About
Scholar, practitioner, and institution-builder in international intellectual property law — with a career spanning WIPO, CISAC, and the Copyright Clearance Center.
Daniel J. Gervais is among the most widely cited scholars working at the intersection of intellectual property law, collective management, and international IP governance. His career spans senior roles at the World Intellectual Property Organization, the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers, and the Copyright Clearance Center, before a long tenure as a law professor and now as an emeritus scholar.
He holds the Milton R. Underwood Chair in Law at Vanderbilt Law School and serves as Senior Associate Professor (part-time) at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute and Academia Europaea. He operates Gervais AI & IP LLC, focusing on emerging questions at the intersection of artificial intelligence and intellectual property.
His treatise Collective Management of Copyright and Related Rights, now in its fourth edition (Kluwer Law International, 2025, with João Pedro Quintais), is the standard international reference work in the field. His scholarship spans collective rights management, AI and copyright, international IP frameworks, and the human rights dimensions of intellectual property.
Throughout his career, Professor Gervais has advised governments, international organizations, and rights management organizations on questions of copyright reform, collective licensing, digital rights, and AI policy. His work combines rigorous legal analysis with sustained engagement in policy development.