Anthony Rosborough

This is a pixelated image of Anthony D. Rosborough, an intellectual property lawyer and doctoral researcher in law at the European University Institute.

law | technology

I am an Assistant Professor of Law & Computer Science at Dalhousie University and a doctoral researcher in Law at the European University Institute. My research interests concentrate on the relationship between intellectual property, embedded computer systems, market competition, and personal property rights.

I am particularly interested in the way that software, computerisation and new technologies are being used to create new concepts of ownership and access in an increasingly automated world. Much of my work has been focused on the extent to which IP rights (when combined with technological design) have undermined the personal agency and fundamental rights of users. Along these lines, the Right to Repair has been a core focus of my scholarly work and policy advocacy.

My doctoral thesis investigates the role of software technological protection measures (often referred to as “digital locks”) in enabling the transformation of products into services, remote data collection by manufacturers, and firmware restrictions which act to hinder interoperability, innovation, and repair. The thesis project investigates the rationale, design, implementation, and effects of software technological protection measures across the medical equipment, consumer electronics, and agricultural equipment industries.

awards, fellowships, etc

  1. Research Fellow, Griffith University (ARC Future Fellowship – Unlocking digital innovation: intellectual property and the right to repair, Prof. Leanne Wiseman), Brisbane, Australia [2024].
  2. CREATe Fellow, University of Glasgow (Knowledge Rights 21 Study on the Impact of Technological Protection Measures), Glasgow, UK [2023-2024].
  3. Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada) Doctoral Award (2021).
  4. Hans Kelsen Special Doctoral Fellowship, European University Institute [2020-2024].
  5. Legal Research Intern, World Trade Organization (Intellectual Property Division), Geneva, Switzerland [2019].

recent refereed and in progress works

    1. Anthony D. Rosborough and Aaron Perzanowski, “Repair as Research: How Copyright Impedes Learning About Devices” (2023) 8 Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series [American University Digital Commons].
    2. Anthony D. Rosborough, Leanne Wiseman & Taina Pihlajarinne, “Achieving a (copy)right to repair for the EU’s green economy” (2023) 18:5 Oxford Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice 344-352 [OJIPLP].
    3. Anthony D. Rosborough, “Toward a Canadian Right to Repair: Opportunities and Challenges” (2022) 37:3 Berkeley Technology Law Journal 1197-1212 [Berkeley Repository].
    4. Anthony D. Rosborough, “Zen and the Art of Repair Manuals: Enabling a Participatory Right to Repair Through an Autonomous Concept of EU Copyright Law” (2022) 13(2) JIPITEC 113-131.[JIPITEC].
    5. Anthony D. Rosborough, “Technologies of Servitude: Understanding Firmware TPMs as Interests in Personal Property” (2022) 19:3 J L & Tech 39-71.
    6. Anthony D. Rosborough and Reagan Seidler, “Intangible Justice? Intellectual Property Disputes and Canadian Small Claims Courts” (2022) 47(2) Queens Law Journal 1-29 [SSRN].
    7. Anthony D. Rosborough, “If a Machine Could Talk, We Would Not Understand It: Canadian Innovation and the Copyright Act’s TPM Interoperability Framework”, (2021) 19 J L & Tech 141-171 [SSRN].
    8. Anthony D. Rosborough, “Unscrewing the Future: The Right to Repair and Circumvention of Software TPMs in the EU” (2020) 11:1 JIPITEC 26-48 [SSRN].
    9. Lucie Guibault & Anthony D. Rosborough, “Copyright in the Public Interest: Canada’s Perceptual Disability Framework”, in Jani McCutcheon and Ana Ramalho (eds), International Perspectives on Disability Exceptions in Copyright Law and the Visual Arts, (Routledge, 2020).

    presentations | speaking | interviews

    1. 2024-05-29: Conference presentation, “The Right to Repair Medical Devices”, Canadian Medical and Biological Engineering Society (CMBES) Conference (CMBEC46), Toronto, Canada.
    2. 2024-05-23: Public Lecture, “Repair as Competition”, Griffith University Law Futures Lecture, Brisbane, Australia.
    3. 2024-04-16: Panellist, United States Copyright Office Section 1201 Public Hearing: “Proposed Class 5 – Computer Programs – Repair”.
    4. 2024-04-10: Interviewee, “Toward a Canadian Right to Repair”, Dalhousie Law Journal Podcast, Episode 38.
    5. 2024-04-02: Interviewee, “Why nothing works with anything else”, The Big Story Podcast, Episode 1067.
    6. 2024-03-06: Presentation, “International Source Code Secrecy and Why You Should (Probably) Care About It”, Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada.
    7. 2024-01-06: Interviewee, “Right to repair aims to make gadgets last longer”, CBC’s The National.
    8. 2023-12-08: Interviewee, “The Fight for Your Right to Repair”, CBC’s Spark with Nora Young.
    9. 2023-12-06: Amicus Curiae, Matthew Green v DOJ, No. 21-5195 (D.C. Cir. 2022) [Brief prepared and filed by Charles Duan, American University Washing College of Law].
    10. 2023-12-03: Interviewee, “The Right to Repair in Canada”, Radio QRCalgary.
    11. 2023-11-09: Interviewee, “Morning Shot: Fix or Toss? Will the right to repair be the demise of intellectual property?”, MoneyFM983 Singapore.
    12. 2023-07-31: Interviewee, “Demanding a right to repair”, Canadian Bar Association’s National Magazine.
    13. 2023-06-05: “Alissa Centivany and Anthony Rosborough on Repairing Canada’s Right to Repair”, Law Bytes Podcast (Michael Geist), Episode 169.
    14. 2023-05-13: Interviewee, “Right to Repair: Why is it so difficult to fix our electronics?”, Global News story by Krista Hessey.
    15. 2023-03-09: Contributing speaker (with Professor Aaron Perzanowski and Pascale Chapdelaine), “The Intellectual Property Implications of the Right to Repair”, LTEC Lab, Windsor Law.
    16. 2023-03-08: Witness, Standing Committee on Science and Technology (INDU), Bill C-294, An Act to Amend the Copyright Act (interoperability), Parliament of Canada.
    17. 2023-03-02: Guest lecture, “The Right to Repair”, LAWS 2028: Copyright Law, The Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University.
    18. 2023-02-22: Guest lecture, “The Right to Repair”, Intellectual Property Law, The University of Glasgow School of Law.
    19. 2023-02-20: Guest lecture & seminar, CopyrightX: Fair Use & Misuse, The University of Glasgow School of Law.
    20. 2023-02-08: Witness, Standing Committee on Science and Technology (INDU), Bill C-244, An Act to Amend the Copyright Act (diagnosis, maintenance and repair), Parliament of Canada.
    21. 2023-01-26: Webinar panelist, “The Right to Repair”, The International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI).
    22. 2022-11-21: Webinar contributor, “The Debate over Right to Repair in Agriculture: What role for provincial government?“, Canada West Foundation Webinar.
    23. 2022-11-17: Conference panelist, “The Right To Repair, Intellectual Property, and Software” European Consumer Day 2022: Empowering consumers for a more sustainable world, European Economic and Social Committee (Brussels, Belgium)
    24. 2022-10-31: Conference panelist, “Zen and the Art of Repair Manuals: Enabling a Participatory Right to Repair Through an Autonomous Concept of EU Copyright Law”, Rethinking Copyright Flexibilities (ReCreating EU) (University of Cyprus)
    25. 2022-09-20: Guest speaker, “The Right to Repair”, Law & Technology Virtual Speaker Series, The Law & Technology Institute at the Schulich School of Law (Dalhousie University).
    26. 2022-09-14: Webinar speaker, “Repair and copyright: Overcoming the invisible barriers to repair“, Hosted by the European Environmental Bureau & Repair.eu.
    27. 2022-06-30: Conference panelist, “Green Tech Talk: New Digital Economy for Workers, Consumers & The Environment”, The Greens/EFA in the European Parliament.
    28. 2022-04-13: Conference panelist, “Repair in the International Context”, UC Berkeley Repair Symposium – 26th Annual BCLT/BTLJ Symposium, “The Emergent Right to Repair“.
    29. 2022-03-23: Guest speaker, “Right to Repair” Bande Pensante BandWit Webcast [Online/Streaming].
    30. 2021-12-19: Presentation, “Repair Manuals and EU Copyright Law”, CREATe Morning Coffee Series, University of Glagsow.
    31. 2021-10-08: Conference Presentation, “Are TPMs Ownership Rights?”, Are We Owned? A Multidisciplinary and Comparative Conversation on Intellectual Property in the Algorithmic Society, University of Stirling.
    32. 2021-10-01: Conference Presentation, “The Right to Repair”, ALAI Study Days (Copyright, Competition and Innovation), Madrid, Spain.
    33. 2021-09-07: Conference Presentation, “Zen and the Art of Repair Information: Copyright, the Right to Repair, and the EU’s Circular Economy”, European Policy for Intellectual Property (EPIP 2021), Madrid, Spain.
    34. 2021-09-02: Conference Co-Host with Professor Alissa Centivany (Western University), “Fixing Digital Locks”, Big Data at the Margins Lecture Series, featuring guest speakers Professor Michael Geist, Kyle Wiens (iFixit) and Dr. Tarek Loubani, online.
    35. 2021-08-21: Interviewee, “Farmers seeking ‘right to repair’ rules to fix their own tractors gain White House ally”, CBC News story by Tony Seskus.

    other contributions

    1. Anthony D. Rosborough & Carlo Dade, “System Update Required: Farming the Software Age: Interoperability and provincial legislation” (March 2024) Canada West Foundation Policy Brief.
    2. Alissa Centivany & Anthony D. Rosborough, “A clearer right-to-repair picture emerges in Canada, but uncertainties remain” (20 December 2023) Policy Options.
    3. Anthony D. Rosborough, “Canada’s Fall Economic Statement signals the ‘right to repair’ your tech devices (3 December 2023), The Conversation.
    4. Anthony D. Rosborough & Daniel Rangel, “The Right to Repair needs to extend to software, too – and trade deals could be in the way” (23 November 2023), The Globe and Mail.
    5. Anthony D. Rosborough & Alissa Centivany, “The empty success of recent amendments to Canada’s right-to-repair bill” (1 May 2023) Policy Options.
    6. Anthony D. Rosborough, “Apple’s pledge to let consumers repair their own gadgets doesn’t go far enough” (21 December 2021) Corporate Knights.
    7. Anthony D. Rosborough, “The InfoSoc Directive and the Right to Repair: exploring the boundaries of a lesser-known copyright exception” (14 December 2022) online: Kluwer Copyright Blog <http://copyrightblog.kluweriplaw.com/2022/12/14/the-infosoc-directive-and-the-right-to-repair-exploring-the-boundaries-of-a-lesser-known-copyright-exception>.
    8. Pascale Chapdelaine & Anthony D. Rosborough et al., “A Modern Copyright Framework for the Internet of Things (IoT): Intellectual Property Scholars’ Joint Submission to the Canadian Government Consultation” (24 June 2021) [SSRN].
    9. Anthony D. Rosborough, “A Canadian Right to Repair bill sees 330-0 vote, as measure clears key hurdle” (3 June 2021) online: Repair.org <https://www.repair.org/blog/2021/6/3/a-canadian-right-to-repair-bill-sees-330-0-vote-as-measure-clears-key-hurdle>.
    10. Anthony D. Rosborough, “Canada needs right-to-repair legislation” (14 May 2021) online: Policy Options <https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/may-2021/canada-needs-right-to-repair-legislation/>
    11. Anthony D. Rosborough, “Science Fiction and AI: Lawmaking lessons from the mythical origins of copyright law” (5 May 2021) online: EUIdeas <https://euideas.eui.eu/2021/05/05/science-fiction-and-ai-lawmaking-lessons-from-the-mythical-origins-of-copyright-law/>.
    12. Anthony D. Rosborough & Carlo Dade, “The serious hidden problem facing Canada’s agricultural innovators” (25 February 2021) online: Policy Options.
    13. Anthony D. Rosborough, “The Right to Repair Medical Equipment During a Pandemic”, Nova Voce 38:2 (2020) 28, online: [https://perma.cc/GR23-6KVZ].