Luminita Olteanu

Assistant Professor

Deputy Director of Student Opportunities (AI)

Intellectual Property Law; Advertising Law; Interdisciplinary Approaches to Intellectual Property Law

School of Law
S2.06, Social Sciences Building
University of Warwick
Coventry CV4 7AL
United Kingdom

On research leave in Term 1 of 25/26

Term 2 Office Hours (please book in advance via the links provided below):

In person: Mondays, 12pm-1pm Book time with Olteanu, Luminita: Contact time: In person (AY 25/26 Term 2)

Online: Fridays, 11am-12pm, Book time with Olteanu, Luminita: Contact time: Online via Teams (AY 25/26 Term 2)

024 765 74553

Scholarship

My research interests lie at the intersection of law and society, with a particular focus on the connections between legal norms, technology, consumer behaviour, and brand dynamics. My doctoral work explored the impact of new technologies, brand strategies, and consumer practices on trade mark law, highlighting discrepancies between legal presumptions and the real-world market dynamics. My ongoing research projects examine the initiatives behind trade mark dilution litigation, the influence of commercial messages on body image dissatisfaction, and explore moral justifications for judicial decisions in cases involving junior brands emulating established ones

Bio

Luminita joined Warwick Law School as Assistant Professor in 2023. Previously, she was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow (2022-2023) at LSE Law School. She obtained her PhD from UCL Laws for the thesis 'Rethinking Trade Mark Reputation and Its Susceptibility to Dilutive Harms' for which she was awarded the prestigious PhD Scholarship from the Institute of Brand and Innovation Law. Prior to joining academia, she practised law at various international law firms, specialising in intellectual property law disputes, data privacy matters and commercial law. In 2021, Luminita was awarded Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy.

Education

Research Fellow, LSE Law School

PhD, Law, UCL Laws, London, UK

LLM, University of Kent Law School

LLB, University of Bucharest Law School

Teaching

Luminita is the module convenor for LA366:Global Intellectual Property Law & Policy and LA3C7 Copyright and trade marks. Prior to joining Warwick Law School, Luminita has taught intellectual property law at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels at LSE Law School, UCL Laws and Kent Law School. As evidence of her teaching excellence, Luminita was included on the UCL Student Choice Awards 2022 Roll of Honour for Exceptional Feedback.

Languages

English, Romanian (main languages); Spanish (intermediate), French (intermediate).

Publications Teaching Projects

Highlighted

Ongoing research: Body image dissatisfaction, advertising law and trade marks

Strategic Brand Signalling: Trade Marks, Advertising, and Body Image Perceptions in the UK - Roundtable - 16 June 2025

The Strategic Brand Signalling Roundtable was convened to examine trade marks, advertising, and body image perceptions in the UK. The event brought together professionals from ethics, psychology, psychiatric epidemiology, and trade mark and advertising law to discuss these interconnected issues. The roundtable explored whether current trademark legislation requires reform, particularly regarding the impact of advertising on body image. The event was attended by academics, medical experts, members of the judiciary and policymakers. The discussion centred on the relationship between commercial branding practices and psychological well-being and public health outcomes. Participants examined the potential role of trade mark law in regulating advertising content that may influence body image perceptions.

A report on the roundtable’s findings will follow later this year.

Find out more about the roundtable here:https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ibil/strategic-brand-signalling-roundtable

Impact Research Supervision

I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD supervisees. However, please ensure that you have a research proposal which corresponds with the University of Warwick School of Law requirements.

I particularly welcome expressions of interest from prospective PhD candidates in the field of trade marks and brands. Specifically, I am eager to supervise topics with an empirical or interdisciplinary focus, including how technology influences the evolving dynamics of consumption and meaning production, the social implications of advertising and the political economy of branding.

In addition, I am open to discussing research supervision on the history and political economy of technologies that shaped the field of Intellectual Property Law.

I acted as the UK National Reporter for the Intellectual Property Law Question at this year’s Ligue Internationale du Droit de la Concurrence Congress (LIDC) in 2023 and 2024. In my role as national reporter, I prepared analyses on the UK trade mark law mechanisms aimed at curtailing over-broad trade mark rights and the impact of lookalikes on competition. I attended the Congress sessions where the conclusions of my reports were discussed.

My contributions can be found in the 2025 Springer compendium called 'Joint Purchasing-framework for Competition Law Analysis & Mechanisms to Address Overly-broad Trademark Usage'.

Media & Blogs

My research on branding and politics was featured in an interview that informed Gemma Bradley’s article ‘Dog whistling’: the legal limits when political parties appropriate marks without permission', published in the World Trademark Review on 10 October 2025 (https://www.worldtrademarkreview.com/article/dog-whistling-the-legal-limits-when-political-parties-appropriate-marks-without-permission)

I expanded on my motivations and concerns around body image dissatisfaction in a blog post for the Journal of Law and Society (published on 26 November 2025), where I reflected on the troubling intersections between trade mark law, advertising practices, and body image perceptions that I addressed in detail in my article Profitable insecurities: trade mark law, misleading advertising, and body image perceptions in the United Kingdom (Vol 52, Issue 4, 2025 available Open Access). The blog post is available here: https://journaloflawandsociety.co.uk/blog/profitable-insecurities-trade-mark-law-misleading-advertising-and-body-image-perceptions-in-the-united-kingdom/