I have a longstanding interest in intellectual property. I am a named inventor on about 20 US patents in areas including cybersecurity, communications, and video processing. Since the 1990s I have also been very active in advising early-stage technology companies regarding IP strategy. In addition, I have given congressional testimony regarding intellectual property law, and have also served as Vice Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Intellectual Property System.

I believe that, outside of law schools, many universities do not provide sufficient opportunities to students who have an interest in learning more about IP. To help address that gap, I created and teach a course on “IP for Technology Entrepreneurs” that is jointly listed in both the Anderson School of Management and the Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science.

In addition, I developed an online tutorial on “Intellectual Property Essentials” that has been adopted by the University of California Office of the President and made available to all UC campuses.

Papers

John Villasenor, “Corporate Cybersecurity Realism: Managing Trade Secrets in a World Where Breaches Occur,” American Intellectual Property Law Association Quarterly Journal, Volume 43, Numbers 2/3, pages 329-357, Spring/Summer 2015. Available through SSRN at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2488756

John Villasenor, “Rethinking a Digital First Sale Doctrine in a Post-Kirtsaeng World: The Case for CautionCompetition Policy International Antitrust Chronicle, Vol. 2, May 2013

John Villasenor, “Digital Music Broadcast Royalties: The Case for a Level Playing Field,” The Brookings Institution, August 2012

Policy Brief

John Villasenor, “The Comprehensive Patent Reform of 2011: Navigating the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act,” The Brookings Institution, Policy Brief #184, September 2011

Congressional Testimony

John Villasenor, “First Sale Under Title 17,” Testimony before the House Committee on the Judiciary; Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, June 2, 2014. Written testimony available starting on page 97 of the hearing record
here.

Broader Interest Articles and Commentary

John Villasenor, “Intellectual Property: Valuable to Every Discipline,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, August 4, 2014

John Villasenor, “How Much Copyright Protection Should Source Code Get? A New Court Ruling Reshapes The Landscape,” Forbes, May 19, 2014

John Villasenor, “How the Bitcoin Protocol Could Help Improve Copyright,” Slate, February 17, 2014

John Villasenor, “Copyright Infringement And Photo Sharing: A New Lawsuit Tests The Limits Of Fair Use,” Forbes, June 22, 2013

John Villasenor, “The ‘First Sale Doctrine’ and Its Impact on the Music Biz,” Billboard, April 1, 2013

John Villasenor, “The Satellite Question: Why SiriusXM Should Pay Higher Performance Royalties to Artists,” Billboard, February 22, 2013

John Villasenor, “How Entrepreneurs Can Thrive Under the “First-Inventor-to-File” Patent System,” Forbes, December 7, 2012

John Villasenor, “Can a Company Trademark the Colors on its Web Site?,” Forbes, September 15, 2012

John Villasenor, “Why Artists Should Always Get Paid By Broadcasters Who Play Their Songs,” Forbes, July 2, 2012

John Villasenor, “The Strangely Tilted Playing Field of Music Copyright Royalties,” Forbes, May 22, 2012

John Villasenor, “Untangling The Real Meaning Of ‘First-To-File’ Patents,” Fast Company, March 6, 2012