Faculty & Administration View All

Mark McKenna

Associate Professor of Law


Office Number: 3120 Eck Hall of Law
Telephone: 574.631.9258
Fax: 574.631.4197
Email: markmckenna@nd.edu
Staff Assistant: LuAnn Nate


Mark P. McKenna teaches and writes in the area of intellectual property. Widely recognized as a leading junior scholar in the trademark area, Professor McKenna has also written about copyright, the right of publicity, and the intersection between various types of intellectual property protection. He joined the Notre Dame Law School faculty on a permanent basis in the Fall of 2008 after visiting for a semester in the Spring of 2008.

Professor McKenna graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1997 with a degree in Economics and earned his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 2000. After graduating from law school, Professor McKenna practiced law with an intellectual property firm in Chicago, litigating trademark and copyright cases and advising clients on a variety of intellectual property issues. Prior to coming to Notre Dame Professor McKenna was a member of the faculty at the Saint Louis University School of Law ( 2003-08). In addition to various intellectual property courses, Professor McKenna teaches the first year Torts class and has taught Civil Procedure several times.


In the News

LAW60901, Torts

LAW70134, Intellectual Property Survey

LAW70128, Copyright

LAW70137, Trademarks & Unfair Competition

Law Review Articles

Irrelevant Confusion (with Mark A. Lemley), 62 STAN. L. REV. __ (forthcoming 2009).

Testing Modern Trademark Law’s Theory of Harm, 95 IOWA L. REV. 63 (2009).

Trademark Use and the Problem of Source in Trademark Law, 2009 U. ILL. L. REV. 101 (2009).

The Normative Foundations of Trademark Law, 82 NOTRE DAME L. REV. 1839 (2007); reprinted at 97 TRADEMARK REP. 1126 (2007).

The Right of Publicity and Autonomous Self-Definition, 67 U. PITT. L. REV. 225 (2005).


Book Chapters and Symposium Contributions

An Alternate Approach to Channeling?, 51 WM. & MARY L. REV. 873 (2009) (symposium, The Boundaries of Intellectual Property);

Teaching Trademark Theory Through the Lens of Distinctiveness, 52 ST. LOUIS U. L.J. 843 (2008) (contribution to annual teaching edition)

What’s the Frequency Kenneth? Channeling Doctrines in Trademark Law, in INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND INFORMATION WEALTH (Peter Yu, ed., Praeger Press 2007)

Intellectual Property, Privatization and Democracy: A Response to Professor Rose, 50 ST. LOUIS U. L.J. 829 (2006) (invited contribution to Childress Lecture program)

The Rehnquist Court and the Groundwork for Greater First Amendment Scrutiny of Intellectual Property, 21 WASH. U. J.L. & POL’Y 11 (2006) (invited contribution to conference on The Rehnquist Court and the First Amendment)


Works-in-Progress

Owning Markets? Trademark Law and Market Foreclosure (work-in-progress) (with Mark A. Lemley)

Trademark Law and Consumer Decision-Making (work-in-progress) (with Dan Hunter)