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Dan L. Burk

Distinguished and Chancellor's Professor of Law
Faculty Director, AI Global Public Policy Institute
Dan L. Burk

Expertise:

Intellectual property (especially cyber law and biotechnology)

Background:

Dan L. Burk is Distinguished and Chancellor's Professor of Law at the University of California, Irvine, where he is a founding member of the law faculty.  An internationally prominent authority on issues related to high technology, he lectures, teaches, and writes in the areas of patent, copyright, electronic commerce, and biotechnology law.  He is consistently ranked among the leading intellectual property scholars in the American legal academy.  He has been a leading figure in debates over gene patenting, digital copyright, and computer trespass.

Professor Burk has taught intellectual property across the globe at a variety of institutions including the University of Toronto; Humboldt University, Berlin; Bocconi University, Milan; Sciences Po, Paris; and University of Haifa. In 2011 and in 2018 he was awarded Fulbright Scholarships, first to study German and European Union biotechnology patenting at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in Munich, and then as a Fulbright Cybersecurity Scholar to the Oxford Internet Institute's Digital Ethics Lab in the United Kingdom. In 2015 he was selected for a Leverhulme visitorship to the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he delivered a series of Leverhulme Public Lectures on “Biotechnology and Software Patenting in the Information Society.” During the Fall of 2019 he is a Senior Visiting Scholar at the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society in Berlin.

Professor Burk is the author of numerous papers on the legal and societal impact of new technologies, including articles on personalized medicine, on the legal aspects of electronic sports, and on the trademark implications of search engine keywords.  He is the co-author, together with Mark A. Lemley of Stanford University, of The Patent Crisis and How the Courts Can Solve It, published by University of Chicago Press.  Much of Burk’s recent scholarship has undertaken interdisciplinary collaboration to open new lines of inquiry in intellectual property law by developing insights from literary theory, critical perspectives, and the sociology of science.

Professor Burk holds a B.S. in Microbiology (1985) from Brigham Young University, an M.S. in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry (1987) from Northwestern University, a J.D. (1990) from Arizona State University, and a J.S.M. (1994) from Stanford University. He has served as a legal advisor to a variety of private, governmental, and intergovernmental organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union Committee on Patent Policy and the OECD Committee on Consumer Protection.

(Log in to view full course descriptions in the UCI Law Course Catalog)

  • Feb. 11, 2021:
    Presenter, “Racial Bias in Algorithmic IP,” Race, Gender, and IP Plenary Session, WIPIP 2021, Texas A&M University School of Law, Online
  • Nov. 27, 2020:
    Speaker, Why Everything You Know About Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property Is Wrong and What to Do About It, Leão Intellectual Property, Webinar
  • Sept. 14, 2020:
    Panelist, “Race Matters,” Teach-In on Racial Justice and the Law, Cincinnati Law, Online
  • Nov. 14, 2019:
    Speaker, Market Discipline and the Algorithmic Rule of Law, University of Hamburg, Germany
  • Nov. 13, 2019:
    Speaker, “Exhaustion of Copyright in Digital Objects,” Institute for Advanced Study of Media Cultures of Computer Simulation (MECS), Leuphana University, Lüneberg, Germany
  • Nov. 11, 2019:
    Workshop presentation on “Copyright and the Algorithmic Assemblage” Center for Information and Innovation Law at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
  • Nov. 8, 2019:
    Speaker, “Against Algorithmically Determined Copyright Liability” at the Digikomm 2019 conference, Berlin, Germany.
  • Nov. 5, 2019:
    Professor Burk presents the Weizenbaum Lecture on “Law in an Age of Automated Decision-Making” during Berlin Science week in the German capital.
  • Oct. 25, 2019:
    Speaker on “Algorithmic Legal Metrics,” during the 2019 Privacy Law Scholar’s Conference at the Institute for Information Law (IViR), University of Amsterdam, in the Netherlands
  • Sept. 12, 2019:
    Professor Burk speaks on “Copyright and the Algorithmic Assemblage” at the conference on “Data Power: Global In/Securities” at the University of Bremen, Germany.
  • Aug. 27, 2019:
    Speaker, “AI Patents and the Self-Assembling Machine,” 2019 Congress of the International Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning in Intellectual Property (ATRIP) at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
  • May 10, 2019:
    Speaker, “Algorithmic Legal Metrics,” seminar sponsored by Life Science Law DK, Copenhagen, Denmark
  • April 6, 2019:
    Speaker, “Algorithmic Legal Metrics,” Yale Law School Information Society Project conference on (Im)perfect Enforcement under systems of artificial intelligence
  • March 23, 2019:
    Presenter, “Patents and State Constitutionally Protected Speech,” Patent Law Professors’ Workshop at the University of San Diego School of Law
  • March 22, 2019:
    Speaker, “Patents and the First Amendment,” 9th Annual Patent Law Conference at University of San Diego
  • Jan. 7, 2019:
    Law & Technology Workshop presentation at the Buchman Faculty of Law, University of Tel Aviv, Israel
  • Dec. 13, 2018:
    Speaker on “Copyright and the Panoptic Sort” at the 2018 International Conference on Information Law and Ethics (ICIL), University of Antwerp, Belgium
  • Oct. 10, 2018:
    Workshop presentation on “Algorithmic Fair Use” at Queen’s University  Faculty of Law, Kingston, Canada
  • Sept. 7, 2018:
    Professor Burk speaks on copyright and artificial intelligence at the 2018 conference on European Policy for Intellectual Property in Berlin, Germany
  • May 17, 2018:
    Speaker, “Algorithmic Fair Use” 2018 Information Ethics Roundtable on Surveillance, Algorithms, and Digital Culture, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
  • May 14, 2018:
    Speaker, “Patents and Expressive Freedom,” Faculty of Law Center for Information and Innovation Law, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
  • May 14, 2018:
    Speaker, “Patents as Data Aggregators in Personalized Medicine,” Center for Advanced Studies in Biomedical Innovation Law, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
  • May 2, 2018:
    Professor Burk presents “Exhaustion of Rights in Digital Objects” a Laboratorium Lucernaiuris Lecture, University of Lucerne, Switzerland
  • April 13, 2018:
    Speaker on “Judicial Deference to the United States Copyright Office’” at the UC Berkeley Center for Law and Technology Annual Symposium on the “Administrative Law of Intellectual Property,” Berkeley
  • April 7, 2018:
    UCI Law Talks speaker on “The Rise of the Robots: Artificial Intelligence in Copyright Enforcement” at 2018 Admitted Students Weekend, UC Irvine School of Law
  • March 26, 2018:
    Speaker, “DNA Copyright in the Administrative State,” IP Speaker Series, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles
  • November 2, 2017:
    Professor Burk presents “Algorithmic Fair Use” at the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Law, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
  • March 8, 2017:
    Speaker, “Legal and Technical Standards in the Global ‘Smartphone Wars,’” Spring Intellectual Property Seminar, Queen Mary’s University of London Centre, Paris, France
  • March 2, 2017:
    Presenter, “On the Sociology of Patenting,” Faculty seminar, Faculty of Law, Sciences Po, Paris, France
  • Feb. 17, 2017:
    Presenter, “Damages as Injunction Substitute,” 2017 Patent Damages Conference, University of Texas School of Law in Austin
  • Feb. 1, 2017:
    Presenter, “Alice in Chains: The State of Biotechnology Patenting,” 2017 Law and Biomedicine Colloquium series, University of Utah
  • Jan. 27, 2017:
    Speaker, “DNA Copyright in the Administrative State,” 50th anniversary of the UC Davis Law Review, UC Davis
  • Nov. 25, 2016:
    Presenter, “The Discursive Structure of Patent Law,” Osgoode Hall Law School at York University, Toronto
  • Nov. 24, 2016:
    Presenter, “On the Sociology of Patenting,” Innovation Law and Policy Workshop, University of Toronto
  • Nov. 18, 2016:
    Speaker, “Hypernarrative and Copyright Law,” Intellectual Property and the Public Interest: Toward a Festschrift for Peter A. Jaszi, American University Washington College of Law
  • Oct. 28, 2016:
    Organizer, “IP and Human Rights” conference, UC Irvine School of Law
  • Oct. 10, 2016:
    “Exhaustion of Rights in Digital Objects,” DLA Piper Intellectual Property Lecture Series, Bucerius Law School, Hamburg, Germany
  • Oct. 7, 2016:
    Speaker, “Legal and Technical Standards in the Smartphone Wars” at the annual meeting of the Association of Internet Researchers in Berlin
  • Sept. 4, 2016:
    Presenter, “On the Sociology of Patenting” at the 2016 conference on the European Policy for Intellectual Property at the University of Oxford
  • July 8, 2016:
    Professor Burk’s work on “Copyright and the Cybernetic Circuit” is discussed at the ISHTIP workshop held at the University of Glasgow in Scotland
  • Mar. 1, 2016:
    Presenter, public lecture on “Exhaustion of Rights in Digital Objects” at the Queen Mary University of London Centre for Commercial Law Studies Seminar in Paris, France
  • Feb. 29, 2016:
    Presenter, “Property Rules, Liability Rules, and the Public Interest in Patent Remedies” at the CEIPI-BETA Workshop on Law and Economics at University of Strasbourg
  • Jan. 22, 2016:
    Speaker on patentable subject matter, Los Angeles Intellectual Property Law Association “Washington in the West” program
  • Jan. 15, 2016:
    Professor Burk speaks on “Importing Virtual Articles” at the University of San Diego School of Law’s 6th Annual Patent Conference
  • Dec. 3, 2015:
    Keynote speaker on “Gene Patents After the Myriad BRCA Case,” Centre for IT and IP Law, Katholeike Universiteit Leuven in Belgium
  • Nov. 27, 2015:
    Speaker on “Legal and Technical Standards in the Smartphone Wars,” Digital Culture and Communications Workshop of the European Communication, Research, and Education Association (ECREA), University of Salzburg in Austria
  • Nov. 6, 2015:
    Presenter, “Patent Non-Disclosure,” Symposium on The Disclosure Function of the Patent System, Vanderbilt University Law School
  • Sept. 2, 2015:
    Speaker at 10th Annual Conference on European Policy for Intellectual Property at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
  • May 14, 2015:
    Speaker, “Patents as Data Aggregators in Personalized Medicine,” Oxford Intellectual Property Research Centre, Oxford University
  • May 8, 2015:
    Professor Burk presents the Trinity Term Bellwether Lecture at the Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University
  • April 27, 2015:
    Professor Burk presents the annual Josef Kohler Lecture on Patents, “Some Simple Law and Economics of the Smartphone Wars” at Humboldt University in Berlin
  • April 24, 2015:
    Speaker on “Copyright, Culture, and Community in Virtual Worlds,” at the conference on Interactive Entertainment and Intellectual Property Law, Queen Mary University of London
  • April 23, 2015:
    Presenter, CIPIL Intellectual Property Seminar on “Inventing Around Copyright” at the Faculty of Law, Cambridge University
  • April 18, 2015:
    Commentator at the Stanford Law School conference on The PTO and the Courts
  • April 7, 2015:
    Commentator on genomics and intellectual property at the 10th Anniversary Celebration Conference, Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Law, at Cambridge University
  • March 28, 2015:
    Professor Burk speaks on “Perverse Innovation,” at the Innovation Law Beyond IP 2 Conference, Yale Law School
  • March 13, 2015:
    Presenter, Leverhulme Public Lecture on “Patenting Information Technologies,” London School of Economics
  • March 10, 2015:
    Presenter, Leverhulme Public Lecture on “The Software Patent Puzzle,” London School of Economics
  • March 6, 2015:
    Presenter, Leverhulme Public Lecture on “The Gene Patent Controversy,” London School of Economics
  • Dec 3, 2014:
    Presenter of seminar “Does Intellectual Property Have Gender?” at the World Intellectual Property Organization, Geneva, Switzerland (Video of seminar)
  • Dec 1, 2014:
    Presenter, “Inventing Around Copyright” at the CEIPI-BETA Law and Economics workshop, University of Strasbourg, France
  • Nov 28, 2014:
    Speaker on the future of international intellectual property law at Conference on Perspectives for the Intellectual Property System in a Globalized World, at the Council of Europe
  • Oct 7, 2014:
    Professor Burk presents a public lecture on “Intellectual Property and the Two Cultures: Where Science Meets the Law?” at University of Lucerne, Switzerland
  • Oct 6, 2014:
    Professor Burk lectures at Faculty of Law at The University of Basel, Switzerland, on “Liability and Exclusivity in Intellectual Property”
  • Sept. 12, 2014:
    Organizer, The Meaning of Myriad Patent Law Conference, UCI Law
  • Sept. 5, 2014:
    Speaker at 9th Annual Conference of the European Policy for Intellectual Property Association, at the EU Parliament, Brussels, Belgium
  • Aug. 25, 2014:
    Speaker on Patents and Personalized Medicine at the Personalized Medicine and Intellectual Property Conference, Boston University School of Law
  • Aug. 8, 2014:
    Prof. Burk presents his paper on “Inventing Around Copyright” at the 2014 Intellectual Property Scholar’s Conference, UC Berkeley School of Law
  • June 23, 2014:
    Speaker, “Copyright and the New Materialism,” Computer Ethics: Philosophical Enquiries Conference, Paris, France
  • June 10, 2014:
    Prof. Burk speaks on patentable subject matter in the U.S. and EU, in the DLA Piper Lecture Series at Bucerius Law School, Hamburg, Germany
  • May 16, 2014:
    Panelist on software patents at UC Irvine’s Institute for Software Research 2014 Forum
  • May 1, 2014:
    Speaker, “Intellectual Property, Competitors, and the Firm,” Innovation and Intellectual Property: A Tribute to Suzanne Scotchmer’s Work, UC Berkeley School of Law
  • April 29, 2014:
    Speaker, “New Developments in Patent Subject Matter,” Howard T. Markey Intellectual Property American Inn of Court in Irvine, California
  • April 17, 2014:
    Professor Burk presents his work on “The Curious Incident of the Supreme Court in Myriad Genetics” at the Faculty Intellectual Enrichment Series, UC Davis School of Law
  • April 5, 2014:
    Speaker, “The Curious Incident of the Supreme Court in Myriad Genetics,” 4th Annual Patent Conference, University of San Diego School of Law
  • March 30, 2014:
    Speaker, “Corporate Structures for Innovation,” Innovation Law Beyond IP Conference, Yale Law School
  • March 22, 2014:
    Speaker at conference on Patent Trolls and Patent Reform, Stanford Law School
  • March 10, 2014:
    Speaker on Intellectual Property and Genetically Modified Organisms at UCI Law’s Center for Land, Environment, and Natural Resources (CLEANR)
  • March 7, 2014:
    Speaker, International Conference on Intellectual Property Governance by Private Collective Entities at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Jan. 27, 2014:
    Prof. Burk presents his work on gene patenting at the Transatlantic Workshop on Intellectual Property Research at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich