Mary W. S. Wong
Professor of Law
Faculty Chair for Global IP Partnerships
Chair, Intellectual Property Graduate Programs
Professor Wong is the first Faculty Chair for Global Intellectual Property Partnerships at the University of New Hampshire School of Law, where she is also the current Chair of the Intellectual Property Graduate Programs. From 2011 to 2013, she was the founding Director of UNH Law’s flagship applied research center, the Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectual Property. Under her leadership, the IP Center launched a number of new programs, including an IP Master Class Series and the Franklin Pierce Intellectual Property Certificate and Scholars programs, and collaborated with leading universities and national intellectual property offices.
Professor Wong joined UNH Law in 2005 from the Singapore Management University, where she was an Associate Professor of Law in the Lee Kong Chian School of Business. From 1998 to 2003 Professor Wong was Special Counsel to Morrison & Foerster LLP, resident primarily in its New York office. While at Morrison & Foerster, Professor Wong counseled American, European and Asian clients on a wide range of technology transactions, and provided advice on international and comparative legal developments in international intellectual property and Internet law. She has also been associated with the firm’s Brussels and Singapore offices, and was previously a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the National University of Singapore.
Professor Wong served two terms as an elected member on the Generic Names Supporting Organizations (GNSO) Council of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers (ICANN), representing ICANN’s Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group in its main policy development body. She has been the Vice-Chair of the GNSO Council and in October 2012 she was appointed by the ICANN Nominating Committee to ICANN’s Council for its Country-Code Names Supporting Organization. Professor Wong is a past chair of the International Copyright committee of the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Intellectual Property Law Section and was a member of the inaugural Editorial Board for “Landslide”, the Section’s flagship publication. She has also served on the ABA’s Copyright Reform Task Force.
Professor Wong has been a member of the New York New Media Association’s Programs Committee, the Singapore Government’s e-Commerce Consultative Committee, and the Singapore Academy of Law’s Membership and Social Committee. She was also the co-founder of Project Law Help, an initiative adopted by the Law Society of Singapore to provide pro bono corporate and transactional legal services to charities and nonprofit organizations in Singapore. She continues to maintain professional relationships with the Singapore legal fraternity, including through a continuing appointment as an Associate Fellow of the Intellectual Property Academy of Singapore.
Professor Wong’s research interests are centered on the legal and policy challenges presented by digital technology and the Internet, in particular to the international intellectual property rights framework. Her current research focuses on the intersection of copyright and human rights, and the impact of changes to the Internet domain name system on trademark and free speech rights. Professor Wong is also a frequent speaker at conferences in the United States, Europe and Asia.
“Given my background and the nature of digital technology, I suppose it’s natural that I should think it’s important for lawyers to have an awareness of legal issues and developments in countries and systems other than their own. This can be a challenge when many laws are historically and essentially territorial in nature. I also believe it’s important for a law teacher to try to convey to students a sense of the intellectual allure and social relevance that law by its nature possesses. I hope that my students leave my classes with the ability not just to be good practicing lawyers, but also with a passion for thinking about and possibly helping to shape the outcome of the legal issues of their day.”
A selection of Professor Wong’s writings is available on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN).
