Stanford Law School has announced that Mark Lemley, a leading scholar of patent, intellectual property, and Internet law, will join the Stanford faculty and assume the directorship of the Stanford Program in Law, Science & Technology this summer. Lemley, widely considered to be among the top IP scholars in the nation, has written six books and more than 50 articles on patents, copyright, and trademark, as well as antitrust and the law of cyberspace.

Mr. Lemley is currently a professor at Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley, where he codirects the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology.

“We are elated that Mark Lemley has chosen to come to Stanford,” said Stanford Law Dean Kathleen M. Sullivan. “Lemley has gained national renown among lawyers and scholars alike as a leading expert in intellectual property law. No one knows more than he does about patent law and the emerging law of the Internet. With Lemley now aboard, Stanford’s Law, Science and Technology program could not possibly be stronger.”

Noting the path-breaking research Lemley conducted under the auspices of Boalt’s law and technology program, Dean Sullivan said, “We have great respect for Berkeley’s work in this area under Pam Samuelson’s leadership, so we are especially pleased to have lured Lemley to our side of the Bay, where he no doubt will continue his scholarly interchange with colleagues throughout the Valley and the Bay Area.”

“Stanford’s location in the heart of Silicon Valley makes it an ideal place to do research in technology law,” said Lemley. “Stanford has a great collection of people in intellectual property and Internet law, including Larry Lessig, Paul Goldstein, and others, and I’m looking forward to working with them. I am also looking forward to spending time with Stanford Law School’s outstanding students,” he said.

Lemley’s Work: At the Intersection of Patent, Copyright, and Trademark Law

Lemley’s major contributions to legal scholarship focus on how the economics and technology of the Internet affect patent law, copyright law, and trademark law. He has conducted major empirical studies of patent issuance and of Internet standard-setting organizations that have helped illuminate how the economics of intellectual property differs across industries. And he has made important contributions to the public policy debate over how licensing and contracting should take place over the Internet. His prolific work is widely cited by scholars, policy makers, and judges.

Lemley’s patent expertise complements the already strong faculty in Stanford Law School’s Program in Law, Science & Technology: internationally renowned copyright expert Paul Goldstein, trailblazing cyberlaw expert Lawrence Lessig, who founded and directs the program’s Center for Internet and Society; property law expert Margaret Jane Radin, who founded and directs the program’s Center for E-Commerce; and biolaw expert Henry T. Greely, who founded and directs the program’s new Center for Law and the Biosciences.

Mark Lemley graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and political science in 1988, and received a law degree from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley in 1991. He then served as a law clerk to Judge Dorothy Nelson at the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and an intellectual property lawyer at the law firms of Brown & Bain and Fish & Richardson.

In 1994, Lemley joined the faculty of the University of Texas School of Law, where he was named the Marrs McLean Professor of Law. Six years later, he left Texas for Boalt Hall, where he became both a professor and codirector of Boalt’s law and technology program. In the fall of 2003, Lemley was the Edwin A. Heafey, Jr. Visiting Professor at Stanford Law School. He continues to be of counsel to the San Francisco law firm of Keker and Van Nest on intellectual property, antitrust, and Internet law.