Faculty
Colleen Chien teaches and conducts cross-disciplinary research on innovation, intellectual property, and the criminal justice system, with a focus on how technology, data, and innovation can be harnessed to achieve their potential for social benefit. With a law degree from Berkeley Law and engineering and humanities degrees from Stanford, Chien is known for her in-depth empirical studies of patent litigation, patent-assertion entities (PAEs) (a term that she coined), the secondary market for patents, and, in the criminal justice realm, on the “second chance” gap between those eligible for and receiving relief from the criminal justice system. Prior to joining Berkeley Law, Chien was Professor of Law at Santa Clara University School of Law. She previously served as Senior Advisor for Intellectual Property and Innovation in the Obama White House and currently advises the US Patent and Trademark Office as a Marian Croak Distinguished Scholar. Chien is among the top 20-cited intellectual property and cyberlaw scholars in the US and has been named one of Silicon Valley’s “Women of Influence,” and one of the 50 Most Influential People in Intellectual Property in the world.
Catherine Fisk is the Barbara Nachtrieb Armstrong Professor of Law. She teaches courses on the law of work, and also on the legal profession and freedom of speech and association. She writes in the fields of labor and employment, employee-generated intellectual property, sociolegal history, and the legal profession. Professor Fisk has written several major works on employer-employee disputes over intellectual property, including Working Knowledge: Employee Innovation and the Rise of Corporate Intellectual Property, 1800-1930 (UNC Press 2009), which won prizes from the American Historical Association and the American Society for Legal History. Her current research projects include a book on labor protest in the mid-twentieth century, and works on video game writers and on governance of worker centers and labor unions. Publications, courses, and more »
Sonia Katyal is Distinguished Haas Professor and Associate Dean, Faculty Development and Research. Her scholarly work considers intellectual property, trademarks, trade secrecy, civil rights (including gender, race and sexuality), LGBTQ rights, anti–discrimination, property theory, and innovation. Professor Katyal is the co-author of Property Outlaws (Yale University Press, 2010) (with Eduardo Peñalver), which studies the intersection between civil disobedience and innovation in property and intellectual property frameworks. In 2008, Katyal was awarded a grant from the Warhol Foundation for her forthcoming book, Contrabrand, which studies the relationship between art, advertising and trademark and copyright law. In March of 2016, Professor Katyal was selected by U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker to be part of the inaugural U.S. Commerce Department’s Digital Economy Board of Advisors. Publications, courses, and more »
Peter S. Menell is Koret Professor of Law. Reflecting his training in science and technology, economics, and law, Professor Menell’s research focuses principally on the role and design of intellectual property law with particular emphasis on the digital technology and content industries. He has written over 100 articles and 15 books. His current projects explore intellectual property case management, judiciary reform, the scope of patentable subject matter, design protection, music copyright protection, trade secret whistleblower immunity, and technological disruption and social justice. In 2016, he founded Clause 8 Publishing, which seeks to promote the creation and dissemination of educational resources at fair prices. Publications, courses, and more »
Robert P. Merges is Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Professor of Law and Associate Dean of Advanced Degree Programs and Global Engagement. He is the author of Justifying Intellectual Property, published by Harvard University Press in 2011. A comprehensive statement of mature views on the ethical and economic foundations of IP law, the book reviews foundational philosophical theories of property and contemporary theories about distributive justice and applies them to IP; identifies operational high-level principles of IP law; and, with all this as background, works through several pressing problems facing IP law today. Professor Merges also has undertaken extensive revisions to two of the casebooks he coauthors, to update them in light of the America Invents Act. Publications, courses, and more »
Tejas N. Narechania is the Robert and Nanci Corson Assistant Professor of Law. He focuses on matters related to telecommunications regulation and intellectual property. Before joining Berkeley Law, Professor Narechania clerked for Justice Stephen G. Breyer of the Supreme Court of the United States (2015-2016) and for Judge Diane P. Wood of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (2011-2012). He has advised the Federal Communications Commission on network neutrality matters, where he served as Special Counsel (2012-2013). Professor Narechania’s research has appeared in the Columbia Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, and the Michigan Law Review, among other venues, and his work has been cited by the White House, in the work of the Supreme Court and the federal Courts of Appeals, as well as the New York Times and the Washington Post. Publications, courses, and more »
Pamela Samuelson is Richard M. Sherman Distinguished Professor of Law and Information. Much of her recent work has focused on updating and adapting U.S. copyright law to meet challenges of the digital age. She has written amicus curiae briefs as well as law review and other articles on major software IP cases such as Oracle v. Google. Other recent work has focused on improving public access to mass digitized copies of in-copyright works. Professor Samuelson is co-founder and board member of Authors Alliance, a nonprofit organization that represents the interests of authors who want their works to be widely available for the public good. She is Chair of the Board of Directors of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and a Contributing Editor to Communications of the ACM, a computing professionals society. Follow her at @PamuelaSamuelson. She has been a distinguished visiting professor at the University of Toronto Law School as well as a visiting professor at Harvard Law School. Publications, courses, and more »
Molly Shaffer Van Houweling is the Harold C. Hohbach Distinguished Professor of Patent and IP Law and Associate Dean for J.D. Curriculum and Teaching. Her teaching portfolio includes intellectual property, basic property law, and food law and policy (touching on agricultural innovation and patent policy, among other topics). Much of Professor Van Houweling’s research focuses on copyright law’s implications for new information technologies (and vice versa). She often explores this and other intellectual property issues using theoretical and doctrinal tools borrowed from the law of tangible property. Professor Van Houweling is an Associate Reporter on the American Law Institute’s Restatement of the Law, Copyright, and an Adviser to the Restatement of the Law Fourth, Property. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Authors Alliance and Chair of the Board of Creative Commons. Follow her at @mollysvh. Publications, courses, and more »
Rebecca Wexler is an Assistant Professor of Law working on data, technology, and criminal justice. She focuses on evidence law, criminal procedure, privacy and intellectual property protections surrounding new data-driven criminal justice technologies. Before joining Berkeley Law, Professor Wexler clerked for Judge Pierre N. Leval of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Judge Katherine Polk Failla of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. She worked as a Yale Public Interest Fellow at The Legal Aid Society’s criminal defense practice and as a Lawyer-inResidence at The Data and Society Research Institute. Follow her at @RebeccaWexler. Publications, courses, and more »
Fellows
Dr. Hao Yuan joined BCLT in January 2021 as a Senior Fellow on our Asia IP and Technology Project. Prior to coming to Berkeley, Dr. Hao taught patent law and anti-monopoly law (“AML”) at the School of Law, Tsinghua University (2015-2020). Yuan has published academic papers and articles in the fields of patent law, competition law, data protection and nano-electronics. Her most recent academic paper (En) is “Through the Anti-Monopoly Lens: What Constitutes ‘Unfairly High Patent Pricing’ in China?”.(opens in a new tab)(opens in a new tab)(opens in a new tab) Currently Yuan is working on a practical treatise on Chinese patent law, and a research paper that aims to explore the curious contour and implications of innovation/creation in IP at the coming era of artificial intelligence. Dr. Hao has advised several IP and AML legislation projects in China. She has also participated in a dozen litigation, administrative investigation and arbitration cases, including landmark SEP cases, as an advisory panel member or expert witness. Yuan has been recently listed as an arbitrator at the International Arbitration Center in Tokyo (“IACT”). She is also a Senior Of Counsel at LexField Law. Before becoming academic Yuan practiced years in IP litigation at KWM. Yuan received her J.D. from Brooklyn Law School (2011), Ph.D. in Nano-electronics from Penn State University (2006), and B.S. in Physics from Peking University (1999).
Christina Koningisor is a Research Fellow at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology. Her scholarship explores the intersection of media law, civil procedure, constitutional law, and local government law. She is interested in the ways that different legal regimes—from federal and state transparency statutes, to procedural rules, to state constitutions—alter the breadth and scope of secrecy and transparency in government. She is particularly interested in how new technologies have upended the information ecosystems that allow the press and the public to hold the government to account.
Allison A. Schmitt is a Fellow at Berkeley Law, and the Director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology’s Life Sciences Law and Policy Center. Her scholarship focuses on exploring theoretical and practical issues at the interface of life sciences and the law, including IP, regulatory, and funding considerations. She is affiliated with the Berkeley Fellowship Program, a joint project between Berkeley Law and the Berkeley Haas School of Business. Prior to her current role at BCLT, Allison clerked for the Honorable Stanley R. Chesler at the District of New Jersey, where she worked extensively on ANDA cases. She then clerked for the Honorable Kathleen M. O’Malley at the Federal Circuit, where she further honed her knowledge of bio-pharma law and case management. She then spent several years in private practice focusing on life science patent litigation, patent counseling, and policy matters. Allison graduated from Berkeley Law with her JD in 2015; prior to her legal career, she earned a PhD in Chemistry from Duke University. Courses and more »
Ramya Chandrasekhar is a research fellow and leads the Biometrics Project. This project aims to study legal and institutional regulation of biometric data, from a critical and comparative perspective. Prior to joining BCLT, Ramya worked with the Legal and Innovation team at the World Bank as an International Finance and Development Fellow, on personal data protection enforcement involving digital platforms. She has also collaborated with the Information Communication and Technology team at UNICEF as well as Guarini Global Law & Tech, on projects relating to digital risk and data governance within international organizations. Ramya is a lawyer by training and is qualified to practice at the bar in India. She holds a Master of Law from New York University, and a Bachelor of Law from the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences. She also has over 4 years of experience working with law firms, civil society, and academic research centers on a range of issues at the intersection of law and technology, including digital ID and the digital welfare state, surveillance, information privacy, and Fintech regulation. Ramya’s research interests lie in global data law, critical data studies and science and technology studies.