Biography

Widely recognized as a preeminent scholar of intellectual property law, Mark A. Lemley (BA '88) is an accomplished litigator—having litigated cases before the US Supreme Court, the California Supreme Court, and federal circuit courts—as well as a prolific writer with more than 100 published articles and six books. He has testified numerous times before Congress, the California legislature, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Antitrust Modernization Commission on patent, trade secret, antitrust, and constitutional law matters, and he is also a partner and founder in the firm Durie Tangri LLP. His contributions to legal scholarship focus on how the economics and technology of the Internet affect patent law, copyright law, and trademark law; and at Stanford he currently acts as the Director of the Program in Law, Science & Technology, and the Director of the LLM Program in Law, Science & Technology.

Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 2004, he was a professor of law at the UC Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall) and at the University of Texas School of Law. He also served as counsel at Fish & Richardson and Brown & Bain as well as clerked for Judge Dorothy W. Nelson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Key Works

• Mark A. Lemley and Carl Shapiro, Patent Holdup and Royalty Stacking, 85 Texas Law Review 1991 (2007).
• Mark A. Lemley and Douglas Lichtman, Rethinking Patent Law's Presumption of Validity, 60 Stanford Law Review 45 (2007).
• Mark A. Lemley, Property, Intellectual Property, and Free Riding, 83 Texas Law Review 1031 (2005).
• Dan L. Burk and Mark A. Lemley, Policy Levers in Patent Law, 89 Virginia Law Review 1575 (2003).
• Mark A. Lemley, Rational Ignorance at the Patent Office, 95 Northwestern University Law Review 1495 (2001).
• Mark A. Lemley and David McGowan, Legal Implications of Network Economic Effects, 86 California Law Review 479-611 (1998).
• Mark A. Lemley, The Economics of Improvement in Intellectual Property Law, 75 Texas Law Review 989-1084 (1997).

In the News

• IBM Exec Picked To Head Patent Office
  EE Times, June 18, 2009
• Antitrust: No-Bid .com Deal Supported Antitrust Claims Against VeriSign, While .net Contract Did Not
  Electronic Commerce & Law Report, June 10, 2009
• Handicapping 'Bilski' at the Supreme Court
  Law.com , June 01, 2009
• Online Libel Claims Abound
  California Lawyer, June 01, 2009
• Social Studies
  ABA Journal, June 01, 2009

Courses & Programs

Courses

• Introduction to Intellectual Property

Programs

• Center for Law and the Biosciences, William H. Neukom Professor of Law
• CodeX: Stanford Center for Computers and Law, William H. Neukom Professor of Law
• John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics, William H. Neukom Professor of Law
• Stanford IP Litigation Clearinghouse, Faculty Director
• Stanford Program in Law, Science & Technology, William H. Neukom Professor of Law
• Transatlantic Technology Law Forum, William H. Neukom Professor of Law

Publications & Cases

Recent Publications View All

• Mark Lemley, Patent Trolls and the Effort to Fix the Patent System, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research Associates Meeting, June 11, 2009, Palo Alto, California.
• Mark A. Lemley, Intellectual Oligopoly: A Cautious Defense of Intellectual Oligopoly with Fringe Competition, Stanford Law and Economics Olin Working Paper, No. 374.
• Mark A. Lemley, William H. Neukom, et. al., Brief Amici Curiae of 54 Intellectual Property Law, Antitrust Law, Economics, and Business Professors, The American Antitrust Institute, The Public Patent Foundation, and The AARP in Support of the Petitioner: Arkansas Carpenters Health and Welfare Fund v. Bayer Corp., No. 08-1194 in the Supreme Court of the United States (May 11, 2009).
• Dan L. Burk and Mark A. Lemley, Don't Tailor Make Patent Act, National Law Journal, May 11, 2009, pg. 18.
• Dan L. Burk and Mark A. Lemley, The Patent Crisis and How Courts Can Solve It, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press (April 2009).
• Dan L. Burk and Mark A. Lemley, Fence Posts or Sign Posts: Rethinking Patent Claim Construction, Stanford Public Law Working Paper, No. 1358460.
• Mark A. Lemley and Bhaven N. Sampat, Examiner Characteristics and the Patent Grant Rule, Stanford Law and Economics Olin Working Paper, No. 369 (Februrary 2009).
• Mark A. Lemley and James H. Pooley, California Restrictive Employment Covenants after Edwards, Working Paper (November 2008).
• Christopher Anthony Cotropia and Mark A. Lemley, Copying in Patent Law, Stanford Public Law Working Paper, No. 1270160 (October 2008).
• Stacey L. Dogan and Mark A. Lemley, Antitrust Law and Regulatory Gaming, 87 Texas Law Review 685 (March 2009) / Stanford Law and Economics Olin Working Paper, No. 367 (October 2008).

Affiliations & Honors

Professional Affiliations

• Advisor (2004-Present), Principles of the Law of Software Contracts Project, American Law Institute
• Arbitrator (1999-2001), Domain Name Disputes, Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers
• Chair, Association of American Law Schools Section on Law and Computers, 1997
• Master, San Francisco Bay Area Intellectual Property Inns of Court
• Member (2004-Present), Advisory Board, Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Member (2000-Present), Northern District of California Working Committee on Model Patent Jury Instructions
• Member (1995-Present), Panel of Academic Advisors, American Committee for Interoperable Systems
• Member (1995-1999), Board of Directors, University Cooperative Society
• Member (1994-2000), Board of Editors, American Intellectual Property Law Association Quarterly Journal
• Member, American Intellectual Property Law Association and American Law and Economics Association
• Moderator, "CyberProf" Internet listserv

Honors and Awards

• Honoree, World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, 2007
• Honoree, American Lawyer’s Young Litigators Fab Fifty, 2007
• Recipient, Best Lawyers in America, 2007 (IP, antitrust)
• Honoree, National Law Journal's "100 Most Influential Lawyers," 2006
• Recipient, California Lawyer’s Attorney of the Year (CLAY) Award, 2005
• Honoree, Lawdragon 500: New Stars, New Worlds, 2006
• Honoree, Lawdragon Leading Lawyers in America, 2005, 2006
• Honoree, Daily Journal 100 Most Influential Attorneys in California, 2004, 2005, 2006
• Honoree, San Francisco Magazine, Northern California Super Lawyers (IP litigation), 2004, 2005, 2006
• Honoree, Marquis Who’s Who in America, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007
• Finalist, World Technology Network’s World Technology Award for Law, 2004
• Honoree, Daily Journal Top 25 Intellectual Property Attorneys in California, 2003
• Recipient, Young Alumnus of the Year, UC Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), 2002
• Recipient, Order of the Coif, UC Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall)
• Recipient, Thelen Marrin Prize, UC Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall)
• Recipient, John G. Sobieski Prize in Economics, Stanford University, 1988