Marcelo Thompson is a Research Assistant Professor and Deputy Director of the LLM in Information Technology and Intellectual Property Law at the Faculty of Law, The University of Hong Kong. Courses he teaches or has taught are "Law and Society", "Regulation of Cyberspace", "Privacy and Data Protection" and "Introduction to Information Technology Law". Marcelo is finishing his DPhil thesis at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, on the idea of neutrality in technology law and politics. He holds an LLM (Law and Technology) from the University of Ottawa, where he wrote his major research paper on copyright reform and the human right of access to knowledge.

A native of Brazil, Marcelo was the recipient of a full doctorate scholarship from The CAPES Foundation, of the Brazilian Ministry of Education, for which he was ranked 1st place, nationally, in the area of Law. His LLB was concluded at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), from where he also holds a PgDip in Intellectual Property Law. From May to June 2008 Marcelo was an Alcatel-Lucent Foundation Visiting Fellow at the Hans Bredow Institute for Media Research, University of Hamburg. Marcelo has given lectures and spoken in conferences in Brazil, Canada, Chile, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Mainland China, and the United Kingdom.

Prior to returning to academia, Marcelo was the Attorney General of the Brazilian Information Technology Institute - ITI, under the Office of the President of Brazil (2004-2005), where he headed the legal team in charge of both the Brazilian Free Software Programme and the Brazilian Public Key Infrastructure. From 2002 to 2004 Marcelo was the Head of the Department of Litigation (2003-2004) and an Attorney within the Venture Capital division (2002-2003) of the Brazilian Innovation Agency - FINEP, under the Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology. While working for FINEP, Marcelo was a Part-Time Professor of Information Technology Law at his alma mater, PUC-Rio (2002-2003). Marcelo started his professional career in 1998, practicing as a trainee (1998-2000) and later as a lawyer (2001) in a technology-focused boutique law firm in Rio de Janeiro.