armstrong, C., Oguamanam, C. and Schonwetter, T. (Eds.) Innovation and Intellectual Property: Collaborative Dynamics in Africa (Cape Town: UCT Press, 2014)

Journal Articles

  1. Tesh W. Dagne, “Where Copyright Meets Privacy: Farmers’ Access to and Control over Agricultural Data” (in progress)
  2. Tesh W. Dagne, “3D Printing in Galleries Libraries Archives and Museums (GLAMs) and Education: Ensuring and Safeguarding Access” (in progress)
  3. Tesh W. Dagne, “Embracing the Data Revolution for Development: Rights-based Governance for Farm Data in the Context of African Indigenous Farmers” (2020) 5 The Journal of Law, Social Justice and Global Development (1-30)
  4. Tesh W. Dagne, "Governance of Health-related 3D Printing Applications in Canada and the United States: Between Regulated and Unregulated Innovation" (2020) 22 Columbia Science and Technology Law Review (281-328).
  5. Tesh Dagne and Chidi Oguamanam, “ICTs in Agricultural Production and Potential Deployment in Operationalising Geographical Indications in Uganda” (2018). Ottawa Faculty of Law Working Paper No. 2018-24.
  6. Tesh W. Dagne, “Protection of Biodiversity and Associated Traditional Knowledge in Canada: Ensuring Community Control in Access and Benefit Sharing” (2017) 30:2 Journal of Environmental Law and Practice 97-122.
  7. Tesh W. Dagne and Gosia Piasecka, “The Right to Repair Doctrine and the Use of 3D Printing Technology in Canadian Patent Law” (2016) 14:2 Canadian Journal of Law and Technology 263-287.
  8. Tesh W. Dagne, “Geographical Indications as Tools for Knowledge Governance in Select Eastern and Southern African Countries” (2016) 19 AJIC 143-152.
  9. Book Review: Neil Wilkof & Shamnad Basheer, Overlapping Intellectual Property Rights (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), (2016) 28:3 Intellectual Property Journal 437-450.
  10. Tesh W. Dagne, “The Narrowing Transatlantic Divide: Geographical Indications in Canada’s Trade Agreements” (2016) 10 European Review of Intellectual Property Law 598-609.
  11. Tesh W. Dagne and Chelsea Dubeau, “3D Printing and the Law: Are CAD files Copyright-protected?” (2015) 28:1 Intellectual Property Journal 101-135.
  12. Tesh W. Dagne, “Overview of Implications of 3D Printing upon Canadian Intellectual Property Law” (2015) 31 Canadian Intellectual Property Review.
  13. Tesh W. Dagne, “The Left Shark, Thrones, Sculptures and Unprintable Triangle: 3D Printing & Its Intersections with IP” (2015) 25:3 Alb. L.J. Sci. & Tech. 573-591.
  14. Tesh W. Dagne, “Beyond Economic Considerations: (Re) Conceptualizing Geographical Indications for Protecting Traditional Agricultural Products” (2015) 46:6 International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law 682-706.
  15. Tesh W. Dagne, “Protecting Traditional Knowledge in International Intellectual Property: Imperatives for Protection and Choice of Modalities” (2014) 14:1 The John Marshal Review of Intellectual Property 25-49.
  16. Tesh W. Dagne, “The Identity of Geographical Indications and their Relation to Traditional Knowledge in Intellectual Property Law” (2014) 5:2 The World Intellectual Property Organization Journal 137-152.
  17. Tesh W. Dagne, “Acting Locally to Participate Globally in A Rights-Based Approach to Development: Place-based Intellectual Property Strategies in Traditional and Local Agricultural Production” (2013) Drake Journal of Agricultural Law 565-595.
  18. Tesh W. Dagne, “The Search for Protection of Traditional Knowledge in the Knowledge Economy: Cross-Cutting Challenges in International Intellectual Property Law” (2012) 14:2 International Community Law Review 137-178.
  19. Tesh W. Dagne, “Harnessing the Development Potentials of Geographical Indications for Traditional Knowledge Based Agricultural Products” (2010) 5:6 Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice 441-459.
  20. Tesh W. Dagne, “Law and Policy on Intellectual Property, Traditional Knowledge and Development: Protecting Traditional Knowledge Based Agricultural Products through Geographical Indications” (2010) 11:1 The Estey Journal of International Law and Trade Policy 78-127.
  21. Tesh W. Dagne, “The Debate on Environmentally Motivated Unilateral Trade Measures in the World Trade Organization: The Way Forward” (2010) 9:3 Washington University Global Studies Law Review 427- 456.
  22. Tesh W. Dagne, “Building on the Canadian Approach to Resolve the Stalemate on the Trade and Environment Agenda in the World Trade Organization” (2009) 8:2 Journal of International Trade Law and Policy 159 – 180.
  23. Tesh W. Dagne, “The Application of Intellectual Property Rights to Biodiversity Resources: A Technique for the South Countries for Control over their Biodiversity Resources?” (2009) 17:1 African Journal of International and Comparative Law 150-165.

Research

Dr. Dagne is currently working on two projects: one is an extension of his extensive work on the legal dimensions of 3D Printing, focusing on intellectual property issues that the technology brings. This research addresses access to works in the application of 3D Printing in Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAMS) and Education. It assesses how, after years of integration in these areas, 3D Printing technology poses a challenge to the defining features of open distribution and access to cultural and educational goods. It surveys GLAMs and Educational institutions’ policy and practice and analyses how copyright law affects the distribution of digital files in 3D Printing applications in these settings.

Dr. Dagne also investigates data governance issues in the application of artificial intelligence and related technologies in agriculture, health, and biodiversity. His work examines the intersections between intellectual property law and data privacy norms in historical and doctrinal contexts. His research identifies emerging trends of data analytics applications that bring tensions between different stakeholders regarding ownership and control of data and attempts to resolve such tensions by exploring various frameworks and models for data sharing and access.

Conferences

Selected Presentations

  1. Subsistence of Copyrights Over CAD Files (15th Annual Intellectual Property Scholars Conference, DePaul University College of Law) August 6 and 7, 2015, Chicago.
  2. The Intersections of 3D Printing Technology with Intellectual Property Law (2nd Annual Conference on Intellectual Property and Information Law, University of Cambridge) 13-15 July 2015, Cambridge.
  3. Geographical Indications and Traditional Knowledge (CIGI International Law Research Program: First Consultation Workshop on Emerging International Law Issues Related to Biodiversity, Traditional Knowledge & Cultural Expression: From Community Knowledge to a Knowledge Community) 14 May 2015, Toronto
  4. IP and 3D Printing: Challenges and Prospects for Intellectual Property Law, (Social Justice Monday Workshop, Seattle University School of Law), February 9, 2015, Seattle.
  5. The Theoretical Conceptualization of GIs in Intellectual Property Law, Pacific Intellectual Property Scholars Conference III (Organized Jointly by Seattle University and Washington University Schools of Law) February 6, 2015, Seattle.
  6. IP Law and Policy-making in the Global Knowledge Economy: Forum Shifting and Counter-shifting in International Law Process (2015 TRU Society of Law Students Conference, Trending Now: #NewLaw) February 4, 2015, Kamloops
  7. From the Public Domain to Proprietary Protection of Traditional Knowledge, The Second Thematic Conference on Knowledge Commons, September 4-6 2014, NYU School of Law.
  8. Common Strategies to Protection Common Property (3rd Global Congress and Open A.I.R. Conference, December 9, 2013, Cape town, South Africa).
  9. Food Sovereignty and Farmers’ Rights: Reconceptualizing Models of Food Security in Intellectual Property Law and Policy (Presentation at the Food Secure Canada’s 7th Biennial Assembly in collaboration with Growing Food Security in Alberta, Nov. 1-4, 2012, Edmonton).
  10. Place-based Intellectual Property in Ghanaian Cocoa and Ethiopian Coffee (Open AIR Project Interim Report, 26-29 March 2012, Fairview Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya).
  11. Rights-based Agricultural Development in International Intellectual Property Law and Policy (Global Congress on Public Interest Intellectual Property, 2011, American University Washington College of Law, August 25-27).
  12. Acting Locally to Participate Globally in a Rights-Based Approach to Development: Place-based Intellectual Property Strategies to Differentiate Traditional and Local Agricultural Products (The Canadian Association for the Study of International Development Conference Theme: Place and Space: the Local and Global in International Development, My 31- June 1).
  13. Place-based Intellectual Property in an Open Development Paradigm: In Search of an African Model (With Professor Chidi Oguamanam) (Launching Workshop for the Open Air Research and Training Project on the Role Of IP in Open Development, Cape Town, South Africa).
  14. Intellectual Property, Agrobiodiversity and Traditional Knowledge in International Law: Critical Issues (International Journal of Arts & Sciences (IJAS) Conference for Academic Disciplines, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada, May 24 – 27, 2010).

Curriculum Vitae

Grants:

  • 2021 Agricultural Data Governance in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, TRU Internal Fund $5,000
  • 2020 Embracing the Data Revolution for Development: Governance of Farm Data, International Development Research Council and SSHRC-CRSH, Open AIR Research Funding $7,000
  • 2017-2021 3D Printing, the Canadian Consumer and Intellectual Property Law, SSHRC-CRSH, Insight Development Grant $43,000
  • 2014 Community Participation in the Utilization of Biodiversity and Traditional Knowledge, Jointly with Professor Nicole Schabus, SSHRC-CRSH, Aid to Small Universities (ASU) Grant $17,000
  • 2014-2015 Knowledge Exchange and Sharing in Agriculture: Case study of Ugandan Vanilla Production, Jointly with Professor Chidi Oguamanam, International Development Research Council and SSHRC-CRSH, Open AIR Research Funding $ 11,500
  • 2013-2014 Internal Research Fund for Summer Project on “Traditional Knowledge in International Law”, Thompson Rivers University Research Office $5,000
  • 2011-2012 Using Intellectual Property for Brand Development in Ethiopian Coffee and Ghanaian Cocoa, Jointly with Professor Chidi Oguamanam, German Development Agency (GIZ) and the International Development Research Council, Open African Innovation and Research Training (Open AIR) Fund $7,800

Links

Tesh Dagne

Contact

Office:
OM 4761
Email:
tdagne@tru.ca
Phone:
778-471-8368

Courses

  • Intellectual Property Law
    (LAW 3440)
  • International Intellectual Property Law
    (LAWF 3780)
  • Property Law
    (LAWF 3050)
  • International Trade Law
    (LAWF 3450)