Natalie Stoianoff

Natalie Stoianoff is a Professor and Director of the Intellectual Property Program at the Faculty of Law, University of Technology Sydney, since 2008. She is the Chair of the Indigenous Knowledge Forum Committee, member of the UTS Commercialisation Advisory Panel, and is currently Co-convenor of the Technology and Intellectual Property Research Cluster and past convenor of the China Law Research Group. Her international leadership both academically and professionally has resulted in her election in 2021 as President of the Asian Pacific Copyright Association.

Natalie's interdisciplinary research is concerned with new technologies including the legal, ethical and commercial aspects of biotechnology with research interests ranging from the Patenting of Living Organisms, Software and Business Methods, Protecting Traditional/Indigenous Knowledge and Culture, Technology Transfer to Environmental Taxation.

As a joint recipient of an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Grant (2005-08), Natalie investigated Intellectual Property enforcement and awareness building in the People Republic of China. She has had industry funding to investigate the Role of Patent Protection in Key Australian Industries and the Contribution to Economic Development (2010-12), and led an Indigenous Knowledge Forum project on Recognising and Protecting Indigenous Knowledge associated with Natural Resource Management (2013-14), funded by the Aboriginal Communities Fund of the North West Local land Services. The White Paper produced by that project led to the award of an ARC Linkage Grant (2016-19) for the project - Garuwanga: Forming a Competent Authority to Protect Indigenous Knowledge - which is exploring the governance framework for an access and benefit-sharing regime.

She is the author of numerous publications including: lead author of the 2019 Lexis Nexis book, Commercialisation of Intellectual Property, a co-author of the Federation Press publication, Intellectual Property Law: Text and Essential Cases, adopted by several Australian universities and now in its fifth edition; editor of and author in the multidisciplinary book, Accessing Biological Resources, Complying with the Convention on Biological Diversity, published in 2004 by Kluwer Law International Environmental Law and Policy Series; and currently the managing editor of the newly formed Lexis Nexis series for the Indigenous Knowledge Forum, the first edition of which was published in 2017.

Natalie's intellectual property expertise coupled with her research on the protection of traditional knowledge and culture, led to collaborative work on information literacies with colleagues at the University of Library Studies and Information Technology, Sofia, resulting in a three year grant (2020-2022) from the Bulgarian National Science Fund - Competition for financial Support for Basic Research Projects 2019, on the topic: A Conceptual Educational Model for Enhancing Information Literacy in an University Information Environment.

As an internationally recognised leader in environmental taxation, Natalie's research has led to editorial board membership of the Journal of Behavioural Economics and Social Systems, the Journal of the Australasian Tax Teachers Association, and the Critical Issues in Environmental Taxation Editorial Review Board. Currently, she is the Lead Editor of 2 publications from the series (August 2016): Volume XVII, Green Fiscal Reform for a Sustainable Future - Reform, Innovation and Renewable Energy, and Volume XVIII, Market Instruments and the Protection of Natural Resources.

Natalie is a Chartered Tax Adviser of The Taxation Institute and was a member of the NSW Board of the Australia China Business Council for 15 terms including as Vice President and Chair of the Education Sub-Committee. Currently, she is serving on the National Standing Committee on Energy and the Environment.