Ran Tryggvadottir

 Ran Tryggvadottir

Rán Tryggvadóttir is currently working on her PhD thesis as a researcher at the Centre for Intellectual Property Rights at K.U. Leuven University, while on leave from her position as Associate Professor in Law at Reykjavík University.  The working title of her thesis is „Copyright challenges for digital libraries; how can libraries make more in-copyright material digitally available?“ The research is being conducted under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Janssens.

Rán Tryggvadóttir took her Cand. Jur. Degree from the Law Faculty of the University of Iceland in 1986 and her M. Phil. Degree from Edinburgh University in 1992.  Her M. Phil. Dissertation was in the field of patents and examined the influence of international co-operation on Scandinavian Patent Law and vice versa. 

Rán Tryggvadóttir joined the Patent Office in Iceland as a Departmental Specialist in 1989.  In 1991 she became Head of  Department in the Ministry of Industry in Iceland where her responsibilities included Intellectual Property Rights and participation in the EFTA Expert Group on Intellectual Property Rights.  In 1993 she became Counsellor for the Ministries of Trade and Industry at the Icelandic Mission to the EU in Brussels.  From 1997-1999 she worked for the EFTA Surveilance Authority in Brussels monitoring the implementation of Intellectual Property Rights legislation in the EFTA-EEA Member States.  After returning to Iceland Rán Tryggvadóttir became the Managing Director of the Reproduction Right Organisation Fjölís in the year 2000. The same year she was appointed Chairman of the Board of Appeals for Industrial Intellectual Property Rights, a position she held until 2011.  She taught Intellectual Property Rights and Information Technology Law at Reykjavík University from 2003 until 2009.  In March 2006 she was appointed by the Minister of Education, Science and Culture to the Committee of Experts in the Field of Copyright, established by Art. 58 of the Copyright Act of 1973 and is currently the Chair of the Committee. She has been the representative for the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture in the EFTA Expert Group on Intellectual Property Rights  for copyright matters since 2009. In July 2010 she was appointed a part-time researcher at the Centre for Intellectual Property Rights at K.U. Leuven University. Since December 2010 she has been involved as an expert in IP matters in the screening process for the Icelandic application for Membership of the EU.

Rán Tryggvadóttir has published articles on various subjects in the field of Intellectual Property, given general and specialised lectures at various venues and participated in the public debate regarding Intellectual Property Rights.

Selected publications and studies:

Status Report of the Implementation of the Term Directive in Iceland for a Report for EuropeanaConnect,  response to a questionnaire prepared by the Institute for Information Law (IViR) of the University of Amsterdam (March 2011).
Report for the Ministry of Education on the status of implementation of EU copyright Directives in Iceland in connection with the Icelandic application for Membership of the EU (January 2011).

• “Heimildir (bóka)safna til eintakagerðar og dreifingar á efni sem lýtur höfundarétti” (What permission do libraries and museums have to make copies of and distribute works that fall under copyright protection), article in a peer-reviewed collection of articles published in the honour of Mr. Ragnar Aðalsteinsson, Advocate to the Supreme Court of Iceland. (2009)
• “Hvad er der sket i nordisk ophavsret siden sidst – især indenfor domspraksis”, (Overview and comparison of developments in Nordic copyright in the years 2005-2009), opening lecture at the XIII. Nordic Copyright Conference held in Ålesund, Noregi, 25.-26. maí 2009 published in Nordiskt Immateriellt Rättskydd (NIR), 6/2009, pp. 516-530.
• Study done for Reykjavík University on provisions in employment contracts regarding Intellectual Property, March 2007.
• “Researching Icelandic Law”, together with Thórdís Ingadóttur, Associate Professor, for the webpage GlobaLex published by Hauser Global Law School Program, New York University School of Law, January 2007.
• “Dreifing tónlistar og kvikmynda á netinu:Jafningjanet og skráardeiliforrit” [Distribution of music and films on the Internet: peer-to-peer networks and file sharing programmes, peer-reviewed], Tímarit lögfræðinga [Icelandic Lawyers’ Law Journal], 4/2006.
• “Legal study on legal and administrative practices regarding the validity and mutual recognition of electronic documents: National Profile Iceland”, report prepared in June 2006 in collaboration with Jón Vilberg Gudjónsson, LL.M., and Haraldur Tryggvason, M.Jur (Oxon), for the Interdisciplinary Centre for Law and ICT (ICRI) – University of Leuven and Lawfort-Brussels, in connection with a study conducted by those institutions for the European Commission (DG Enterprise and Industry). The report, dated 25 October 2006, was published on the DG website, see http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/ict/policy/legal/2006-bm-cr/legal-validity-32-nat-reps.pdf
• Commentary on Icelandic Act No. 9/2006 amending Copyright Act No. 73/1972, as amended, study made for Fjölís, the Icelandic Reproduction Rights Association in May 2006.
• “Áhrif nýrrar tækni á höfundarétt” [The Effect of New Technology on Copyright, peer-reviewed], Tímarit Lögréttu [The Law Journal of Reykjavík University], 3/2005. 
• “Eintakagerð verndaðara verka í bókasöfnum” [Copying Protected Works in Libraries], study made for Fjölís, the Icelandic Reproduction Rights Association, in November 2002
• “Nýnæmiskröfur einkaleyfalaga og griðartíma”[The Novelty Requirement and Grace Period], Lecture given for SVESI, the Icelandic Association for the Protection of Industrial Property on the 9th of October 2002.
• “Intellectual Property Rights” in “Principles and Elements of Free Trade Relations”, Verlag Rüegger, Zürich, 2000.

Selected  lectures: 

• “Copyright and Visual Arts”, lecture given at the Iceland Academy of Arts on the 5th of May 2011.
• Opening lecture  at the XIII. Nordic Copyright Conference held in Ålesund, Noregi, 25.-26. May 2009 (by invitation).
• Lecture for the Icelandic Bar Association on “Copyright in the information society”, 16th of October 2007
• Organisation and chairing of a symposium on behalf of the RU School of Law on “Distribution of music and films on the net”, 26th of April 2007.
• “The Adoptation of the Infosoc Directive and its Effect on Public Libraries, lecture given at a Conference of the Icelandic Library and Information Science Association held on the 17 of Apríl 2007.
• “Distribution of Music and Films on the Internet”, lecture given to the Icelandic Copyright Association on the 28th of February 2007.
• “Copyright and Architecture”, lecture given at the Iceland Academy of Arts on the 3rd of October 2006.
• “Höfundaréttur og skráardeiliforrit”[Copyright and file-sharing], public lecture organized by the Law Student Association “Lögrétta” of Reykjavík University, 6th of October 2004.
• “Eintakagerð verndaðra verka í bókasöfnum – fyrirsjáanlegar breytingar vegna tilskipunar ESB nr. 29/2001 á sviði höfundaréttar” [Librarie s and Copyright in the light of the infosoc directive], Lecture given at a Conference of the Icelandic Library and Information Science Association held on the 16thof September 2004.
• “Höfundaréttur og netið”[Copyright and the Internet], Lecture given at the IT Conference ”UT 2004” organized by the Ministry of Education, 6th of March 2004.
• “Höfundaréttur og stafræn eintakagerð”[Copyright and Digital Copying], Lecture given at the IT Conference “UT 2003” organized by the Ministry of Education, 6th of March 2003.

Work in progress:

• Edition and contribution to the Icelandic monograph in the International Encyclopaedia for Cyber Law, published as part of Kluwer International's International Encyclopaedia of Laws, to be published in 2011.
• Edition and contribution to the Icelandic monograph in the International Encyclopaedia on Intellectual Property Law, published as part of Kluwer International's International Encyclopaedia of Laws, to be published in 2012.

Other activities in the area of IP Rights:

• 2000-  Member of the Association of Industrial Property Rights in Iceland, the Icelandic AIPPI Association, Chair of the Association in 2009, currently Board Member.
• 2006-  Board Member of the Copyright Association in Iceland.

Working languages:

Icelandic (Mother tongue),  English,  Danish, German, Norwegian and Swedish.