Keynote speakers
Marketa Trimble: Geoblocking: Let's "Tear Down This Wall"
Abstract:
In a 2012 article, Professor Trimble suggested that if geoblocking were to be accepted as the legitimate means of replicating physical borders on the internet, then the right to international travel, combined with the right to free expression, should mandate that internet users be allowed, within legitimate legal parameters, to bypass geoblocking and “travel” in cyberspace. Developments since 2012 have solidified the role of geoblocking as the legally recognized means of territorially delineating conduct and information on the internet: Legislatures and courts have recognized and accepted geoblocking as a tool of compliance with territorially-defined legal requirements. The European Union’s Geoblocking Regulation, though an anti-geoblocking law, has contributed to further recognition of the role of geoblocking, at least in the EU. The indications that existed with respect to the CJEU’s stance on geoblocking were finally confirmed in its 2026 judgment in Anne Frank Fonds. Geoblocking not only may be used to erect walls on the internet, in some contexts, it must be used. Developments concerning geoblocking have thus reached a point at which the spatial aspect of freedom of expression must be revisited unless we are to resign ourselves to a balkanization of the internet.
Bio:
Professor Marketa Trimble specializes in intellectual property law, particularly international and transnational intellectual property law, and cyberlaw. She publishes extensively on issues at the intersection of private international law and intellectual property law, including in the context of AI training. She was actively involved in an International Law Association project on the intersection and devoted her book, “Intellectual Property and Conflict of Laws” (Edward Elgar, 2026), to the intersection. Her work has addressed problems arising in copyright, patent, trademark, and domain name law, and she has published on the legal aspects of geoblocking, including in her book, “The EU Geo-Blocking Regulation: A Commentary” (Edward Elgar, 2024). Her scholarship concerning geoblocking, such as her seminal 2012 article on the topic, has been widely cited, including by CJEU advocates general, the European Court of Auditors, the Swiss Bundesrat, and U.S. courts. She is the co-author, with Professor Paul Goldstein (Stanford Law School), of a major casebook, “International Intellectual Property Law” (Foundation Press, 6th ed., 2024).
Professor Trimble holds the Samuel S. Lionel Professorship in Intellectual Property Law at the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She has presented at numerous conferences in Europe, North America, and Asia, and served as a consultant to national and regional government agencies and to law firms. She is a member of major academic and professional organizations and is an elected a member of the American Law Institute and the International Academy of Comparative Law. In the American Law Institute, she participated in the discussions of the “Restatement of the Law, Copyright,” and dissented from the final version of the Restatement. She has taught short intensive courses at the Max Planck Institute’s Munich Intellectual Property Law Center, The George Washington University Law School’s Munich Intellectual Property Law Summer Program, the Masaryk University Faculty of Law, and the Charles University Faculty of Law. She holds doctoral degrees from Stanford Law School and from the Charles University Faculty of Law.