Mark McKenna

Visiting Associate Professor of Law

Office Number: 216 Law School
Telephone: 574.631.9258
Fax: 574.631.4197
Email: markmckenna@nd.edu
Staff Assistant: Gloria Krull

Mark McKenna is visiting in the spring semester from Saint Louis University School of Law. He has several years of experience litigating trademark and copyright infringement cases at Pattishall, McAuliffe, Newbury, Hilliard & Geraldson in Chicago. About half the cases he litigated were related to the Internet and other computer technology. He also drafted and negotiated intellectual property and software licenses and counseled clients on worldwide intellectual property issues.

Professor McKenna was drawn to academia by the opportunity to explore and develop an area of the law he says people think about or experience frequently.

Currently, he is focused on the philosophy of protecting of certain types of intellectual property. He examines the source of our belief that intellectual assets deserve protection and analyzes whether current legal rules reflect the theory of protection.

Professor McKenna is also exploring the protection of symbols in the trademark world. He says conventional wisdom holds that the law protects trademarks because of a concern about consumer confusion.

Professor McKenna earned his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law where he volunteered at the UVA Domestic Violence Project and at Charlottesville Albemarle Legal Aid. He was a member of the Virginia Journal of Social Policy and the Law.

LAW70134, Intellectual Property Survey

LAW70137, Trademarks & Unfair Competition

Works-in-Progress

Modern Trademark Law and the Right to Make Derivative Works (work-in-progress)

Trademark’s Defining Lie (work-in-progress) (with Dan Hunter)

The Narratives of Patent and Trademark Law (work-in-progress)

Articles

Trademark Use and the Problem of Source in Trademark Law (forthcoming 2007)

The Normative Foundations of Trademark Law, 82 NOTRE DAME L. REV. 1839 (2007) ( – Awarded the 2007 Ladas Memorial Award for writing excellence on the subject of trademarks and related matters by the International Trademark Association

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

Book Chapters and Symposium Contributions

Teaching Trademark Theory Through the Lens of Distinctiveness, _ ST. LOUIS U. L.J. _ (forthcoming 2007) (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)