J E A N N E F R O M E R
Professor of Law
Co-Director, Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy
New York University School of Law
40 Washington Square South, 310C
New York, NY 10012
jeanne.fromer@nyu.edu
COURSES TAUGHT
Intellectual Property Law, Copyright Law, Patent Law, Trade Secret Law, Advanced
Intellectual Property Law, Advanced Copyright Law, Innovation Policy Colloquium, IP in
HBO’s Silicon Valley, Contracts
LEGAL AWARDS & HONORS
American Law Institute Young Scholars Medal (2011).
Articles selected for presentation at 10
th
and 12
th
Stanford/Yale Junior Faculty Forums
(2009, 2011).
LEGAL PUBLICATIONS
COPYRIGHT LAW: CASES AND MATERIALS V1.0 (2019) (free textbook with Christopher
Sprigman).
Minds, Machines, and the Law: The Case of Volition in Copyright Law, 119 COLUMBIA LAW
REVIEW (forthcoming 2019) (with Mala Chatterjee) (Symposium on Common Law for the
Age of AI).
Machines as the New Oompa-Loompas: Trade Secrecy, the Cloud, Machine Learning, and
Automation, 94 NYU LAW REVIEW (forthcoming 2019) (Symposium on Data Law).
Taking Intellectual Property into Their Own Hands, 107 CALIFORNIA LAW REVIEW
(forthcoming 2019) (with Amy Adler).
Immoral or Scandalous Marks: An Empirical Analysis, 8 NYU JOURNAL OF INTELLECTUAL
PROPERTY & ENTERTAINMENT LAW 169 (2019) (with Barton Beebe).
Claiming Design, 167 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA LAW REVIEW 123 (2018) (with Mark
McKenna).
Are We Running Out of Trademarks? An Empirical Study of Trademark Depletion and
Congestion, 131 HARVARD LAW REVIEW 945 (2018) (with Barton Beebe).
Fashion’s Function in Intellectual Property Law, 93 NOTRE DAME LAW REVIEW 51 (2017) (with
Christopher Buccafusco).
Forgetting Functionality, 166 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA LAW REVIEW ONLINE 119 (2017)
(with Christopher Buccafusco) (Symposium on From Shovels to Jerseys: A Guide To Apply
Star Athletica v. Varsity Brands).
The Unregulated Certification Mark(et), 69 STANFORD LAW REVIEW 121 (2017).
• Selected for 2018 Antitrust Writing Awards (Steering Committee Vote in IP and
Antitrust category)
• Abridged version in 2 THE CAMBRIDGE HANDBOOK OF TECHNICAL
STANDARDIZATION LAW: FURTHER INTERSECTIONS OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE LAW
(Jorge Contreras ed., forthcoming 2019)
Dynamic Patent Disclosure, 69 VANDERBILT LAW REVIEW 1715 (2016) (symposium on
Disclosure Function of the Patent System).
Should the Law Care Why Intellectual Property Rights Have Been Asserted?, 53 HOUSTON LAW
REVIEW 549 (2015) (12th Annual Baker Botts Lecture).
Market Effects Bearing on Fair Use, 90 WASHINGTON LAW REVIEW 615 (2015) (symposium on
Fair Use in the Digital Age, and Campbell v. Acuff-Rose at 21).
The Audience in Intellectual Property Infringement, 112 MICHIGAN LAW REVIEW 1251 (2014)
(with Mark Lemley).
Experimental Tests of Intellectual Property Laws’ Creativity Thresholds, 93 TEXAS LAW REVIEW
1921 (2014) (with Christopher Buccafusco, Zachary Burns, and Christopher Sprigman)
(symposium on Evidence-Based IP).
An Information Theory of Copyright Law, 64 EMORY LAW JOURNAL 71 (2014).
A Legal Tangle of Secrets and Disclosures in Trade: Tabor v. Hoffman and Beyond, in
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AT THE EDGE: THE CONTESTED CONTOURS OF IP 271 (Rochelle C.
Dreyfuss & Jane C. Ginsburg eds., Cambridge University Press, 2014).
The Intellectual Property Clause’s Preemptive Effect, in INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND THE
COMMON LAW 265 (Shyamkrishna Balganesh ed., Cambridge University Press, 2013).
Expressive Incentives in Intellectual Property, 98 VIRGINIA LAW REVIEW 1745 (2012).
• Selected for presentation at the 2011 Stanford/Yale Junior Faculty Forum
The Intellectual Property Clause’s External Limitations, 61 DUKE LAW JOURNAL 1329 (2012).
Trade Secrecy in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, in THE LAW AND THEORY OF TRADE
SECRECY: A HANDBOOK OF CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH 3 (Rochelle C. Dreyfuss & Katherine
J. Strandburg eds., Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011).
The Role of Creativity in Trademark Law, 86 NOTRE DAME LAW REVIEW 1885 (2011)
(symposium on Creativity and the Law).
• Reprinted in INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW REVIEW, 2012 (Thomson/West)
(judging this article to be one of the best intellectual property law articles of 2011)
District Courts as Patent Laboratories, 1 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA IRVINE LAW REVIEW 307
(2011) (review of DAN L. BURK & MARK A. LEMLEY, THE PATENT CRISIS AND HOW THE
COURTS CAN SOLVE IT (2009)).
Patentography, 85 NYU LAW REVIEW 1444 (2010).
A Psychology of Intellectual Property, 104 NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW 1441
(2010).
• Selected for presentation at the plenary session of the 9
th
Annual Intellectual
Property Scholars Conference
The Compatibility of Patent Law and the Internet, 78 FORDHAM LAW REVIEW 2783 (2010)
(review of DAVID G. POST, IN SEARCH OF JEFFERSON’S MOOSE: NOTES ON THE STATE OF
CYBERSPACE (2009), and JONATHAN ZITTRAIN, THE FUTURE OF THE INTERNET—AND HOW
TO STOP IT (2008)).
Claiming Intellectual Property, 76 UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LAW REVIEW 719 (2009).
• Selected for presentation at the 2009 Stanford/Yale Junior Faculty Forum
Patent Disclosure, 94 IOWA LAW REVIEW 539 (2009).
The Layers of Obviousness in Patent Law, 22 HARVARD JOURNAL OF LAW & TECHNOLOGY 75
(2008).
• Reprinted in INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW REVIEW, 2009 (Thomson/West)
(judging this article to be one of the best intellectual property law articles of 2008)
An Exercise in Line-Drawing: Deriving and Measuring Fairness in Redistricting, 93
GEORGETOWN LAW JOURNAL 1547 (2005).
Note, Looking to Statutory Intertext: Toward the Use of the Rabbinic Biblical Interpretive Stance
in American Statutory Interpretation, 115 HARVARD LAW REVIEW 1456 (2002).
The Supreme Court, 2000 Term—Leading Cases, 115 HARVARD LAW REVIEW 528 (2001)
(comment on Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
121 S. Ct. 675 (2001)).
Constitutional Law—Free Speech Clause—Sixth Circuit Classifies Computer Source Code
as Protected Speech—Junger v. Daley, 209 F.3d 481 (6th Cir. 2000), 114 HARVARD LAW
REVIEW 1813 (2001) (case comment).
WORKS IN PROGRESS
Playful Innovation (with Mark Lemley).
A Theory of Legal Protection for Industrial Design (with Christopher Sprigman).
Overhauling Trademark Distinctiveness.
The State(s) of Copyright Law.
AUTHORED AMICUS BRIEFS
United States Supreme Court, Brief of Professors Barton Beebe and Jeanne Fromer as Amici Curiae
Supporting Respondent, in Iancu v. Brunetti, No. 18-302 (with Barton Beebe, Joshua Bone, and
William Jay).
• Cited in Iancu v. Brunetti, 139 S. Ct. 2294, 2300 (2019) (majority opinion)
United States Supreme Court, Brief of Professors Christopher Buccafusco and Jeanne Fromer as
Amici Curiae in Support of Petitioner, in Star Athletica, LL.C. v. Varsity Brands, Inc., No. 15-866
(with Christopher Buccafusco, Meir Feder, and Matthew J. Silveira).
EDUCATION
1999-2002 Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA
J.D., magna cum laude
◼ Harvard Law Review, Articles & Commentaries Editor, (2001-02); Editor (2000-
01)
◼ Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, Editor & Symposium Articles Coordinator
(1999-2000)
1996-1999 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
S.M. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Research Thesis: Learning Optimal Discourse Strategies in Spoken Dialogue Systems
◼ National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow
◼ AT&T Laboratories Graduate Research Fellow
1992-1996 Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, NY
B.A. in Computer Science, summa cum laude
◼ Phi Beta Kappa
◼ Columbia University Russell C. Mills Award in Computer Science
◼ Mary E. Allison Prize for Excellence in Scholarship
◼ Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association Scholarship in
Computer Science
EXPERIENCE
2012-present New York University School of Law, New York, NY
Professor of Law
Faculty Co-Director, Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy
Spring 2013 Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA
Visiting Professor
Spring 2012 New York University School of Law, New York, NY
Visiting Professor
2007-2012 Fordham University School of Law, New York, NY
Associate Professor
2006-2007 New York University School of Law, New York, NY
Alexander Fellow
2005-2006 Justice David H. Souter, United States Supreme Court, Washington, DC
Law Clerk
2004-2005 Yale Law School Information Society Project, New Haven, CT
Resident Fellow
2003-2004 Judge Robert D. Sack, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, NY, NY
Law Clerk
2002-2003 Hale and Dorr LLP, Boston, MA
Associate (Intellectual Property Department)
2001-2002 Professor Daniel Meltzer, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA
Teaching and Research Assistant
2001-2002 Professor Laurence Tribe, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA
Research Assistant
2000-2002 Professor Arthur Miller, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA
Research Assistant
Summers 1999-01 Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, P.C., Boston, MA
Summer Associate (Patent and Trademark Departments)
1995-1997 AT&T Laboratories, Florham Park, NJ
Technical Associate in Artificial Intelligence Research
1994-1996 Columbia University Department of Computer Science, New York, NY
Teaching Assistant (Discrete Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence)
COMPUTER SCIENCE PUBLICATIONS
Learning Optimal Discourse Strategies: A Case Study for a Spoken Dialogue Agent for Email,
ASSOCIATION FOR COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS 1998 (with Marilyn Walker and Shri Narayanan).
What Can I Say?: Evaluating a Spoken Language Interface to Email, CONFERENCE ON HUMAN-
COMPUTER INTERACTION 1998 (with Marilyn Walker, Giuseppe Di Fabbrizio, Craig Mestel, and
Donald Hindle).
Evaluating Competing Agent Strategies for a Voice Email Agent, EUROSPEECH 1997 (with Marilyn
Walker, Donald Hindle, Giuseppe Di Fabbrizio, and Craig Mestel).
Negotiation for Automated Generation of Temporal Multimedia Presentations, ASSOCIATION FOR
COMPUTING MACHINERY MULTIMEDIA 1996 (with Mukesh Dalal, Steven Feiner, Kathleen
McKeown, Shimei Pan, Michelle Zhou, Tobias Hollerer, James Shaw, and Yong Feng).
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Member, Academic Advisory Board of U.S. Supreme Court Fellows Program, October 2017 Term
Adviser, American Law Institute Restatement of the Law, Copyright
Co-organizer, Annual Tri-State Region Intellectual Property Workshop, NYU School of Law
Chair, AALS Section on Intellectual Property (2012-13)
Chair-Elect, AALS Section on Intellectual Property (2011-12)
Member, Executive Board of the AALS Section on Intellectual Property (2010-11)
PROPROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States
American Law Institute
New York Bar
Massachusetts Bar
