Skip to main content
School of Law
  1. School of Law
  2. People
  3. Teaching Associates and Fellows
  4. Profiles

Dr Brian Leung, LLB (Birmingham), LLM (UCL), MSc (ULaw), PhD (QMUL), Solicitor (Eng & Wales), AFHEA

Brian

Teaching Fellow of Intellectual Property and Criminal Law

Email: b.leung@qmul.ac.uk

Profile

Brian is a practitioner and academic specialising in intellectual property law. He has a PhD in commercial law, and his current research interests are in copyright and trade mark law, and the broader interactions between intellectual property law and fundamental rights.

Brian has been teaching copyright and trade mark, tort, and criminal law at Queen Mary; previously, he was a visiting lecturer at UCL and taught their LLB intellectual property and LLM dissertation modules; he was also a tutor in the EUIPO Pan-European Seal Programme where his team (IP and dance) won 'best research paper of the year' and he recently guest lectured at the University of Southampton, Westminster, Swansea, and Brunel.

Brian's REF-quality research outputs include his Routledge monograph on copyright and memes (2025), his Eward Elgar book chapter on AI and GDPR (forthcoming, 2026), and his peer-reviewed articles in renowned journals including the Journal of World Intellectual Property, the European Intellectual Property Review, and the Journal of Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law. 

Alongside teaching and publishing, Brian was the editor-in-Chief of the Queen Mary Law Journal (QMLJ), a researcher tasked to update Copinger and Skone James on Copyright (19th Edition, 2025), and post-doc researcher for Professor Ilanah Fhima (trade mark), Professor Uma Suthersanen (copyright) and Professor Gillian Davies (the public Interest).

Find out about Brian's book.

Undergraduate Teaching

  • LAW6455 Intellectual Property Law – Copyright & Related Rights.
  • LAW5005 Criminal Law.

Postgraduate Teaching

  • IPLC134 Fundamentals of Law and Professional Ethics.

Research

Brian has a PhD in commercial law, and his current research interests are in copyright and trade mark law, and the broader interactions between intellectual property law and fundamental rights.

Publications

Book

  • Internet Memes and Copyright Law: Diving into the Meme Pool (2025).
    • A highly relevant monograph. The author masterfully guides readers through the intricate complexities surrounding the possible treatment of memes under copyright law. The book clearly demonstrates the need for recognising developing new communicative values and social practices as a chance for legal reform. A much needed and recommended intervention! Guido Westkamp, Professor of IP, Media and Comparative Law (QMUL).
    • Memes are ubiquitous but their cultural and speech value is sometimes overlooked. This work casts an interdisciplinary light on their importance. Brian Leung’s discussion of copyright’s application to memes is highly instructive in itself, and as a case study of key issues in copyright more generally. Ilanah Fhima, Professor of Intellectual Property Law, (UCL).

Book Chapter (forthcoming, 2026)

  • ‘When AI wreaks havoc across the Equator: A Right to Object by the Global South?: A thought experiment on ways to bridge the IP gap between developed and developing nations through the notion of the Public Interest’.

Journal Articles

  • Brian Leung, 'Internet meme culture and the Digital Single Market Directive: implications of EU copyright reforms' (2024) 46(2) European IP Review (EIPR) 78-88.
  • Brian Leung, ‘Facilitating the Memetic Remix Discourse by viewing Joint Authorship Flexibly?’ (2024) 27(1) The Journal of World Intellectual Property (JWIP) 463–487.
  • Brian Leung, ‘Revisiting Copyright: Is there a way to Tackle Selective Enforcement and Non-Contextual Algorithmic Takedowns?’ (2024) 34(1) Info & Comms Tech Law 17–29.

Presentations

  • “Tackling the Dark side of AI: The Deep Fakes” at the University of Swansea (2025)
  • “Transcending Realms: when (Intangible) Intellectual Property Law crosses into (Tangible) Property Law”, at the Socio-Legal Studies Association Conference at Portsmouth University (2024)
  • “User-Generated Rights and its clash with the EU Digital Singal Markert Directive, article 17” at the European IP Innovation Society at the University of Alicante University (2023).
  • “Reconciling with the notion of joint authorship” at the Socio-Legal Studies Association Conference at Ulster University (2023).
  • “Arts Culture & Heritage: Relationship with Property & Culture“ at the Socio-Legal Studies Association Conference at York University (2022).
  • “Re-imagining the idea/expression Dichotomy” at the Legal Research Symposium at Queen Mary University of London (2022).
  • “Licencing dilemma though the lens of Cultural Institutions” at the Law and Humanities Research Symposium at the Open University, Milton Keynes (2022).
  • “Graphic Justice: Memetic Comics and Copyright” Socio-Legal Studies Association Conference at Cardiff University (2021).
Back to top