THE INSTITUTE FOR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY & INFORMATION LAW is built around the talents of its teachers. Four full-time faculty with outstanding credentials and a remarkable body of published work constitute the core of the program. To complement their perspectives, the Institute affiliates regular faculty in related areas and secures leading experts from legal and corporate environments to serve as adjunct faculty. Synthesizing textbook studies with real-world case studies gives students a solid understanding of fundamental principles—and a first-person appreciation of how to apply them to maximum effect.
DAVE FAGUNDES
Baker Botts LLP Professor of Law; Assistant Dean for Faculty Development
A.B., Harvard College; J.D., Harvard University
Professor Fagundes' scholarship focuses on tangible and intangible property. He joined the Law Center faculty in 2016, and was appointed research dean that same year. Prior to that, he worked as a professor at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles, CA; a Bigelow Fellow and Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law Scool; an associate at Jenner & Block LLP; and a clerk to Judge David S. Tatel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He graduated with honors from Harvard College and Harvard Law School, where he served as an articles editor of the Harvard Law Review. Prof. Fagundes was named the UHLC Order of the Barons Professor of the Year for 2019-2020. He was elected to the American Law Institute in 2020.
Subjects: Property, Copyright, Trusts & Wills
Selected Publications include: Copyright’s Arthrex Problem, 97 N.Y.U. L. Rev. Online (forthcoming 2023) (with Saurabh Vishnubhakat); Copyright’s Administrative Law, 68 J. Copyright Soc’y U.S.A. 417 (2022) (with Saurabh Vishnubhakat); The City’s Second Amendment, 105 Cornell L. Rev. 101 (2021) (with Darrell Miller); Abandoning Copyright, Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 487 (2020) (with Aaron Perzanowski); Law and Neighborhood Names, 72 Vand. L. Rev. 757 (2019) (with Nestor Davidson); Housing, Healthism, and the HUD Smoke-Free Policy, 113 Nw. U. L. Rev. 917 (2019) (with Jessica L. Roberts); Clown Eggs, 94 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1313 (2019) (with Aaron Perzanowski); Why Less Property Is More, 103 Iowa L. Rev. 1361 (2018); The Social Norms of Waiting in Line, 43 L. & Soc. Inquiry 1851 (2017); Buying Happiness, 58 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 1179 (2017); The Moral Psychology of Copyright Infringement, 100 Minn. L. Rev. 2433 (2016) (with Christopher Buccafusco); Efficient Copyright Infringement, 98 Iowa L. Rev. 1791 (2013); Talk Derby to Me: Emergent Property Norms Governing Roller Derby Pseudonyms, 90 Tex. L. Rev. 1093 (2012); Costly Intellectual Property, 64 Vand. L. Rev. 677 (2012) (with Jonathan Masur); Property Rhetoric and the Public Domain, 94 Minn. L. Rev. 652 (2010); Crystals in the Public Domain, 50 B.C. L. Rev. 139 (2009).
For more information, visit Professor Fagundes' web page
at https://www.law.uh.edu/faculty/main.asp?PID=5033.
AMAN GEBRU
Assistant Professor of Law
S.J.D., University of Toronto Faculty of Law; LL.M., University of Washington School of Law; LL.B., Haramaya University College of Law
Professor Gebru’s research focuses on issues at the intersection of intellectual property law, innovation policy, and knowledge governance from both domestic and global perspectives. His recent projects examine how intellectual property laws deal with collectively developed innovation and creativity, such as hackathons or indigenous (traditional) knowledge.
Before joining the University of Houston Law Center, Professor Gebru served as an assistant professor of law at Duquesne University School of Law, a visiting assistant professor at Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, and a Global Post-Doctoral Fellow at New York University School of Law. He has also taught internationally at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (Canada) and Haramaya University College of Law (Ethiopia).
Subjects: Contracts, Property Law, Trademark Law, Copyright Law, Patent law, Intellectual Property Law, and International Intellectual Property Law
Selected Publications include: Biopiracy as an Abuse of the Patent System, in Intellectual Property Excesses (Enrico Bonadio and Aislinn O’Connell, eds.) (Hart Publishing, Oxford, 2022); Covid-19: Are we really in this together?, The Africa Report (2021); The Piracy Paradox and Indigenous Fashion, 39 Cardozo Arts & Ent. L. J. 607 ( 2021); Patents, Disclosure, & Biopiracy, 96 Denver Law Review 535 (2019).
For more information, visit Professor Gebru’s web page at https://www.law.uh.edu/faculty/main.asp?PID=7474.
NIKOLAS GUGGENBERGER
Assistant Professor of Law
J.D. – equivalent, Ph.D., Freiburg University; LL.M., Stanford Law School
Professor Guggenberger’s research and scholarship focuses on antitrust, law & technology, privacy, and regulation. In addition to his tenure-track appointment at the University of Houston Law Center, Professor Guggenberger holds a courtesy appointment at the Cullen College of Engineering’s Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.
Before joining the University of Houston Law Center, Professor Guggenberger was a Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School and Executive Director of the Yale Information Society Project. He held an appointment as the RWTÜV Foundation Assistant Professor at the University of Münster School of Law in Germany and taught at the University of Virginia School of Law and the University of São Paulo Law School. He also served as an advisor on banking and financial markets regulation and monetary and economic policy to Jakob von Weizsäcker at the European Parliament in Brussels. He has frequently advised government entities and served as expert witness on technology policy, financial markets regulation, and media law.
Subjects: Antitrust, Privacy & Data Protection, Contracts, and Law & Technology
Selected Publications include: Essential Platforms, 24 Stan. Tech. L. Rev. 237 (2021); The Essential Facilities Doctrine in the Digital Economy: Dispelling Persistent Myths, 23 Yale J.L. & Tech. 301 (2021); various recent publications in several Europe-based journals, published in German.
For more information, visit Professor Guggenberger’s web page at https://www.law.uh.edu/faculty/main.asp?PID=7475.
PAUL M. JANICKE
Professor of Law
B.E.E., Manhattan College; J.D. (LL.B.), New York University; LL.M., George Washington University
Professor Janicke is a recognized expert in intellectual property litigation and licensing. He clerked at the U.S. Court of Customs & Patent Appeals in Washington, D.C., from 1969 to 1971 before joining the intellectual property firm of Arnold, White & Durkee, where he later served as managing partner. Professor Janicke joined the UH Law Center faculty in 1992.
Subjects: Patent Law, Patent Remedies and Defenses, Licensing & Technology Transfer, Intellectual Property Survey, Intellectual Property Advanced Topics Seminar, Military Law, and Evidence
Selected Publications include: The Federal Circuit and the Seventh Amendment: Some Disentanglement Needed for Standards of Review, 28 Fed. Cir. B.J. 105 (2019); Modern Patent Litigation (4th ed. 2017); Patent Venue: Half Christmas Pie and Half Crow, 2017 Patently-O Patent Law Journal 13; The Imminent Outpouring from the Eastern District of Texas, 2017 Patently-O Patent Law Journal 1; An Interim Proposal for Fixing Ex Parte Patent Reexamination's Messy Side, 4 HLRe 43 (2013); The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation: Now a Strengthened Traffic Cop for Patent Venue, 32 Rev. Litig. 497 (2013); Overview of the New Patent Law of the United States, 21 Tex. Intell. Prop. L.J. 63 (2013); The Patent Malpractice Thicket, or Why Justice Holmes Was Right, 50 Hous. L. Rev. 437 (2012); A Need for Clearer Language About Patent Law, 11 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 457 (2012); A Commentary on the New United States Patent Law, 60 Gewerblicher Rechtsschutz und Urheberrecht Internationaler Teil 887 (2011).
For more information, visit Professor Janickes web page athttps://www.law.uh.edu/faculty/main.asp?PID=19.
CRAIG JOYCE
Hunton Andrews Kurth Professor of Law
B.A., Dartmouth College; M.A., Oxford University; J.D., Stanford University
Professor Joyce is the founding author of the widely used casebook, Copyright Law (11th ed. 2020). His articles on copyright history and doctrine have appeared in numerous journals, including the Emory, Harvard, Houston, Michigan, UCLA, and Vanderbilt law reviews, and are cited regularly by the federal appellate courts. Joyce edited The Majesty of the Law (2003) for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. He taught at the Institute on Chinese Law & Business in Beijing in Summer 2011 and 2012.
Subjects: Copyright, Advanced Copyright Seminar, American Legal History, and Torts
Selected Publications include: Copyright Law (12th ed., forthcoming 2024) (with Tyler Ochoa & Michael Carroll); Reach Out and Touch Someone, 54 Hous. L. Rev. 257 (2016) (on Feist); Law Review: The First Fifty Years of Hous. L. Rev. (2014); The Statute of Anne: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, 47 Hous. L. Rev. 779 & 1013 (2010); A Unified Theory of Copyright, by Patterson & Birch (Joyce ed., 2009); Intellectual Property in the United States, in Oxf. Encycl. Legal Hist. (Katz ed., 2009); three entries in Yale Biogr. Dict. Amer. Law (Newman ed., 2009); Lazy B and the Nation’s Court, 119 Harv. L. Rev. 1257 (2006); A Good Judge, 30 J. S. Ct. Hist. 100 (2006) (retirement tributes to O’Connor, J.); The Story of Wheaton v. Peters, in IP Stories (Ginsburg & Cooper eds., 2005); six entries in Oxf. Compan. to S. Ct. of U.S. (Hall 2d ed., 2005); Copyright in 1791, 52 Emory L.J. 909 (2003); The Majesty of the Law, by Sandra Day O’Connor (Joyce ed., 2003); Monopolizing the Law, 36 UCLA L. Rev. 719 (1989); The Rise of the Supreme Court Reporter, 83 Mich. L. Rev. 1291 (1985) (many items co-authored).
SAPNA KUMAR
Professor of Law; John Mixon Chair in Law
B.S. (Mathematics), B.A. (Philosophy), The University of Texas at Austin; J.D., University of Chicago
Professor Kumar is a patent law and international intellectual property law scholar who is interested in issues including access to medicine, the role of the judiciary in patent law, and the relationship between courts and agencies in intellectual property. She is the 2018–2019 recipient of the Fulbright-Schuman Innovation Grant, which enabled her to research at the University of Strasbourg’s Center for International Intellectual Property and the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition. Prior to joining the UHLC faculty, she practiced intellectual property litigation and was a faculty fellow at Duke University Law School. Professor Kumar clerked for Judge Kenneth F. Ripple on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Subjects: Administrative Law, Federal Courts, International Intellectual Property, Patent Law, and Property
Selected Publications include: Contractual Solutions to Overcome Drug Scarcity During Pandemics and Epidemics (with Ana Santos Rutschman), 40 Nature Biotech. 301 (2022); Compulsory Licensing of Patents During Pandemics, 54 Conn. L. Rev. 57 (2022); Promoting Public Health Through State Sovereign Immunity, 4 J. L. & Innov. 1 (2021); Judging Patents, 62 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 871 (2021); Innovation Nationalism, 51 Conn. L. Rev. 205 (2019); Patent Court Specialization, 104 Iowa L. Rev. 2511 (2019); Amicus Brief of the Houston Intellectual Property Law Association in Support of Neither Party, WesternGeco LLC v. Ion Geophysical Corp., 16-1011 (with Ifti Ahmed) (2018); Patent Damages Without Borders, 25 Tex. Intell. Prop. J. 73 (2017) (invited); Standing Against Bad Patents, 32 Berkeley Tech. L. J. 27 (2017); Regulating Digital Trade, 67 Fla. L. Rev. 1909 (2015); Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Genetic Information, 65 Ala. L. Rev. 625 (2014); The Accidental Agency?, 64 Fla. L. Rev. 229 (2013); Expert Court, Expert Agency, 44 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 1547 (2011); The Other Patent Agency, 61 Fla. L. Rev. 529 (2009); Synthetic Biology: The Intellectual Property Puzzle (with Arti Rai), 85 Tex. L. Rev. 1745 (2007).
For more information, visit Professor Kumars web page at https://www.law.uh.edu/faculty/main.asp?PID=4715.
ANDREW MICHAELS
Assistant Professor of Law
B.S., Washington University in St. Louis; J.D., New York University
Professor Michaels' academic focus is in the areas of of intellectual property, with a particular focus on patent law. His work has appeared in legal journals such as the George Mason Law Review and the Brooklyn Law Review. He also frequently publishes more practice-oriented pieces in trade journals such as Law360, IPWatchdog, and Patently-O. Prior to joining the UH Law Center faculty, he clerked for the Honorable Pauline Newman on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, practiced as a patent litigator, and taught as the Frank H. Marks Intellectual Property Fellow at George Washington University Law School.
Subjects: Patent Law, Intellectual Property Survey, and Statutory Interpretation & Regulation
Selected Publications include: Benefits of the Invention and Social Value in Patent Law, 29 George Mas. L. Rev. 827 (2022); Retroactivity and Appointments, 52 Loy. U. Chi. L. J. 627 (2021); Artificial Intelligence, Legal Change, and Separation of Powers, 88 U. Cin. L. Rev. 1083 (2020); Implicit Overruling and Foreign Lost Profits, 25 B.U. J. Sci. & Tech. L. 101 (2019); The Patent Lawyer’s Guide to Fascism: On Individual Autonomy and Private Law, 49 N.M. L. Rev. 169 (2019); Abstract Innovation, Virtual Ideas, and Artificial Legal Thought, 14 J. Bus. & Tech. L. 101 (2018); Patent Transfer and the Bundle of Rights, 83 Brooklyn L. Rev. 933 (2018); The Holding-Dictum Spectrum, 73 Arkansas L. Rev. 661 (2017); Pot Calls Kettle Dictum: Expanded Secret Prior Art in Obviousness, 26 Fed. Cir. Bar J. 93 (2016); Tones That Echo From a Past Era of Rigid Jurisprudence: Pre-Challenge Royalties and the Federal Circuit's Shell Test, 31 Santa Clara High Tech. L. J. 543 (2015).
For more information, visit Professor Michaels' web page
at https://www.law.uh.edu/faculty/main.asp?PID=5289.
GREG R. VETTER
HIPLA Professor of Law; Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
B.S.E.E., Missouri University of Science and Technology; M.S., University of Missouri-Kansas City; M.B.A., Rockhurst University; J.D., Northwestern University
Professor Vetter is a leading expert on intellectual property as applied to software and the business of software, with particular emphasis on free and open source software. Prior to law school, he gained extensive business expertise in software design, management, and marketing through nine years of work experience in the software industry. After several years in law practice, he clerked for the Honorable Arthur J. Gajarsa on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., before joining the Law Center in 2002. Besides his duties at the Institute for Intellectual Property & Information Law since 2002, he has been an invited visitor teaching intellectual property law at three other law schools in that time frame: University of Texas at Austin School of Law (2006-07); University of Washington School of Law (Fall 2010); Texas A&M University School of Law (Spring 2015). Since the summer of 2017 he has served as the Law Center’s Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.
Subjects: Digital Transactions, Intellectual Property Survey, Intellectual Property Advanced Topics Seminar, Internet Law, International Intellectual Property, Intellectual Property Strategy & Management, Licensing, Patent Law, Property, and Trademark Law
Selected Publications include: Modern Music Dissemination and Licensing Innovation, 99 B.U. L. Rev. 2551 (2019); Opportunistic Free and Open Source Software Development Pathways, 30 Harv. J.L. & Tech. 167 (2017); Are Prior User Rights Good for Software?, 73 Tex. Intell. Prop. L.J. 251 (2015); Patent Law chapters for Intellectual Property Law (LexisNexis 2015) (intellectual property survey course casebook, with John Cross, Doris Long & Peter Yu); Patent Law’s Unpredictability Doctrine and the Software Arts, 76 Mo. L. Rev. 763 (2011); Patenting Cryptographic Technology, 84 Chicago-Kent L. Rev. 757 (2010); Commercial Free and Open Source Software: Knowledge Production, Hybrid Appropriability, and Patents, 77 Fordham L. Rev. 2087 (2009).
For more information, visit Professor Vetters web page at https://www.law.uh.edu/faculty/main.asp?PID=545.
LEONARD M. BAYNES
Dean and Professor of Law
B.S., New York University; M.B.A., J.D., Columbia University
Dean Baynes joined the Law Center in the summer of 2014, bringing a national reputation as a communications law scholar, with specializations in business, media, and diversity issues.
EMILY BERMAN
Associate Professor of Law and Royce R. Till Professorship
B.A., Duke University; J.D., LL.M., New York University
Professor Berman’s scholarship examines the unique separation-of-powers challenges that arise in the constitutional, statutory, and regulatory regimes governing national-security policy. She clerked for the Honorable John M. Walker, Jr. of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. She teaches National Security Law, Foreign Affairs Law, and Constitutional Law.
DARREN BUSH
Leonard B. Rosenberg College Professor of Law
B.A., California State University, San Bernardino; Ph.D., J.D., University of Utah
Professor Bush previously served in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, with attention to state deregulation of electric utilities as well as mergers and anticompetitive conduct in wholesale and retail energy markets. He teaches Antitrust, Regulated Industries, Law & Economics, and Administrative Law.
SETH CHANDLER
Law Foundation Professor of Law
A.B., Princeton University; J.D., Harvard University
Professor Chandler is a leader in the emerging scholarly discipline of law and computation, where his scholarship uses computational modeling to better understand such areas of interest as insurance law, health law, economic analysis of law, and contracts. His courses include Analytic Methods for Lawyers, which includes various methods applied to the effect and operation of law.
RICHARD F. DOLE
Bobby Wayne Young Professor of Consumer Law
B.A., Bates College; LL.B., LL.M., Cornell University; S.J.D., University of Michigan
Professor Dole assisted in drafting both the Uniform Trade Secrets Act and the Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act. His recent scholarship concerns remedies under the UTSA. Professor Dole’s teaching interests include Bankruptcy, Commercial Law, Creditors’ Rights, and Unfair Competition.
LAWRENCE F. PINSKY
Moores Professor, Physics Department, College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, University of Houston
B.S., Carnegie Mellon University; M.A., Ph.D., University of Rochester; J.D., LL.M., University of Houston
Dr. Pinsky's specialties include experimental particle physics, heavy ion physics, nucleon structure functions, space radiation simulation, medium energy physics, and charged particle detector development. He is involved in projects at CERN, BNL, NASA, and Fermilab. He teaches Internet Law and Intellectual Property Survey.
JESSICA ROBERTS
Leonard H. Childs Chair in Law, Professor of Medicine, and Director of the Health Law & Policy Institute
B.A., University of Southern California; J.D., Yale University
Professor Roberts studies the intersection of health and anti-discrimination law, including the theoretical implications of health-care reform, the formation of genetic identity, and the antidiscrimination protection of health-related information. She teaches Disabilities and the Law and Genetics and the Law.
PETER N. SALIB
Assistant Professor of Law
B.A., J.D., The University of Chicago
Professor Salib’s research focuses on problems at the intersection of public law, economics, and artificial intelligence. His scholarship has been published or is forthcoming in, among others, The University of Chicago Law Review, the Northwestern University Law Review, and the Texas Law Review. He clerked for the Honorable Frank H. Easterbrook and practiced law at Sidley Austin, LLP, where he specialized in appellate litigation.
AMANDA WATSON
Director, Law Library and Assistant Professor of Law
B.A., Mississippi University for Women; J.D., University of Mississippi School of Law; M.I.S., Florida State University
Professor Watson joined the Law Center faculty as director of the Law Library and assistant professor of law after a seven-year stint at the Tulane University School of Law Library where she served as associate director and adjunct associate professor. Her career also includes several years as Manager of Information Services at Phelps Dunbar, LLP, serving as a State Librarian of Mississippi, and as a clerk at the Mississippi Court of Appeals.
YOCEL ALONSO, Alonso PLLC. B.A., University of Houston, University of Salamanca, Spain; J.D., University of Houston Law Center
JUSTEN BARKS, Beard & Barks PLLC. B.B.A., Belmont University; J.D., University of Houston Law Center
JAMES BEEBE, Baker Hughes. B.S. (Chemical Engineering), Mississippi State University; M.C.E., J.D., University of Houston Law Center
LOUIS BRUCCULERI, Intrado. B.S. (Electrical Engineering), Tulane University; J.D., The University of Texas at Austin
CARLO COTRONE, Techtronic Industries North America, Inc. B.S. (Electrical Engineering), J.D., Marquette University
ALI DHANANI, Baker Botts L.L.P. B.S. (Computer Science), J.D., University of Houston
NATALIE ALFARO GONZALES, Baker Botts L.L.P. B.S., The University of Texas; J.D., University of Houston Law Center
LEE HUNT, Kelly Hart & Hallman LLP. B.S., Texas State University; M.P.A., (Bush School of Government and Public Service) Texas A&M University; J.D., University of Houston Law Center
AARON LEVINE, Polsinelli PC. B.S. (Mechanical Engineering), Cornell University; J.D., New York University
STEVE MAULE, Baker Botts L.L.P. B.S. (Electrical & Computer Engineering), M.S. (Electrical & Computer Engineering), Baylor University; M.B.A., J.D., University of Houston
TOM MAVRAKAKIS, Abnormal Security Corp. B.S. (Electrical Engineering), Polytechnic University; J.D., St. John's University
ANNA E. RAIMER, Jones Day. B.A., Tulane University; J.D., The University of Texas at Austin
ERICK ROBINSON, Spencer Fane LLP. B.A., Pomona College; J.D., The University of Texas at Austin; M.B.A., Indiana University
MATT TODD, Polsinelli PC. B.B.A., The University of Texas at Austin; M.B.A., University of Oxford; J.D., St. Mary's University
D.C. TOEDT III, Law Office of D.C. Toedt III. B.A., J.D., The University of Texas at Austin
MARCELLA WATKINS, Ewing & Jones, PLLC. B.S. (Chemical Engineering), Rice University; J.D., The University of Texas at Austin
JASON BEESINGER, Joyce & McFarland LLP. B.A., Texas A&M University; J.D., University of Houston Law Center
SEAN BELDING, Perkins Coie LLP. B.S. (Nuclear Engineering), Oregon State University; J.D., University of Houston Law Center
ALLAN BULLWINKEL, Heim, Payne & Chorush, LLP. B.S. (Computer Engineering), Mississippi State University; J.D., University of Houston Law Center
JOSH DAVIS, Josh Davis Law Group. B.S., Trinity University; J.D., University of Houston Law Center
GARY Y. GOULD, Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP. B.A., University of California Berkeley; J.D., The University of Texas School of Law
WILL SPROTT, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. B.S. (Biomedical Engineering), Tulane University; J.D., University of Houston Law Center
SABRINA TOMLINSON, B.A., University of Miami; J.D., Georgetown University Law Center