2019 Intellectual Property Colloquium 

The IP Colloquium explores doctrinal, theoretical, and policy issues in intellectual property law. Its primary aim is to provide students with an opportunity to hone their critical and analytical skills through deep engagement with leading legal scholarship in IP.

The Colloquium will expose students to a broad array of interdisciplinary scholarship across the various branches of this expansive and increasingly important area of law, and it will require them to engage in both written and oral analysis and critique of that scholarship. The Colloquium centers on biweekly presentations by outside scholars who are nationally recognized in their fields.

This year’s speakers are:

Aman Gebru | February 4, 2019

“Patents, Disclosure, and Biopiracy”

Aman Gebru is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Cardozo Law School. His research focuses on issues at the intersection of intellectual property law, innovation policy, economic development, and inequality. He has published several writings in the area including articles that appeared in or are forthcoming in the Denver Law Review, North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology, John Marshall Review of Intellectual Property Law, and Asper Review of International Business & Trade Law. Before joining Cardozo, he was a Global Postdoctoral Fellow at New York University School of Law. Aman has taught different courses at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and Haramaya University in Ethiopia. He received his Doctor of Juridical Sciences (SJD) from the University of Toronto, an LL.M. in Intellectual Property Law and Policy from the University of Washington, and an LL.B. from Haramaya University. Earlier in his career, Aman worked for Landesa (formerly the Rural Development Institute), a Seattle-based international nonprofit advocating for land rights for the poor and has interned for the Prosecutor's Office of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Rachel Sachs | February 19, 2019

"Regulating Intermediate Technologies"

Professor Rachel Sachs of the Washington University in St. Louis School of Law is a scholar of innovation policy whose work explores the interaction of intellectual property law, food and drug regulation, and health law. Her work explores problems of innovation and access to new health care technologies. Professor Sachs’ scholarship has or will have appeared in journals that include the Michigan Law Review, the Minnesota Law Review, the Harvard Law Review, the New England Journal of Medicine, and the Journal of the American Medical Association. Prior to joining the faculty, Professor Sachs was an Academic Fellow at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics and a Lecturer in Law at Harvard Law School. She also clerked for the Hon. Richard A. Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. She received her J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and a Master of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. She received her A.B. in Bioethics from Princeton University.

Brian Frye | March 11, 2019

"To Every Book Its Copy: Saint Columcille & the Mythical Origins of Copyright"

Brian L. Frye joined the faculty of the University of Kentucky College of Law in 2012. He teaches classes in civil procedure, intellectual property, copyright, and nonprofit organizations, as well as a seminar on law and popular culture. Previously, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at Hofstra University School of Law, and a litigation associate at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. He clerked for Judge Andrew J. Kleinfeld of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice Richard B. Sanders of the Washington Supreme Court. He received a J.D. from the New York University School of Law in 2005, an M.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1997, and a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1995. His research focuses on intellectual property and charity law, especially in relation to artists and arts organizations.

Professor Frye is also a filmmaker. He produced the documentary Our Nixon (2013), which was broadcast by CNN and opened theatrically nationwide. His short films and videos have shown in the 2002 Whitney Biennial, the New York Film Festival, and the San Francisco International Film Festival, among other venues, and are in the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art. His critical writing on film and art has appeared in October, The New Republic, Film Comment, Cineaste, Senses of Cinema, and Incite! among other journals.

Zahr Said | March 25, 2019

“Collegiality Costs: Naming Practices and Norms in Seattle’s Craft Brewing Community”

Professor Zahr K. Said is an Associate Professor of Law, and Lead Faculty Director of CASRIP (Center for Advanced Study and Research of Innovation Policy) at the University of Washington School of Law. She holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Harvard University, a J.D. from Columbia (where she was a Kent Scholar and served as Articles Editor for the Columbia Journal of Law and the Arts) and a B.A. from U.C. Berkeley (magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa). She taught at the University of Virginia School of Law for three years as a Visiting Professor of Law, and will teach at Stanford Law School during the 2018 academic year. Said's research applies humanistic methods, theories, and texts to problems in legal doctrine and policy. Her work has appeared in the Iowa Law Review, the Cardozo Law Review, the North Carolina Law Review, the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology, the Stanford Technology Law Review, and the Columbia Journal of Law and the Arts, among others. Current works in progress examine jury instructions in copyright litigation, and she has undertaken a longer term empirical study of the craft brewing scene in Seattle to study its IP norms. She is the recipient of the UW Law Faculty Scholarship Award (2015), the Philip A. Trautman 1L Professor of the Year Award (2016), and the UW University Global Innovation Fund Grant. She teaches Torts, Copyright, Advanced Copyright, and IP Survey, and has taught Advertising as well as the Proseminar for Ph.D. students, which is an introduction to American jurisprudence.”

Sarah Burstein | April 8, 2019

“A New Theory of the Patentable Design”

Professor Burstein joined the University of Oklahoma College of Law faculty in 2012. She teaches Intellectual Property, Trademarks, Copyright and Patents. 

Prior to joining the faculty, Professor Burstein served as a law clerk to the Honorable Robert W. Pratt in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa. She also worked as an intellectual property litigation associate in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Professor Burstein has a law degree from the University of Chicago and B.A. in Art & Design from Iowa State University. 

Professor Burstein’s scholarship focuses on design law, with a particular focus on design patents. She has participated, by invitation, in design law conferences at the University of Oxford, Stanford Law School, the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property and Competition Law, ETH Zürich, and Waseda University in Tokyo. Professor Burstein is a past chair of the AALS Section on Art Law and the ABA Design Committee. She is a member of the INTA Designs Committee.

Elizabeth Rowe | April 22, 2019

“Trade Secret Injunctions”

Professor Elizabeth Rowe of the University of Florida Levin College of Law is an internationally recognized expert on Trade Secret Law. She is a prolific scholar who has co-authored or contributed to several books on intellectual property and has authored numerous law review articles in leading journals. Much of her research addresses the intersection of trade secrets with employment law and/or technology, as well as the interplay between intellectual property, government policy, and innovation. She has co-authored several books on trade secrets, including the first and the leading casebook in the United States devoted exclusively to Trade Secret Law, as well as a Nutshell treatise on trade secrets. Professor Rowe’s most recent co-authored book addresses trade secrecy in international transactions. The book has been praised for its “remarkable contribution to the understanding of the legal foundations and main features of trade secret law” of eight countries.

As a leading national scholar on trade secrecy, Professor Rowe has been recognized by the University of Florida Research Foundation for her “outstanding research and scholarly achievements.”  Most recently she was the first member of the law faculty inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Teaching Scholars for her exceptional teaching and scholarship accomplishments. She has also received the Jack Wessel Research Excellence Award from the University of Florida, Office of the Provost. Professor Rowe serves as the Director of the Program in Intellectual Property Law, and teaches Trademark Law, Patent Law, Trade Secret Law, and Corporate Espionage. She is a frequent invited speaker at national conferences on intellectual property and also serves as an expert consultant in litigation.

Professor Rowe is a former partner at the law firm of Hale and Dorr, LLP in Boston (now WilmerHale), where she practiced complex commercial litigation including intellectual property and employment litigation. While in practice, she was selected as one of the top five up-and-coming attorneys in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She received her J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School.