Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law and Director, Classical Liberal Institute, New York University School of Law; Senior Fellow, The Civitas Institute, University of Texas at Austin
Richard A. Epstein is the inaugural Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law at NYU School of Law. Prior to his joining the faculty, he was a visiting law professor at NYU from 2007 through 2009. He served as the Peter and Kirstin Bedford Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution from 2000 to 2024. Since 2024 to the present he is a senior lecturer at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas—Austin. Epstein is also the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law Emeritus and a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago. His initial law school appointment was at the University of Southern California from 1968 to 1972. Epstein received an LL.D., h.c. from the University of Ghent, 2003. He has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1985 and was a Senior Fellow of the Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago Division of Biological Sciences, also from 1983. to 2022 He served as editor of the Journal of Legal Studies from 1981 to 1991, and of the Journal of Law and Economics from 1991-2001. From 2001 to 2010 he was a director of the John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics at the University of Chicago.
His newest book, The Myth of Birthright Citizenship: What the Fourteenth Amendment Really Says was published in 2026 (Encounter Books). Prior to that he has published many books including, The Dubious Morality of the Modern Administrative State (Roman & Littlefield 2020).Earlier he published th Classical Liberal Constitution: The Uncertain Quest for Limited Government (Harvard 2014) iHis previous books include Design for Liberty: Private Property, Public Administration and the Rule of Law (Harvard 2011); The Case Against the Employee Free Choice Act (Hoover 2009); Supreme Neglect: How to Revive the Constitutional Protection of Property Rights (Oxford 2008); Antitrust Decrees in Theory and Practice: Why Less is More (AEI 2007); Overdose: How Excessive Government Regulation Stifles Pharmaceutical Innovation (Yale University Press. 2006); How Progressives Rewrote the Constitution (Cato 2006); Cases and Materials on Torts (Aspen Law & Business; 8th ed. 2004); Skepticism and Freedom: A Modern Case for Classical Liberalism (University of Chicago, 2003); Torts (Aspen Law & Business 1999); Principles for a Free Society: Reconciling Individual Liberty with the Common Good (Perseus Books, 1998): Mortal Peril: Our Inalienable Rights to Health Care (Addison-Wesley, 1997); Simple Rules for a Complex World (Harvard, 1995); Bargaining With the State (Princeton, 1993); Forbidden Grounds: The Case Against Employment Discrimination Laws (Harvard , 1992); Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain (Harvard, 1985); and Modern Products Liability Law (Greenwood Press, 1980). He has also edited(with Catherine M. Sharkey) Cases and Materials on the Law of Torts (10th edition 2012).
Professor Epstein has written numerous articles on a wide range of legal and interdisciplinary subjects. He has taught courses in administrative law, antitrust law, civil procedure, communications, constitutional law, contracts, corporations, criminal law, employment discrimination law, environmental law, food and drug law health law and policy, legal history, labor law, property, real estate development and finance, jurisprudence, labor law; land use planning, patents, individual, estate and corporate taxation, Roman Law; torts, and workers' compensation.
Professor Epstein also writes a regular column for Civitas Institute, which also sponsors his podcast, The Libertarian with Charles C.W. Cooke, and Law Talk, with Cooke and John Yoo. He also does a podcast with John Batchelor. And appears regularly on the Freedom File with Judge Andrew Napolitano.
Professor of Law and Director, Intellectual Property and Information Law Program, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University
Saurabh Vishnubhakat is a Professor of Law and Director of the Intellectual Property and Information Law Program at Cardozo Law. He is also a Research Fellow at the Duke Law Center for Innovation Policy and a Senior Scholar at the George Mason University Center for IP and Innovation Policy. Previously, he held joint appointments as a Professor of Law and Professor of Engineering at Texas A&M University.
Professor Vishnubhakat’s expertise is in intellectual property, administrative law and federal litigation, especially from an empirical perspective. His legal writings have been cited in federal judicial opinions, agency regulations and over two dozen Supreme Court briefs. His latest work is published or forthcoming in the Indiana Law Journal, the Washington and Lee Law Review and the Iowa Law Review as well as the peer-reviewed Journal of the Copyright Society of the USA and the Journal of Economic Perspectives.
His research explores the interaction of the U.S. intellectual property system with federal courts and agencies, among other topics. With a background in the natural sciences, Professor Vishnubhakat brings a scientific mindset to legal thinking and is dedicated to teaching students how to build arguments with analytical rigor.
Prior to his appointment at Texas A&M, Professor Vishnubhakat served in the United States Patent and Trademark Office as principal legal advisor to that agency’s first two chief economists. He was also a faculty fellow at Duke Law School, where he co-taught patent law and was a postdoctoral associate at the Duke Center for Public Genomics, where he researched law and policy issues surrounding innovation in genetics and biomedicine.
Professor Vishnubhakat holds both a J.D. and LL.M. in intellectual property from the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law, where he was an editor of the Law Review. He also holds a B.S. in chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is admitted to the bars of Texas, Illinois, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the Supreme Court of the United States.
Professor of Law and Director, Intellectual Property and Information Law Program, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University
Saurabh Vishnubhakat is a Professor of Law and Director of the Intellectual Property and Information Law Program at Cardozo Law. He is also a Research Fellow at the Duke Law Center for Innovation Policy and a Senior Scholar at the George Mason University Center for IP and Innovation Policy. Previously, he held joint appointments as a Professor of Law and Professor of Engineering at Texas A&M University.
Professor Vishnubhakat’s expertise is in intellectual property, administrative law and federal litigation, especially from an empirical perspective. His legal writings have been cited in federal judicial opinions, agency regulations and over two dozen Supreme Court briefs. His latest work is published or forthcoming in the Indiana Law Journal, the Washington and Lee Law Review and the Iowa Law Review as well as the peer-reviewed Journal of the Copyright Society of the USA and the Journal of Economic Perspectives.
His research explores the interaction of the U.S. intellectual property system with federal courts and agencies, among other topics. With a background in the natural sciences, Professor Vishnubhakat brings a scientific mindset to legal thinking and is dedicated to teaching students how to build arguments with analytical rigor.
Prior to his appointment at Texas A&M, Professor Vishnubhakat served in the United States Patent and Trademark Office as principal legal advisor to that agency’s first two chief economists. He was also a faculty fellow at Duke Law School, where he co-taught patent law and was a postdoctoral associate at the Duke Center for Public Genomics, where he researched law and policy issues surrounding innovation in genetics and biomedicine.
Professor Vishnubhakat holds both a J.D. and LL.M. in intellectual property from the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law, where he was an editor of the Law Review. He also holds a B.S. in chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is admitted to the bars of Texas, Illinois, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the Supreme Court of the United States.
Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
Adam Mossoff is Professor of Law at Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University. He has published extensively on why patents, copyrights, and other intellectual property rights have been—and should be—legally secured to innovators and creators as property rights. His scholarship has been relied on by the United States Supreme Court, by lower federal courts, and by U.S. federal agencies. He has been invited to testify numerous times before the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives on intellectual property legislation. His writings on intellectual property policy have also appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Forbes, Investors Business Daily, and in other media outlets. His journal articles can be downloaded here.
Professor Mossoff is a longstanding member of the Executive Committee of the Intellectual Property Practice Group of the Federalist Society, on which he served as Chairperson from 2016-2018, and he is Chair of the Intellectual Property Working Group of the Regulatory Transparency Project of the Federalist Society. He is a Senior Fellow and Chair of the Forum for Intellectual Property at the Hudson Institute, a Visiting Intellectual Property Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Center for Intellectual Property Understanding. He is a member of the Intellectual Property Rights Policy Committee of ANSI and he has served as Chair and Vice-Chair of the Intellectual Property Committee of the IEEE-USA, on which he remains a member in good standing.
Founder, Bunch O Balloons
Josh Malone quit his corporate job in 2006 to take his shot at the American (Inventor’s) Dream. Eight years later, savings depleted and orthodontics and college unfunded, he took one last swing before trudging back to the corporate world. And hit the homerun with Bunch O Balloons. His solution to the 63 year old problem of filling and tying water balloons instantly became the number one selling spring/summer toy. It was just as quickly knocked off resulting in a patent litigation now totaling 6 patents, 5 patent suits, 5 PTAB petitions/trials, 4 preliminary injunctions, and 8 appeals at the Federal Circuit. He is currently a Fellow with US Inventor working to restore the patent system.
Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
Adam Mossoff is Professor of Law at Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University. He has published extensively on why patents, copyrights, and other intellectual property rights have been—and should be—legally secured to innovators and creators as property rights. His scholarship has been relied on by the United States Supreme Court, by lower federal courts, and by U.S. federal agencies. He has been invited to testify numerous times before the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives on intellectual property legislation. His writings on intellectual property policy have also appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Forbes, Investors Business Daily, and in other media outlets. His journal articles can be downloaded here.
Professor Mossoff is a longstanding member of the Executive Committee of the Intellectual Property Practice Group of the Federalist Society, on which he served as Chairperson from 2016-2018, and he is Chair of the Intellectual Property Working Group of the Regulatory Transparency Project of the Federalist Society. He is a Senior Fellow and Chair of the Forum for Intellectual Property at the Hudson Institute, a Visiting Intellectual Property Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Center for Intellectual Property Understanding. He is a member of the Intellectual Property Rights Policy Committee of ANSI and he has served as Chair and Vice-Chair of the Intellectual Property Committee of the IEEE-USA, on which he remains a member in good standing.
Julius E. Davis Professor of Law, University of Minnesota Law School
Ilan Wurman is the Julius E. Davis Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota, where he teaches administrative law and constitutional law. He previously taught at Arizona State University. He writes primarily on the Fourteenth Amendment, administrative law, separation of powers, and constitutionalism. His academic writing has appeared in the Yale Law Journal, the Stanford Law Review, the University of Chicago Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Virginia Law Review, the Duke Law Journal, the Minnesota Law Review, the Notre Dame Law Review, and the Texas Law Review among other journals.
Professor Wurman is the author of the new book The Constitution of 1789: A New Introduction (Cambridge 2026). His previous books include A Debt Against the Living: An Introduction to Originalism (Cambridge 2017), and The Second Founding: An Introduction to the Fourteenth Amendment (Cambridge 2020). He is also the author of the casebook, Administrative Law Theory and Fundamentals: An Integrated Approach (Foundation Press 3d ed. 2025).
Professor Wurman practices law with the firm Tully Bailey. He has litigated a variety of administrative law and constitutional law cases, including cases involving COVID-19 restrictions, transmission lines, and Appointments Clause challenges. He also devised winning public nuisance theories to force city governments to address the increasingly challenging public camping crises throughout the country.
Associate Counsel and Director of Intellectual Property Policy, Biotechnology Innovation Organization
Melissa Brand is Associate Counsel and Director of Intellectual Property Policy at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO).
Professor of Law and Director, Intellectual Property and Information Law Program, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University
Saurabh Vishnubhakat is a Professor of Law and Director of the Intellectual Property and Information Law Program at Cardozo Law. He is also a Research Fellow at the Duke Law Center for Innovation Policy and a Senior Scholar at the George Mason University Center for IP and Innovation Policy. Previously, he held joint appointments as a Professor of Law and Professor of Engineering at Texas A&M University.
Professor Vishnubhakat’s expertise is in intellectual property, administrative law and federal litigation, especially from an empirical perspective. His legal writings have been cited in federal judicial opinions, agency regulations and over two dozen Supreme Court briefs. His latest work is published or forthcoming in the Indiana Law Journal, the Washington and Lee Law Review and the Iowa Law Review as well as the peer-reviewed Journal of the Copyright Society of the USA and the Journal of Economic Perspectives.
His research explores the interaction of the U.S. intellectual property system with federal courts and agencies, among other topics. With a background in the natural sciences, Professor Vishnubhakat brings a scientific mindset to legal thinking and is dedicated to teaching students how to build arguments with analytical rigor.
Prior to his appointment at Texas A&M, Professor Vishnubhakat served in the United States Patent and Trademark Office as principal legal advisor to that agency’s first two chief economists. He was also a faculty fellow at Duke Law School, where he co-taught patent law and was a postdoctoral associate at the Duke Center for Public Genomics, where he researched law and policy issues surrounding innovation in genetics and biomedicine.
Professor Vishnubhakat holds both a J.D. and LL.M. in intellectual property from the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law, where he was an editor of the Law Review. He also holds a B.S. in chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is admitted to the bars of Texas, Illinois, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the Supreme Court of the United States.
Founder and Partner, Dowd Scheffel PLLC
Matthew Dowd focuses his skills on complex appellate and trial litigation, with an emphasis on patent and intellectual property issues. Through his years of practice, Mr. Dowd has successfully worked on numerous high-stakes and eclectic legal matters, focusing primarily on all stages of complex patent matters (AIA proceedings, litigation, prosecution, and counseling). Mr. Dowd's expertise and leadership are regularly consulted, as he is frequently asked to comment in the press on leading intellectual property issues.
Mr. Dowd has substantial experience with Hatch-Waxman litigation, including all stages of opinion analysis, litigation, and appeals. His technical background in medicinal chemistry is ideally suited for litigating pharmaceutical patents. He has represented clients in a range of trial forums for patent disputes, such as the Eastern District of Texas and the District of Delaware, as well as the Patent Trial and Appeal Board at the USPTO.
He has argued and briefed numerous appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and other courts involving issues such as patent law, Hatch-Waxman, administrative law, Fifth Amendment takings, contract claims, government employment issues, and criminal law. In 2018, Mr. Dowd is co-counsel with the Hon. Richard Posner (ret.) of U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in an appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
In 2013, Mr. Dowd represented Nobel Laureate James Watson, co-discoverer of the DNA double helix, as amicus curiae in the groundbreaking 2013 Supreme Court gene patent case. Mr. Dowd has over 15 years of experience representing clients before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Mr. Dowd is also well-known for his successful pro bono representation in the "free-range kids" case. The case was widely reported in the national, local, and international news.
Mr. Dowd attended The George Washington University Law School, graduating with high honors and being awarded Order of the Coif. While attending law school and before, Mr. Dowd worked full-time as a registered patent agent at the renowned IP boutique Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox.
After law school, Mr. Dowd clerked for the Honorable Paul R. Michel, Chief Judge (ret.) of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. While a law clerk, Mr. Dowd gained an insider's perspective on the appellate process. Understanding the appellate process is critical to maximizing success at the earlier stages of a case.
Mr. Dowd is currently appointed as a Professorial Lecturer in Law at The George Washington University Law School. He teaches appellate advocacy and is the coach for the student moot court team for the AIPLA Giles Sutherland Rich Moot Court Competition.
Prior to his legal career, Mr. Dowd spent four years in a Ph.D. program in medical chemistry, studying organic chemistry, pharmacology, and pharmaceutical drug design. During his Ph.D. program, Mr. Dowd's research discovered a novel structure-activity relationship for nicotinic ligands with potential utility in treating Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Mr. Dowd attended The College of William and Mary, in Williamsburg, VA, and Regis High School in New York City.
Partner, Duane Morris LLP
Brian Pandya is Partner at Duane Morris LLP. A member of the firm’s Trial Practice Group, Brian represents technology, manufacturing, and healthcare companies in high-stakes litigation, arbitrations, investigations and appeals. He has served as lead trial counsel in a range of intellectual property, antitrust, complex commercial and white-collar matters. He also regularly counsels clients on cybersecurity and national security issues, particularly matters concerning emerging technologies and artificial intelligence.
Before joining Duane Morris, Brian served at the U.S. Department of Justice as Deputy Associate Attorney General from 2019-21, where he oversaw investigations and litigation undertaken by the Antitrust Division and Civil Division and served on several high-profile task forces and trial teams. Brian was also previously a litigation and IP partner at another prominent Washington, DC firm.
Brian clerked for Judge Leonard Davis on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. He is a two-time recipient of the Federal Circuit Bar Association’s Pro Bono Advocacy Award for work on behalf of military veterans and has served as volunteer federal public defender in the Eastern District of Virginia, among many other bar and community engagements.
Brian graduated cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School, where he was articles editor of the Michigan Telecommunications and Technology Law Review, and with honors and high distinction in mechanical engineering from Penn State University, where he received the Ralph Dorn Hetzel Memorial Award.
The Supreme Court Tackles Patent Reform: Inter Partes Review Under the AIA Undermines the Structural Protections Offered by Article III Courts
Richard A. Epstein
Federalist Society Review, Volume 19
Note from the Editor: This article criticizes Justice Clarence Thomas’ opinion in Oil States. It...
Topics
Putting “Fair” Back in “Fair Use”
To encourage creative activity, the U.S. Constitution authorizes Congress to provide authors and artists the...
How Do Markets Respond to Patents?
Saurabh Vishnubhakat
Regulatory Transparency Project's Fourth Branch Video
Does the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) review process influence how markets respond to...
Determining Patent Quality
Saurabh Vishnubhakat
Regulatory Transparency Project's Fourth Branch Video
What are the boundaries of a patent? What factors are involved when determining patent quality?...
The Founding Fathers as Economic Innovators
Adam Mossoff
Regulatory Transparency Project's Fourth Branch Video
Adam Mossoff, Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, describes how the Founding Fathers viewed...
Topics
Can Tribal Immunity Shield Blockbuster Drugs from PTAB Scrutiny?
The Patent Trial & Appeal Board, an administrative panel created as part of the America...
Topics
Despite Professors’ Misleading Rhetoric, CLASSICS is a Big Win for Everyone
A version of this essay originally appeared on the Center for the Protection of Intellectual...
Enforcing Patents for Bunch O Balloons
Josh Malone, Adam Mossoff, Ilan Wurman, Melissa Brand, Saurabh Vishnubhakat
Regulatory Transparency Project's Fourth Branch Video
Josh Malone, inventor of Bunch O Balloons, describes his struggle to enforce the patents for...
Topics
CLASSICS Act Provides Long Overdue Recognition for Legacy Recording Artists
A version of this essay originally appeared on the Center for the Protection of Intellectual...
Courthouse Steps: SAS Institute Inc. v. Iancu Decided
Matthew J. Dowd, Brian Pandya
Intellectual Property Practice Group and Regulatory Transparency Project Teleforum
When Congress directs the Patent Office to resolve “any” patent claims a petitioner challenges, must...