A Feminist Reconstruction of Intellectual Property Laws in Music

This timely book presents an interdisciplinary feminist critique of intellectual property (IP) laws in music. Informed by the lived experience of women and gender-diverse people in the music industry, Metka Potočnik deconstructs the alleged gender-neutrality of IP laws.


Potočnik introduces ‘Feminist Intellectual Property Studies’ (FIPS), a new analytical framework combining feminist jurisprudence, feminist IP scholarship, and feminist musicology. Through a FIPS lens, Potočnik critiques copyright legislation, performers’ rights, trade marks, and the concept of passing off. The book also incorporates interviews and empirical data from the music industry, policymaking, and academia, to examine how, if at all, the current systems meet the needs of women and gender-diverse people. Ultimately, Potočnik argues that, in order to ensure that IP laws are gender-inclusive, current systems in the music industry must be redesigned to centre human activity and not objects.


A Feminist Reconstruction of Intellectual Property Laws in Music is an essential reference for scholars and students in the emerging field of feminist IP scholarship and IP social justice. Public institutions and musicologists working to achieve gender equality in music will also benefit from the book’s theoretical and practical insights.