Areas of Specialization
Computers and the Law; Intellectual Property Law; Intellectual Property Law--Copyright Law; Intellectual Property Law--Trademark Law; Internet Law
Representative Professional Activities and Achievements
Laura Heymann joined the faculty in 2005. She is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley School of Law, where she was elected to Order of the Coif and served as the Book Review Editor on the California Law Review.
Prior to her appointment, Professor Heymann was the inaugural Frank H. Marks Visiting Associate Professor of Law and Administrative Fellow in the Intellectual Property Law Program at the George Washington University Law School. She has also served as an assistant general counsel at America Online, Inc.; as an associate at Wilmer, Cutler and Pickering in Washington, D.C.; and as a law clerk to the Hon. Patricia M. Wald of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Prior to attending law school, Professor Heymann worked as an assistant editor at St. Martin's Press in New York. She received her B.A. in English, magna cum laude, from Yale. Professor Heymann was selected by the 2008 graduating class as the recipient of the Walter L. Williams, Jr., Memorial Teaching Award. She was the 2012 recipient of the College's Thomas Jefferson Teaching Award and a 2024 recipient of the McGlothlin Award for Exceptional Teaching. She received a Plumeri Award for Faculty Excellence in 2012 and was the Class of 2014 Professor of Law from 2011 to 2014. She served as Vice Dean of the Law School from 2013 to 2017.Scholarly Publications
Articles and Book Chapters
- Attribution as Architecture in the Digital Age, 65 Jurimetrics __ (forthcoming 2025).
- "The Law Doesn’t Work Like a Computer”: Exploring Software Licensing Issues Faced by Legal Practitioners, in Proceedings of FSE '24 (ACM, New York, NY 2024) (with Nathan Wintersgill, Trevor Stalnaker, Oscar Chaparro & Denys Poshyvanyk) (recipient of an ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award). Online.
- Names, Naming, and the Law: The Implications of Governmental Form Design, 35-50, in Names, Identity, and the Law (I.M. Nick ed., Routledge 2023). Online.
- Trolley Problems, Private Necessity, and the Duty to Rescue, 60 San Diego L. Rev. 1 (2023). SSRN.
- Trademark Law and Consumer Constraints, 64 Ariz. L. Rev. 339 (2022) (winner of the International Trademark Association’s 2021 Ladas Memorial Award (professional category)). SSRN.
- Trademarks in Conversation: Assessing Genericism after Booking.com, 39 Cardozo Arts & Ent. L.J. 955 (2021) (symposium article). SSRN.
- What Is the Meaning of a Trademark?, in Research Handbook on Trademark Law Reform (Graeme Dinwoodie & Mark Janis eds., Edward Elgar Press 2021). SSRN.
- Knowing How to Know: Secondary Liability for Speech in Copyright Law, 55 Wake Forest L. Rev. 333 (2020). SSRN.
- Reasonable Appropriation and Reader Response, 9 U.C. Irvine L. Rev. 343 (2019) (symposium article). SSRN.
- Reading Together and Apart: Juries, Courts, and Substantial Similarity in Copyright Law, 102 Iowa L. Rev. Online 248 (2017). SSRN.
- Dialogues of Authenticity, 67 Stud. L. Pol. & Soc'y 25 (2015). SSRN.
- Overlapping Intellectual Property Doctrines: Election of Rights versus Selection of Remedies, 17 Stan. Tech. L. Rev. 241 (2013) (symposium article). SSRN.
- A Name I Call Myself: Creativity and Naming, 2 U.C. Irvine L. Rev. 585 (2012) (symposium article). SSRN.
- The Scope of Trademark Law in the Age of the Brand Persona, 98 Va. L. Rev. In Brief 61 (2012). SSRN.
- Naming, Identity, and Trademark Law, 86 Ind. L.J. 381 (2011). SSRN.
- The Law of Reputation and the Interest of the Audience, 52 B.C. L. Rev. 1341 (2011) (selected for republication in the Entertainment, Publishing and the Arts Handbook (Thomson Reuters West 2012), as one of the best law review articles in the fields of entertainment, publishing, and the arts published in 2011). SSRN.
- Reading the Product: Warnings, Disclaimers, and Literary Theory, 22 Yale J.L. & Human. 393 (2010) (symposium article). SSRN.
- The Grammar of Trademarks, 14 Lewis & Clark L. Rev. 1313 (2010) (selected for republication in the Intell. Prop. L. Rev. (Thomas West Group 2011) as one of the best intellectual property law review articles published in 2010) (symposium). SSRN.
- A Tale of (At Least) Two Authors: Focusing Copyright Law on Process Over Product, 34 J. Corp. L. 1009 (2009) (symposium article). SSRN.
- How to Write a Life: Some Thoughts on Fixation and the Copyright/Privacy Divide, 51 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 825 (2009) (selected for republication in the Copyright Annual Anthology (Thomson Reuters West 2010) as a notable scholarly work on copyright published in 2009). SSRN.
- The Public's Domain in Trademark Law: A First Amendment Theory of the Consumer, 43 Ga. L. Rev. 651 (2009). SSRN.
- Everything is Transformative: Fair Use and Reader Response, 31 Colum. J.L. & Arts 445 (2008) (symposium article). SSRN.
- The Reasonable Person in Trademark Law, 52 St. Louis U. L.J. 781 (2008) (special issue). SSRN.
- Authorship and Trademark Law, in 3 Intellectual Property and Information Wealth: Issues and Practices in the Digital Age 191 (Peter K. Yu ed., Praeger Publishers 2007) (adapted from The Birth of the Authornym: Authorship, Pseudonymity, and Trademark Law, 80 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1377 (2005)).
- Metabranding and Intermediation: A Response to Prof. Fleischer, 12 Harv. Negot. L. Rev. 201 (2007) (symposium article). SSRN.
- The Trademark/Copyright Divide, 60 SMU L. Rev. 55 (2007) (selected for republication in the Intell. Prop. L. Rev. (Thomson West Group 2008) as one of the best intellectual property law review articles published in 2007). SSRN.
- Inducement as Contributory Copyright Infringement: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., 37 Int'l Rev. Intell. Prop. & Competition L. 31 (2006), reprinted in Copyright Infringement: New Mystifications (A. N. Vavili ed., Amicus books, India, 2008) (essay). SSRN.
- The Birth of the Authornym: Authorship, Pseudonymity, and Trademark Law, 80 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1377 (2005). SSRN.
- 85 Cal. L. Rev. 761 (1997) (reviewing William Domnarski, In the Opinion of the Court (1996)) (book review). SSRN.
- The Cosmetic/Drug Dilemma: FDA Regulation of Alpha-Hydroxy Acids, 52 Food & Drug L.J. 357 (1997) (winner of the 1997 H. Thomas Austern Memorial Writing Competition). SSRN.
Other
- Whose Progress?, 102 B.U. L. Rev. Online 78 (2022). Online.
- Response, United States Patent and Trademark Office v. Booking.com B.V.: How Do We Know When Something Is a Name?, Geo. Wash. L. Rev. On the Docket (July 2, 2020). Online.
- The Meaning of McDonald's, JOTWELL, Sept. 17, 2020. Online.
- Who Owns (What We Characterize as) the News?, Critical Analysis of Law (2019). SSRN.
- What We’ve Got Here Is a Failure to Indicate, JOTWELL, Dec. 4, 2019. Online.
- Copyright and the Single Work, JOTWELL, Nov. 28, 2018. Online.
- Creative Communities and Intellectual Property Law, JOTWELL, Nov. 1, 2017. Online.
- The Satellite Has No Conscience: Section 230 in a World of “Alternative Facts,”, The Recorder (2017). Online.
- Copyright Law’s Origin Stories, JOTWELL, Dec. 16, 2016. Online.
- Authorship, Attribution, and Audience, JOTWELL, Dec. 7, 2015. Online.
- Surveying the Field: The Role of Surveys in Trademark Litigation, JOTWELL, Feb. 23, 2015. Online.
- Trademark as Promise, JOTWELL, Nov. 18, 2013. Online.
- Top-Ten Lists and Five-Star Reviews: Ratings, Rankings, and Creativity, JOTWELL, Sept. 18, 2012. Online.
- Copyright’s New Narrative, JOTWELL, Oct. 10, 2011. Online.
- Distinction With(out) a Difference: Attribution’s Challenge to Intellectual Property Law, JOTWELL, Sept. 30, 2010. Online.