David James Watson

David Watson is a Liu Scholar and PhD student at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia.

David researches in the field of international trade and intellectual property law. His focus is on the protection of geographical indications in regional trade agreements and he is looking at whether countries are agreeing to provisions relating to the protection of agri-food product names that conflict with their other obligations. He is supervised by Dr. Ljiljana Biuković.

David’s Liu Scholars project examines the impacts of protecting translations and transliterations of geographical indications in other languages and scripts. He is mentored by Dr. Matias Margulis.

Prior to starting a PhD, David worked as an international trade lawyer for the United Kingdom Government in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum. He advised on agricultural trade issues and negotiated trade agreements on behalf of the Government. David holds an LLM from the University of Cambridge and an LLB and BSc from the University of Sydney.

Email: dwat8318@student.ubc.ca