Prof. David W. Opderbeck

Professor Opderbeck's work focuses on the regulation of access to scientific and technological information. His published work has employed the tools of game theory, classical microeconomics, and statistical analysis to address issues such as intellectual property restrictions on essential medicines in developing countries, open source biotechnology, patent damages reform, and the interaction of law and social norms concerning music file sharing.

In addition to his traditional legal scholarship, Professor Opderbeck is interested in the philosophical and moral foundations of information policy and other aspects of the law. He has written on a virtue ethics approach to biotechnology law, and most recently has explored the philosophical aspects of information policy in a groundbreaking essay that seeks to apply a critical realist approach to the ontology of information. He is a principal organizer of a conference on "Religious Legal Theory: State of the Art" that will be held at the Law School in 2009.

Professor Opderbeck graduated cum laude from Seton Hall Law School in 1991 and earned an LL.M. in Trade Regulation from New York University Law School in 1998. He previously was a Partner in the Intellectual Property / Trade Regulation group at McCarter & English, LLP, where he represented clients in the life sciences, consumer products, telecommunications, computer software, and other industries. Representative litigated cases include Wedeco UV Technologies, Inc. v. Calgon Corp, 2006 WL 1867201 (D.N.J. 2006); Bamberger v. Rohm & Hass Corp., 1998 WL 684263, 40 Fed.R.Serv.3d 667 (D.N.J. 1998); McCall v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 956 F. Supp. 1172 (D.N.J. 1996).

• LL.M., New York University School of Law
• J.D., Seton Hall Law School
• B.A., Gordon College