Prof. Ryan Holte

Professor Holte joined The University of Akron School of Law in 2017 and serves as the David L. Brennan Associate Professor of Law and Director, Center for Intellectual Property Law and Technology. He teaches: Fundamentals of Intellectual Property Law, Patent Law, Copyright Law, and Property Law. Prior to joining Akron Law, Professor Holte served as a law professor at Southern Illinois University School of Law for four years.

Professor Holte's scholarship interests include intellectual property (IP) law and property law, and he is a widely published author in IP subjects. He is also an accomplished former engineer and co-inventor of US Patent 9,523,773 Systems and Methods for Countering Satellite-Navigated Munitions (Army Secrecy Order lifted June 2016; allowance Aug. 2016; 472 day patent term extension). Professor Holte's most recent articles focus on patent related topics with particular attention to patent assertion entities (or "patent trolls"), equitable remedies in patent litigation, and empirical legal studies. He is the recipient of two non-resident Thomas Edison Innovation Fellowships from the George Mason University School of Law, and a grant from the Case Western University School of Law, to support research and writing on IP topics. His recent articles have been published in the Washington Law Review, Akron Law Review, Chapman University Law Review, and St. Louis University Law Journal; his current works-in-progress include three empirical studies of patent litigation subjects.

Prior to entering academia, Professor Holte practiced as a litigation attorney at the United States Federal Trade Commission, an associate in the Intellectual Property Practice Group at the Jones Day law firm, and a patent prosecutor at the Finnegan law firm. Prior to practice, he served as a law clerk to Judge Stanley F. Birch, Jr. on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and as a law clerk to Judge Loren A. Smith on the United States Court of Federal Claims. Before law school, Professor Holte owned a car dealership in the San Francisco Bay Area specializing in biodiesel vehicles and worked as an engineer for Agilent Technologies/Hewlett Packard in Sonoma County, California.

Professor Holte received his JD from the University of California Davis School of Law where he served a a staff editor of the UC Davis Business Law Journal.  He received his BS, magna cum laude, in engineering from the California Maritime Academy where he was a First Class graduate of the California Maritime Academy Corps of Cadets Third Engineering Division and Editor of the campus newspaper, The Binnacle.

Professor Holte lives in a 1914 Craftsman house with his wife Jessica, son Harvey, and Great Dane Lucy.