Dr. Pratyush Nath Upreti is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Intellectual Property Law. He is a Research Affiliate at Sciences Po Paris and the Faculty of Law, University of Helsinki. He is also a Fellow at Stanford Law School, Transatlantic Technology Law Forum (TTLF) since 2018. Before his appointment at Queen’s University Belfast, he held a position at the Faculty of Law, University of Helsinki, and the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition Law, Munich. Previously, he was a visiting research fellow at the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy & Management (CIPPM) of Bournemouth University.

Before moving to academia, he practiced law and has appeared before the Supreme Court of Nepal and sub-ordinate courts; have taught in Nepal and continues to advise and write on legal and policy issues related to Nepal.

Pratyush's work has been published widely in leading international journals including the International & Comparative Law Quarterly (ICLQ), World Trade Review, the International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law (IIC), the Journal of World Intellectual Property, European Intellectual Property Review, among others. His recent book entitled 'Intellectual Property Objectives in International Investment Agreements' (2022) published by Edward Elgar  was awarded the IPKat Intellectual Property Law Book of the Year! The book examines the issues arising from recent intellectual property disputes in investment arbitration from the perspectives of national and international legal orders, providing a normative analysis to resolve the tension brought by intellectual property and investor-state dispute settlement interactions.  

His research outcomes have received awards. Recently, he was awarded first prize in  the International Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research in Intellectual Property (ATRIP) Essay Competition for Young Researchers in Intellectual Property Law. To this end, he was also awarded the International Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys- 'FICPI Young Scholar's Prize (2022)'. 

He has advised least developed countries (LDCs) Governments on intellectual property policies and acted as a consultant in private sector development projects focusing on IP, trade, and investment for the European Union (EU) funded projects. He has represented international organizations at the General Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and is an expert for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Recently, he commissioned a study entitled the Case of Geographical Indication Protection of the Mozambique White Prawn, UNCTAD/ALDC/2022/2. In 2023, he was appointed as an expert in seven-member expert committee to formed by the World Health Organization (WHO) South-East Asia.

 He serves as a member of the editorial board for the Global Trade and Customs Journal, Kluwer Law International.

Pratyush's current research focuses on intersections, relationships, and tension between IP and international investment agreements (IIAs), focusing on different approaches to reconcile the competing objectives of IP and IIAs. To this end, he has recently published monograph entitled  'Intellectual Property Objectives in International Investment Agreements' (2022) with  Edward Elgar: Cheltenham, UK.   

His current research also focuses on IP and COVID-19; examining IP and international economic law ramifications of COVID-19 related measures. On a similar theme, he is working on a project focusing on the role of IP in the post-pandemic world which will result in a monograph.

He is also collaborating on a research project titled 'Shaping, Fixing and Making Markets via IPR: Regulating Sustainable Innovation Ecosystems' with the Faculty of Law, University of Helsinki funded by Academy of Finland. 

Pratyush is interested in areas of international intellectual property (IP) law and policy. Particularly, how national and international legal orders affect domestic  IP laws and policies. More broadly, interfaces of IP with other branches of international law such as international investment law and trade.

He is also interested in issues of IP, sustainability, and innovation. Increasingly, he is interested in interfaces of different legal regimes in international law with a focus on Asian Legal Studies (particularly South Asia)/Global South more generally. 

Intellectual Property Law

Legal Methods and Skills

Law and Technology: Project Based Learning