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Events Landing PageLecturer in Law
School of Humanities - Law and Criminal Justice
C115 Convent Building
College Street
Ella has completed a BCL, LLM and PhD at University College Cork. Her LLM dissertation focused on the duty of care owed to children in schools from the perspective of the law of negligence. Her PhD examined the application of ordre public and morality exclusions in European patent law. In 2008 her work based on the application of patent law to transgenic animals was one of the winning essays in the International Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research of Intellectual Property Essay Competition (http://www.atrip.org/Essays). In 2012 an article examining the law relating to the patentability of human embryonic stem cells in Australia and Europe was awarded first place in the Australian Intellectual Property Journal Essay Competition.
Ella's research centres on Intellectual Property law and the application of ethical concerns in the context of granting patent protection for biotechnological inventions. She is a member of the Patent Scholars Network.
PhD Thesis Title: Reconciling restrictive traditions with broadening horizons: The evolution of the ordre public and morality exclusion in relation to biotechnological inventions in European patent law
Ella has been teaching law since 2005 and in 2013 completed a PG Cert in Teaching and Learning. She has taught modules on Intellectual Property Law, Family Law, Company Law, Commercial Law, Law of Evidence, Social Care Law, Contract Law, Land Law and Succession Law.
Ella has acted as programme director of the Higher Certificate in Arts in Legal Studies from 2018-2021. She has taught in WIT since 2016. Previously, she has worked as a researcher and lecturer at UCC (2005-2011) and Griffith College Cork (2013). She has also worked at the Central Statistics Office (2014-2015). She has a fundamental knowledge of data science having successfully completed modules in Applied Statistics and Probability, Analytical and Scientific Programming, Data Science and Analytics, Unstructured Data and Visualisation, and Maths Methods and Modelling at MTU in 2015.
Forthcoming "Artificial Intelligence and Inventors: Artificial Intelligence challenges the limits of European Patent law in the DABUS applications" (2021)
“International Stem Cell Corporation v. Comptroller General of Patents: The debate regarding the definition of the human embryo continues” (2014) 36 European Intellectual Property Review 155
“The patentability of human embryonic stem cells in Australia and Europe: Section 18(2) reconsidered in light of Oliver Brüstle v Greenpeace eV” (2013) 24 Australian Intellectual Property Journal 18
“Is Article 53(a) EPC still of narrow interpretation?” [2012] Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice 680
"Brüstle v. Greenpeace: An inventive interpretation of the human embryo in the CJEU" [2012] Irish Law Times 161
“Gene Patents and Industrial Application: Human Genome Sciences Inc. v. Eli Lilly & Co.” [2012] Commercial Law Practitioner 161
“Article 53(a) EPC and the patentability of animals: The effect of Rule 23d(d) on ordre public and morality evaluations in the European Patent Office” (2008) available at http://www.atrip.org/Essays
Conference Papers:
'"Ordre Public & Morality: Necessarily restrictive of emerging technologies?' Patents & Emerging Technologies 19-20 December 2019 (Wellcome Collection London)
‘The Connected Classroom & Copyright Law’ South East Regional Research Conference 12 October 2019 Waterford Teacher’s Centre
‘Changing Interpretations in the European Patent Office’ Patents Scholars Network 20-21 June 2019, University of Maynooth
'Patenting Chimeras: Ordre Public & Morality’ Patent Scholars Network 11-12 April 2019, University of Exeter
SETU Waterford, Cork Road, Waterford City, 
