BIO

MARK SEELEY (@marklseeley) consults on science publishing and legal issues through the SciPubLaw LLC entity , and speaks and comments regularly on publishing, licensing and copyright issues on the site including recently on international publishing contracts, the EU Digital Single Market copyright directive, and Open Access and Transformative Agreements.

Mark retired in December 2017 from his position as Senior Vice President & General Counsel for the science publisher and information analytics provider Elsevier.  Elsevier is the leading publisher and information provider in science and health and is part of the RELX group (which also includes LexisNexis).

As Elsevier’s senior in-house counsel from 1995 through 2017, Mark has significant experience in most areas of legal work in publishing, including acquisitions, publishing contracts, sales (licensing), copyright and other intellectual property rights, digital rights management, and compliance.  Mark helped lead the transition at Elsevier from print journal subscription sales through subscription agencies to direct library customer licensing of digital content, developing the core licensing templates, DRM processes, and assisting in negotiations.

During Mark’s tenure at Elsevier, at a time of many challenges to copyright law from Internet activities, he served on the Copyright Committees of both the International STM Association (from 2004-2016 as chair) and the Association of American Publishers. During Mark’s tenure as Committee chair for STM, he helped develop numerous position papers on digital rights and copyright exceptions, orphan works, academic use of published content, and supported STM programs such as Research4Life and the TDM principles.

Currently, Mark serves on the Board of Directors for the Copyright Clearance Center, and is a member of the Copyright Society of the USA and the Society for Scholarly Publishing.  He serves as adjunct faculty at Suffolk University Law School teaching International IP law.

Bar Admissions: Massachusetts and New York.

Education: Thomas Jefferson College, Grand Valley State University, Michigan, USA (B.Ph, Literature); Suffolk University Law School, Boston, Mass., USA (J.D., cum laude).

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