Dr. Bassem Awad is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Area of Concentration in Intellectual Property, Information, and Technology (IPIT) Law at Western Law. He founded and directs the Western Intellectual Property and Innovation Legal Clinic (WIPILC), serves as a Visiting Professor at the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Academy in Geneva, and has chaired the African Union ASRIC Taskforce on Intellectual Property since 2021.
Before joining Western, Dr. Awad was Deputy Director of Intellectual Property and Innovation at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and served several years as a Judge and Head of Court at the Appeal Courts of Egypt and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
With extensive expertise in intellectual property, technology law, and innovation policy, Dr. Awad’s research focuses on intellectual property and innovation governance, particularly the impact of frontier technologies—such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data—on intellectual property and privacy norms. His projects include climate justice and intellectual property, legal frameworks for collaborative innovation (e.g., patent pledges and pools), intellectual property in preferential trade agreements, entrepreneurship, and the strategic management and commercialization of intellectual property assets.
Dr. Awad holds a PhD and LLM in Law from the University of Montpellier and Sorbonne University in France, and completed postdoctoral research at Western Law. He has taught and worked in common and civil law systems, leading projects for international and regional organizations across Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and Canada. A member of the International Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research in Intellectual Property (ATRIP), he serves on the editorial committees of several academic journals.
At Western Law, Dr. Awad teaches Intellectual Property Law, International Intellectual Property, and Law and Disruptive Technologies, and has designed and delivered numerous distance learning and professional training programs worldwide.
