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Home > Our Faculty > Faculty Directory

Thomas F. Cotter

Briggs and Morgan Professor of Law
Solly Robins Distinguished Research Fellow

414 Mondale Hall
229–19th Ave. South
Minneapolis, MN 55455

612-624-7527

cotte034@umn.edu

University of Wisconsin, B.S., M.S., J.D.

Professor Thomas F. Cotter joined the University of Minnesota Law School faculty in 2006. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and in 1987 graduated magna cum laude from the University of Wisconsin Law School, where he served as Senior Articles Editor of the Wisconsin Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif.

From 1987-89, Professor Cotter clerked for the Honorable Lawrence W. Pierce, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He practiced law at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York City from 1988-90, and at Jenner & Block in Chicago from 1990-94. From 1994-2005, he taught at the University of Florida College of Law, where he held a University of Florida Research Foundation Professorship and directed the school's Intellectual Property Law Program. From 2005-06, he was a Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University School of Law.

Professor Cotter's principal research and teaching interests are in the fields of domestic and international intellectual property law, antitrust, and law and economics. He is the coauthor, with Roger D. Blair, of Intellectual Property: Economic and Legal Dimensions of Rights and Remedies, published by Cambridge University Press in 2005. He has authored or coauthored more than 25 other scholarly publications, including articles in the California Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Minnesota Law Review, University of Illinois Law Review, William & Mary Law Review, North Carolina Law Review, and Tulane Law Review.

To read more about Prof. Cotter, read his CV.

PUBLICATIONS

Books

Intellectual Property: Economic and Legal Dimensions of Rights and Remedies (Cambridge University Press, 2005) (with Roger D. Blair)

Book Chapters

Essential Facilities Doctrine, in Antitrust Law and Economics (Keith Hylton, ed., Edward Elgar Publishing, forthcoming 2009)

SSRN

Journal Articles

Patent Holdup, Patent Remedies, and Antitrust Responses, 34 Journal of Corporation Law 1151 (2009)

Fair Use and Copyright Overenforcement, 93 Iowa Law Review 1271 (2008)

Reflections on the Antitrust Modernization Commission's Report and Recommendations Relating to the Antitrust/IP Interface, 53 Antitrust Bulletin 745 (2008)

HeinOnline

Toward a Functional Definition of Publication in Copyright Law, 92 Minnesota Law Review 1724 (2008)

A Burkean Perspective on Patent Eligibility, 22 Berkeley Technology Law Journal 855 (2007)

Authorship, Audiences, and Anonymous Speech, 82 Notre Dame Law Review 1537 (2007) (with Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky)

Misuse, 44 Houston Law Review 901 (2007)

The Procompetitive Interest in Intellectual Property Law, 48 William & Mary Law Review 483 (2006)

Memes and Copyright, 80 Tulane Law Review 331 (2005)

Some Observations on the Law and Economics of Intermediaries, 2005 Michigan State Law Review 67 (2005)

Accommodating the Unauthorized Use of Copyrighted Works for Religious Purposes Under the Fair Use Doctrine and Copyright Act § 110 (3), 22 Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal 43 (2004)

An Economic Analysis of Enhanced Damages and Attorney's Fees for Willful Patent Infringement, 14 Federal Circuit Bar Journal 291 (2004)

Antitrust Implications of Patent Settlements Involving Reverse Payments: Defending a Rebuttable Presumption of Illegality in Light of Some Recent Scholarship, 71 Antitrust Law Journal 1069 (2004)

Market Fundamentalism and the TRIPs Agreement, 22 Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal 307 (2004)

Gutenberg's Legacy: Copyright, Censorship, and Religious Pluralism, 91 California Law Review 323 (2003)

Prolegomenon to a Memetic Theory of Copyright: Comments on Lawrence Lessig's The Creative Commons, 55 Florida Law Review 779 (2003)

Refining the "Presumptive Illegality" Approach to Settlements of Patent Disputes Involving Reverse Payments: A Commentary on Hovenkamp, Janis & Lemley, 87 Minnesota Law Review 1789 (2003)

Written on the Body: Intellectual Property Rights in Tattoos, Makeup, and Other Body Art, 10 UCLA Entertainment Law Review 97 (2003) (with Angela M. Mirabole)

Are Settlements of Patent Disputes Illegal Per Se?, 47 Antitrust Bulletin 491 (2002) (with Roger D. Blair)

HeinOnline

Strict Liability and Its Alternatives in Patent Law, 17 Berkeley Technology Law Journal 799 (2002) (with Roger D. Blair)

Rethinking Patent Damages, 10 Texas Intellectual Property Law Journal 1 (2001) (with Roger D. Blair)

The Elusive Logic of Standing Doctrine in Intellectual Property Law, 74 Tulane Law Review 1323 (2000) (with Roger D. Blair)

An Economic Analysis of Seller and User Liability in Intellectual Property Law, 68 University of Cincinnati Law Review 1 (1999) (with Roger D. Blair)

Intellectual Property and the Essential Facilities Doctrine, 44 Antitrust Bulletin 211 (1999), reprinted in The Economics of Intellectual Property 177-216 (Ruth Towse & Rudi W. Holzhauer, eds., Edward Elgar Publishing, 2002))

HeinOnline

Is This Conflict Really Necessary?: Resolving an Ostensible Conflict between Patent Law and Federal Trademark Law, 3 Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review 25 (1999)

When the State Steals Ideas: Is the Abrogation of State Sovereign Immunity from Infringement Claims Constitutional in Light of Seminole Tribe?, 67 Fordham Law Review 1435 (1999) (with Christina Bohannan)

An Economic Analysis of Damages Rules in Intellectual Property Law, 39 William & Mary Law Review 1585 (1998) (with Roger D. Blair)

Do Federal Uses of Intellectual Property Implicate the Fifth Amendment?, 50 Florida Law Review 529 (1998)

Pragmatism, Economics, and the Droit Moral, 76 North Carolina Law Review 1 (1997)

Conflicting Interests in Trade Secrets, 48 Florida Law Review 591 (1996)

Legal Pragmatism and the Law and Economics Movement, 84 Georgetown Law Journal 2071 (1996)

Owning What Doesn't Exist, Where It Doesn't Exist: Rethinking Two Doctrines from the Common Law of Trademarks, 1995 University of Illinois Law Review 487 (1995)

Cargill, Inc. v. Monfort of Colorado, Inc.: The Supreme Court Restricts Private Antitrust Challenges of Horizontal Mergers, 1987 Wisconsin Law Review 503 (1987) (note)

Book Reviews & Review Essays

Evaluating the Pro- and Anticompetitive Effects of Intellectual Property Protection, 5 The Antitrust Source (Mar. 2006) (reviewing Antitrust, Patents and Copyright: EU and US Perspectives (Francois Leveque & Howard Shelanski, eds., Edward Elgar Publishing, 2005))

Open Access

Law, Economics, and Intellectual Property, 3 The Antitrust Source (Mar. 2004) (reviewing William M. Landes & Richard A. Posner, The Economic Structure of Intellectual Property Law (Harvard University Press, 2003))

Open Access

Edited Symposia & Journals

Guest Editor, Perspectives on United States v. Microsoft Corp., 44 Antitrust Bulletin 553-738 (1999)

HeinOnline

Entries in Reference Works

Pragmatism (Update), in 4 Encyclopedia of the American Constitution (Supplement) 1983-84 (Leonard W. Levy & Kenneth J. Karst, eds., Macmillan Reference USA, 2d ed., 2000)

CLE Materials

Civil Procedure and Jurisdiction, in 1997 Business Litigation Conference Certification Review Course (Florida Bar Continuing Legal Education Committee and Business Law Section, Apr. 17-18, 1997)

Civil Procedure and Jurisdiction, in 1996 Business Litigation Certification Review Course (Florida Bar Continuing Legal Education Committee and Business Law Section, Apr. 26-27, 1996)