Biography

Dr Matthew Rimmer is a Professor in Intellectual Property and Innovation Law at the Faculty of Business and Law, at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). He has published widely on copyright law and information technology, patent law and biotechnology, access to medicines, plain packaging of tobacco products, intellectual property and climate change, Indigenous Intellectual Property, intellectual property and trade, and 3D printing regulation. He is undertaking research on intellectual property and sustainable development (including the debate over the right to repair); greenwashing; intellectual property, access to essential medicines, and public health (particularly looking at the COVID-19 crisis), and tobacco endgame policies. His work is archived at QUT ePrints, SSRN Abstracts, Bepress Selected Works, and Open Science Framework.

Rimmer has published four major research monographs. Rimmer is the author of a research monograph, The Trans-Pacific Partnership: Intellectual Property and Trade in the Pacific Rim (Edward Elgar, 2020), Intellectual Property and Climate Change: Inventing Clean Technologies (Edward Elgar, 2011), Intellectual Property and Biotechnology: Biological Inventions (Edward Elgar, 2008), and Digital Copyright and the Consumer Revolution: Hands off my iPod (Edward Elgar, 2007). His PhD Dissertation is on The Pirate Bazaar: The Social Life of Copyright Law (UNSW, 2001).

Rimmer has also edited a number of collections. In collaboration with Bita Amani and Caroline B. Ncube, Rimmer is the editor of the Elgar Companion on Intellectual Property and the Sustainable Development Goals (Edward Elgar, 2024). Along with Dinusha Mendis and Mark Lemley, Rimmer is the editor of the collection, 3D Printing and Beyond: Intellectual Property and Regulation (Edward Elgar, 2019). Rimmer is the editor of the collection, Intellectual Property and Clean Energy: The Paris Agreement and Climate Justice (Springer, 2018). Rimmer has edited a special issue of the QUT Law Review on the topic, The Plain Packaging of Tobacco Products (2017) - which featured a foreword by former Minister for Health and Attorney-General Nicola Roxon. Rimmer is the editor of the collection, Indigenous Intellectual Property: A Handbook of Contemporary Research (Edward Elgar, 2015). Rimmer is also a co-editor of Intellectual Property and Emerging Technologies: The New Biology (Edward Elgar, 2012), and Incentives for Global Public Health: Patent Law and Access to Essential Medicines (Cambridge University Press, 2010). Rimmer edited the thematic issue of Law in Context, entitled Patent Law and Biological Inventions (Federation Press, 2006).

Over the past two decades, Rimmer's research has been supported by a number of nationally competitive research grant applications. Rimmer has been a chief investigator in an Australian Research Council Discovery Project, 'Gene Patents In Australia: Options For Reform' (2003-2005), an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant, 'The Protection of Botanical Inventions' (2003); an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant, 'Unlocking IP' (2006-2008) and an Australian Research Council Discovery Project, 'Promoting Plant Innovation in Australia' (2009-2011). He was an Australian Research Council Future Fellow, working on Intellectual Property and Climate Change from 2011 to 2015. Rimmer was a Chief Investigator on an ARC Discovery Project on 'Inventing The Future: Intellectual Property and 3D Printing' (2017-2021). He is a chief investigator of the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence on Achieving the Tobacco Endgame (CREATE) (2020-2025). Rimmer has experience in directing large-scale collaborative research projects on intellectual property and global challenges.

Rimmer is a chief investigator in the QUT Australian Centre for Health Law Research (QUT ACHLR). He is an associate investigator of the QUT Energy Transition Centre. He is a chief investigator in the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence on Achieving the Tobacco Endgame (CREATE) (2020-2025). Rimmer was previously the leader of the QUT Intellectual Property and Innovation Law Research Program from 2015-2020 (QUT IPIL). He was also a chief investigator and a member of the QUT Centre for Behavioural Economics, Society, and Technology (QUT BEST); a member of the QUT Digital Media Research Centre (QUT DMRC), the QUT Centre for the Digital Economy, the QUT Centre for Justice, the QUT Centre for Clean Energy Technologies and Processes, and the QUT International Law and Global Governance Research Program.

Dr Matthew Rimmer holds a BA (Hons) and a University Medal in literature (1995), and a LLB (Hons) (1997) from the Australian National University. He received a PhD in law from the University of New South Wales for his dissertation on The Pirate Bazaar: The Social Life of Copyright Law (1998-2001). Dr Matthew Rimmer was a lecturer, senior lecturer, and an associate professor at the ANU College of Law, and a research fellow of ACIPA.