Professor Lisa P. Ramsey

Lisa P. Ramsey is an Associate Professor at the University of San Diego School of Law, where she teaches and writes in the areas of intellectual property and international intellectual property.  Before joining the faculty in 2004, she was an intellectual property litigation associate for four years at Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich (now DLA Piper) in San Diego.  She graduated Order of the Coif from UCLA School of Law and was a judicial law clerk for Judge Rebecca Beach Smith of the United States District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia. 

Professor Ramsey’s current scholarship focuses on the practice of “brandjacking” on social networks—the unauthorized use of trademarks in usernames on sites such as Facebook or Twitter—and the potential conflict between international obligations to protect trademark rights and the right to freedom of expression.  Her recent publications include the law review articles Increasing First Amendment Scrutiny of Trademark Law, 61 SMU L. Rev. 381 (2008) and Intellectual Property Rights in Advertising, 12 Mich. Telecomm. Tech. L. Rev. 189 (2006), and the book chapter First Amendment Limitations on Trademark Rights in volume three of Intellectual Property and Information Wealth: Issues and Practices in the Digital Age 147 (Peter Yu ed. Praeger 2007).  Her article Descriptive Trademarks and the First Amendment, 70 Tenn. L. Rev. 1095 (2003), was judged by the editor of the Intellectual Property Law Review (Tripp ed., West 2004) to be one of the best intellectual property law review articles of 2003.  An abbreviated version of her CV is below.

EXPERIENCE

University of San Diego School of Law
Associate Professor of Law, 2006 to present
Assistant Professor of Law, 2004 to 2006
Courses: Intellectual Property Survey, International Intellectual Property, Intellectual Property Seminar: Current Issues in Intellectual Property

Law Offices of Lisa P. Ramsey
San Diego, CA
2003 to 2004

Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich (now DLA Piper)
Associate in Intellectual Property Litigation Group
San Diego, CA
1997 to 2002

United States District Court
Eastern District of Virginia
Judicial Law Clerk for the
Hon. Rebecca Beach Smith
Norfolk, VA
1996 to 1997

EDUCATION

UCLA School of Law
J.D. 1996
Order of the Coif, UCLA Law Review

UCLA
B.A. 1993
Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa

PUBLICATIONS 

Increasing First Amendment Scrutiny of Trademark Law, 61 SMU L. Rev. 381 (2008), available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1273944

First Amendment Limitations on Trademark Rights, in 3 Intellectual Property and Information Wealth: Issues and Practices in the Digital Age 147 (Peter K. Yu ed., Praeger 2007), available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=968721
 
Intellectual Property Rights in Advertising, 12 Mich. Telecomm. Tech. L. Rev. 189 (2006), available at http://www.mttlr.org/voltwelve/ramsey.pdf  

Descriptive Trademarks and the First Amendment, 70 Tenn. L. Rev. 1095 (2003), reprinted in 36 Intellectual Property Law Review 271 (Karen B. Tripp ed., West 2004) (judging this article to be one of the best intellectual property law articles of 2003), available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=728572

Predicting the Unpredictable under Rule 11(b)(3): When are Allegations “Likely” to Have Evidentiary Support? 43 UCLA L. Rev. 1393 (1996)

PRESENTATIONS AND OTHER SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS 

Brandjacking on Social Networks: Confusion About the Source of Information or Advertising

• Presentation, 2009 International Workshop on Copyright Industries and Intellectual Property, South China University of Technology School of Law, Guangzhou, China (June 15, 2009)
• Presentation, The Age of Digital Convergence: An East-West Dialogue on Law, Media and Technology, The University of Hong Kong (June 13, 2009)