Ryan Abbott

Professor Ryan Abbott is a leading expert in law, health sciences, and technology. He is currently Professor of Law and Health Sciences at the University of Surrey School of Law and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He is also a partner at Brown, Neri, Smith & Khan, LLP, where he focuses on litigation related to life sciences and technology. He is a licensed physician, solicitor advocate in England and Wales, patent attorney, and board-certified by the American Board of Legal Medicine.

Professor Abbott has published widely on topics involving intellectual property, artificial intelligence, healthcare, and dispute resolution. His book The Reasonable Robot: Artificial Intelligence and the Law was published by Cambridge University Press in 2020. He edited the Research Handbook on Intellectual Property and Artificial Intelligence (Edward Elgar, 2022) and co-authored the textbook International Intellectual Property in an Integrated World Economy, 5th edition (2024).

He has presented evidence before the U.S. Senate, the U.K. House of Lords, and the European Commission. He regularly speaks at universities such as MIT, Stanford, Yale, Oxford, and Cambridge, and has given talks for organisations including WIPO, WTO, IBM, Novartis, and the UKIPO. His work has been featured in major media including The Times, New York Times, and Financial Times.

He is a mediator with JAMS, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb), and a panelist with several dispute resolution bodies. He has contributed to AI-related IP reform discussions globally and led initiatives like the Artificial Inventor Project. He has also worked on public health and pharmaceutical policy, including research on sustainable pharmaceutical manufacturing in Africa.


Professor Abbott earned his MD from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, his JD from Yale Law School, and his PhD in Law from the University of Surrey School of Law. He also graduated Summa Cum Laude with an MTOM from Emperor’s College and with a BS from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Ryan Abbott was born in the United States. He completed his Bachelor of Science degree at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), graduating Summa Cum Laude. He was selected as one of six UCLA Seniors of the Year and received the UCLA Alumni Association Distinguished Bruin Award Scholarship, the Michael C. Dunn, M.D. Memorial Scholarship, Highest Departmental Honours, and College Honours. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He also attended Shanghai Jiao Tong University in a summer foreign language immersion programme in Mandarin Chinese.
 

He then earned a Master of Traditional Oriental Medicine (MTOM) degree from Emperor’s College, graduating Summa Cum Laude. Following this, he completed his Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine. While at UCSD, he was an intern physician and a member of the Quality Improvement and Ethics Committees. He received the Weiss Medical Research Scholarship for research in preventive medicine.

Ryan Abbott earned a Juris Doctor (JD) from Yale Law School. At Yale, he was an editor and submissions editor for the Yale Journal of Law and Technology and the Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics. He was also awarded a Kirby Simon Fellowship for international human rights work in 2008. He later earned a PhD in Law from the University of Surrey, where his thesis was titled The Reasonable Robot: Artificial Intelligence and the Law.

He began teaching at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA in 2013 as a visiting assistant professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research. Since 2013, he has served as an adjunct assistant professor at the same institution.
 

In 2016, he was appointed Professor and Chair of Law and Health Sciences at the University of Surrey School of Law. Between 2016 and 2018, he served as Director of Research (Impact). He was named School of Law Researcher of the Year in 2016–2017, 2018–2019, and 2020–2021. Since 2019, he has been the research lead in the university’s AI, Law and Technology Hub. He was recognised as the University of Surrey "Innovator of the Year" in 2021. He has been a Fellow of the Surrey Institute of People-Centred AI since 2013.
 

He has served as an expert or presented evidence to various government and international bodies, including the U.S. Senate, the U.K. House of Lords, the European Commission, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the World Trade Organization, and the UK Intellectual Property Office. He has lectured at academic institutions, including MIT, Stanford, Yale, Oxford, Cambridge, USC, and Harvard. He has spoken at industry events hosted by Novartis, IBM, Swiss Re, Caterpillar, and Fujifilm.
 

He has been involved in the Artificial Inventor Project, which explores AI-generated inventions and their implications for patent law. He is a mediator and arbitrator with JAMS and other national and international organisations. He is a CEDR-accredited mediator and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb). He is also a partner at Brown, Neri, Smith & Khan LLP, where he focuses on litigation related to life sciences and technology. He has acted as lead counsel in U.S. state and federal courts and foreign courts including the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.
 

He is licensed as a physician, patent attorney, and acupuncturist in the United States. He is also a solicitor advocate in England and Wales. He is board-certified by the American Board of Legal Medicine (ABLM).
 

He authored The Reasonable Robot: Artificial Intelligence and the Law in 2020, published by Cambridge University Press. He edited Research Handbook on Intellectual Property and Artificial Intelligence, published in 2022 by Edward Elgar. He co-authored the textbook International Intellectual Property in an Integrated World Economy, Fifth Edition, published in 2024 by Aspen Publishing.

He has published numerous legal and academic articles. Some of his notable articles include Disrupting Creativity: Copyright Law in the Age of Generative AI, Putting the Artificial Intelligence in Alternative Dispute Resolution, AI-Generated Output and Intellectual Property Rights, Punishing Artificial Intelligence, Should Robots Pay Taxes, I Think, Therefore I Invent, and The Reasonable Computer. His research has also covered topics such as pharmacogenetics, complementary and alternative medicine, public health policy, and drug regulation.
 

He has contributed to reports including Opportunities, Constraints and Critical Supports for Achieving Sustainable Local Pharmaceutical Manufacturing in Africa (2021), commissioned by the Open Society Foundations Public Health Program. He has published on topics such as traditional medicine, AI regulation, intellectual property management, and the role of technology in health care.
 

He has participated in international conferences, podcasts, and legal panels from 2010 through 2024. His engagements include the WIPO-WTO IP Advanced Course, World Intellectual Property Organization’s AI discussions, AI and IP panels at Yale, Fordham, Rutgers, Stanford, and Harvard, and talks at legal associations and conferences worldwide. He has also served on judicial education panels and industry strategy meetings.

As of 2025, Professor Ryan Abbott continues his work in teaching, research, legal practice, dispute resolution, and international policy consultation, with a focus on artificial intelligence, intellectual property, and law.

Ryan Abbott's vision, as articulated in his book "The Reasonable Robot: Artificial Intelligence and the Law," is a thought-provoking exploration of the intersection between AI and the legal system. Abbott skillfully navigates various domains, such as tax, criminal law, patent and copyright law, and tort liability, to shed light on the impending clash between AI and the law.

Professor Ryan Abbott’s vision is to help shape fair and practical legal systems for a world that is quickly changing due to artificial intelligence and new technologies. He works to make laws more balanced between people and machines, especially in areas like patents, copyright, and health. His goal is to ensure that legal systems support innovation while protecting public interest. He also wants to make sure that AI-generated work is properly understood and managed by the law. Through research, teaching, writing, and public speaking, he hopes to guide better global policies in law, technology, and health.

Professor Ryan Abbott has received several important awards and honours for his work in law, health, and technology. He was named one of the fifty most influential people in intellectual property by Managing Intellectual Property magazine. He has won multiple awards for legal advocacy and thought leadership. At the University of Surrey, he was named “Innovator of the Year” in 2021 and received the School of Law “Researcher of the Year” award in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2021. His publications have also earned wide recognition in legal, medical, and academic communities worldwide.