Mary Wong

Region:	North America
Country:	USA
Email:	mary.wong [at] icann.org
LinkedIn:	Mary Wong
Twitter:	@marymagistra
Currently ICANN Staff Featured in the ICANN 47 - Durban playing card deck Formerly a member of ICANN's GNSO

Mary W.S. Wong joined ICANN as a Senior Policy Director in July 2013 and is currently the Vice President for Strategic Community Operations, Planning & Engagement. She is a former Vice Chair of the GNSO Council at ICANN and was a tenured Professor of Law at the University of New Hampshire School of Law (formerly Franklin Pierce Law Center, a top-ten ranked intellectual property law school in the United States). At UNH Law, she was also the Chair for Global Partnerships and the Intellectual Property Graduate Program as well as the founding faculty director of its flagship applied research center, the Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectual Property. She authored the first amicus brief ever filed by the Center to the United States Supreme Court, which was cited in the majority opinion delivered by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Career History

Law

Mary was previously Special Counsel to the international law firm of Morrison & Foerster LLP, as a member of its Technology Transactions Group. At the firm's New York and Brussels offices, Mary counseled clients from all over the world on a wide range of technology-related transactions, and provided advice on international and comparative legal developments relating to the Internet, privacy and e-commerce. Mary has also been an Associate Professor of Law at the Singapore Management University and a Senior Lecturer at the National University of Singapore. Among her other public service roles, Mary chaired the International Copyright Committee of the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Intellectual Property Law Section, and was a member of the inaugural Editorial Board for Landslide, the Section’s flagship publication. She has also served on the ABA's Copyright Reform Task Force.

While with Morrison & Foerster, Mary was a member of the New York New Media Association's Programs Committee and the Singapore Government's e-Commerce Consultative Committee. She is an Advocate and Solicitor admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Singapore, and has been appointed an Associate Fellow to the Intellectual Property Academy of Singapore.

ICANN

Mary was elected to the GNSO Council for ICANN in 2009, representing ICANN’s Non-Commercial Users Constituency. She is an expert on the topics of Whois, trademark issues regarding new gTLDs, and ICANN governance. She served two terms as GNSO Councillor for the -Non Commercial Stakeholder Groups. and was also appointed by ICANN's Nominating Committee to the ccNSO Council in 2012.

Meetings and Conferences

Mary is a frequent speaker at industry and academic conferences in the United States, Europe and Asia. She is invited regularly to speak at conferences related to intellectual property and Internet law and policy organized by universities, trade associations, law firms and governments.

Research

Mary's research interests center on the legal and policy challenges posed by changes to Internet and computer technology, particularly issues related to international intellectual property norms and standards. She has published law review articles and contributed to books on international intellectual property, digital copyright and trademark rights in domain names. Amongst other achievements, her amicus brief written for UNH Law's Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectual Property in a major copyright law case was cited by the United States Supreme Court in its majority opinion in 2011.

Publications

• She contributed chapters to the books Global anti-terrorism law and policy and Trademark Protection and Territoriality Challenges in a Global Economy.
• Her published research articles include:
  • Online Gripesites & ICANN's New gTLD Program
  • Imperatives of Private Arbitration in ICANN's New gTLD Program
  • Trademarks & Freedom of Expression in ICANN's New gTLD Process
  • Transformative User Generated Content & Copyright Law: Infringing Derivative Works or Fair Use?
  • Toward an Alternative Normative Framework for Copyright Law: From Private Property to Human Rights
  • The Acquisition and Consequences of Cumulative Protection under the Copyright and Trade Mark Laws of Singapore
  • Electronic Surveillance and Privacy in the United States after September 11, 2001: The USA-PATRIOT Act
  • Rocking and Ripping on the World Wide Web: The Collision between Digital Music and Copyright Law
  • User-Generated Content & the Open Source/Creative Common Movements: Has the Time Come for Users' Rights?
  • The Exclusive Rights of 'Distribution', 'Communication to the Public' and 'Making Available' Under the WIPO Copyright Treaty: Lessons for Other Jurisdictions from the Hong Kong BitTorrent Case
  • Cyber-Trespass and 'Unauthorized Access' as Legal Mechanisms of Access Control: Lessons from the US Experience
  • Character Merchandising under the Copyright and Registered Designs Laws of Singapore

Education

Mary holds an LLM from the University of Cambridge and an LLB from National University of Singapore. She is admitted to practice as an Advocate & Solicitor before the Supreme Court of Singapore.

Videos

• Introduction to ICANN's Strategic Community Operations, Planning & Engagement (SCOPE) team
• ICANN53videoblog
• ICANN44 video interview

External Links

• 1st Annual IP Cafe: Inaugural Speech by Mary Wong
• Talk - Mary Wong - The IT Standards Battle and Why We Are the Spoils of War
• Professor Mary Wong - Internet and Society 2007

Generic Names Supporting Organization. Develops and recommends to the Board substantive policies relating to generic top-level domains and other responsibilities set forth in the Bylaws (ICANN Bylaws).

Country Code Names Supporting Organization. Develops and recommends to the Board global policies relating to country-code top-level domains (ICANN Bylaws).