Mark A. Lemley - Director (Program), Faculty - Stanford Law School
Mark A. Lemley
William H. Neukom Professor of Law
Director, Program in Law, Science & Technology
mlemley@law.stanford.edu
650 723.4605
Assistant(s):
Ally Marecek
Room N215, Neukom Building
Download Curriculum Vitae
@marklemley
Center for Law and the Biosciences (CLB)
CodeX
John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics
Stanford Program in Law, Science & Technology
Transatlantic Technology Law Forum
Stanford Law AI Initiative
Expertise
Antitrust Law
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Biotechnology
Copyright Law
Intellectual Property
Intellectual Property & Antitrust
Internet & Cyberlaw
Law & Economics
Patent Law
Property Law
Technology & the Law
Trade Regulation
Trade Secrets
Trademarks
Biography
Mark Lemley is the William H. Neukom Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and the Director of the Stanford Program in Law, Science and Technology. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research and is affiliated faculty in the Symbolic Systems program.  He teaches intellectual property, patent law, trademark law, antitrust, the law of robotics and AI, video game law, and remedies. He is the author of 11 books and 226 articles, including the two-volume treatise
IP and Antitrust
. His works have been cited more than 350 times by courts, including 19 times by the United States Supreme Court, and more than 50,000 times in books and academic articles, making him the most-cited scholar in the world in IP law and the third most cited legal scholar of all time. He has published 9 of the 100 most-cited law review articles of the last twenty years, more than any other scholar. His articles have appeared in 24 of the top 25 law reviews and in top journals in other fields, including
Nature Biotechnology
, the
American Economic Review
, the
Review of Economics and Statistics
, the
Journal of Machine Learning Research
, and the
Harvard Business Review
. They have been reprinted throughout the world and translated into Chinese, Danish, French, Japanese, Korean, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish. He has taught IP law to judges at numerous Federal Judicial Center and ABA programs, has testified eight times before Congress, and has filed more than 75 amicus briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court and other courts.
Mark is a partner at the law firm Lex Lumina. He litigates and counsels clients in all areas of intellectual property, antitrust, and internet law. He has argued 32 federal appellate cases, including before the en banc Federal Circuit, and before the California Supreme Court as well as numerous district court cases. He has participated in more than three dozen cases in the United States Supreme Court as counsel or amici.  His client base is diverse and has included Genentech, Dykes on Bikes, generative AI companies, video game companies, artists, computer scientists, and nearly every significant Internet company.
Mark cofounded Lex Machina, Inc., a startup company that provides litigation data and analytics to law firms, companies, courts, and policymakers.  Lex Machina was acquired by Lexis in December 2015.
Mark has been named California Lawyer’s Attorney of the Year twice.  He received the California State Bar’s inaugural IP Vanguard Award.  He won the 2024 Mark Banner Award from the American Bar Association and the 2018 World Technology Award for Law. In 2017 he received the P.J. Federico Award from the Patent and Trademark Office Society. Back when he was young, he was named a Young Global Leader by the Davos World Economic Forum and Berkeley Law School’s Young Alumnus of the Year. He has been recognized as one of the top 50 litigators in the country under 45 and one of the 25 most influential people in IP by American Lawyer, one of the 100 most influential lawyers in the nation by the National Law Journal, and one of the 10 most admired attorneys in IP by IP360. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Law Institute, and the IP Hall of Fame.
Mark clerked for Judge Dorothy Nelson on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and has practiced law with Brown & Bain, Fish & Richardson, Keker & Van Nest, and Durie Tangri. He has previously taught at Berkeley Law School and the University of Texas School of Law.  In his spare time, Mark enjoys cooking, travel, yoga, and video games (at this writing, Divinity: Original Sin II).
Education
BA (with distinction) Stanford University 1988
JD University of California Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall) 1991
Related Organizations
Center for Law and the Biosciences (CLB)
CodeX
John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics
Stanford Program in Law, Science & Technology
Transatlantic Technology Law Forum
Stanford Law AI Initiative
Courses
Directed Research
Intellectual Property and Antitrust Law
Intellectual Property: Patents
Intellectual Property: Trademarks
Introduction to Intellectual Property
Policy Practicum: Private Antitrust Enforcement Remedies
TGR: Dissertation
Video Game Law
Affiliations & Honors
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
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
Courses
Publications
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Policy Practicums
Empirical Study of Patent Troll Litigation
: Empirical Study of Patent Troll Litigation
Intermediary Liability
: Intermediary Liability
Faculty on Point | Professor Mark Lemley on the Patent System
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Faculty on Point | Professor Mark Lemley on the Patent System
Faculty on Point | Professor Mark Lemley on Patent “Trolls”
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Faculty on Point | Professor Mark Lemley on Patent “Trolls”
Stanford Law Professor Discusses the Current State of Intellectual Property
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Stanford law professor discusses the current state of intellectual property
Stanford Legal on SiriusXM | Mark Lemley and Michelle Lee on Robotics and Law
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Robotics and Law – Stanford Legal on SiriusXM
Key Works
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Brief of Amici Curiae 42 Intellectual Property Professors in Support of Appellant: Helsinn Healthcare S.A. v Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc.
Author(s):
Mark A. Lemley
Robert P. Merges
Format:
Brief
Life After
Bilski
Author(s):
Mark A. Lemley
Michael Risch
Ted Sichelman
...
Publication:
Stanford Law Review
Format:
Journal Article
Fence Posts or Sign Posts: Rethinking Patent Claim Construction
Author(s):
Mark A. Lemley
Dan L. Burk
Publication:
University of Pennsylvania Law Review
Format:
Journal Article
Rethinking Patent Law’s Presumption of Validity
Author(s):
Mark A. Lemley
Douglas Lichtman
Publication:
Stanford Law Review
Format:
Journal Article
Property, Intellectual Property, and Free Riding
Author(s):
Mark A. Lemley
Publication:
Texas Law Review
Format:
Journal Article
Policy Levers in Patent Law
Author(s):
Mark A. Lemley
Dan L. Burk
Publication:
Virginia Law Review
Format:
Journal Article
News
AI beginning to crowd out young Koreans from elite professions
AJP
Mark A. Lemley of Stanford Law School said AI adoption in U.S. legal practice has already expanded rapidly, with litigators using it to draft briefs and corporate lawyers to prepare contracts. But he warned of growing risks tied to AI errors. “We have seen over 800 cases in which lawyers…
: AI beginning to crowd out young Koreans from elite professions
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Reuters
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