Professor Lisa P. Ramsey

Lisa Pondrom Ramsey

Professor of Law

University of San Diego School of Law
5998 Alcala Park
San Diego, CA 92110-2492
619-260-7977
lramsey@sandiego.edu

Lisa Ramsey is a Professor of Law 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 and research focuses on the potential conflict between trademark and free speech rights in national and international laws. Her article Free Speech and International Obligations to Protect Trademarks was published in the Yale Journal of International Law in 2010. Professor Ramsey has also recently written about the unauthorized use of trademarks on sites such as Facebook or Twitter in Brandjacking on Social Networks: Trademark Infringement by Impersonation of Markholders, which was published in the Buffalo Law Review as part of a symposium on Advertising and the Law. In spring 2011, she was a visiting scholar at the University of Melbourne and did research on Australian trademark and free speech law. Her book review of Australian Trade Mark Law was published by the Media & Arts Law Review in 2011.

Professor Ramsey's other recent publications include the law review articles Increasing First Amendment Scrutiny of Trademark Law, 61 SMU L. Rev. 381 (2008); 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. 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 (Karen B. Tripp ed., 2004) to be one of the best intellectual property law review articles of 2003. An abbreviated version of her CV is below.

Associate Professor of Law, 2006 to 2009
Assistant Professor of Law, 2004 to 2006
Courses: Trademark Law, Intellectual Property Survey, International Intellectual Property, Intellectual Property Seminar: Current Issues in Intellectual Property

Feb. & Mar. 2011

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, UCLA Advertising Club

Descriptive Trademarks and the First Amendment, 70 Tenn. L. Rev. 1095 (2003), reprinted in 36 Intellectual Property Law Review 271 (Karen B. Tripp ed., 2004) (judging this article to be one of the best intellectual property law articles of 2003)

Commentator, UCLA Entertainment, Media, and Intellectual Property Colloquium Workshop, UCLA School of Law, Los Angeles, CA (Nov. 6, 2011) (invited commentator on paper Looking at the Lanham Act: Images in Trademark and Advertising Law by Rebecca Tushnet)

Presentation, What the United States Can Learn From Australian Trade Mark Law, Eleventh Annual Intellectual Property Scholars Conference, DePaul University College of Law (Aug. 12, 2011)

Brandjacking on Social Networks: Trademark Infringement by Impersonation of Markholders (formerly titled Brandjacking on Social Networks: Confusion About the Source of Information or Advertising)

Panelist, Intellectual Property vs. the First Amendment, Annual Intellectual Property Institute, State Bar of California Intellectual Property Law Section, Palm Dessert, CA (Nov. 8, 2008)

Presentation, What If There Were No First Amendment Distinction Between Commercial and Noncommercial Speech: Would Trademark Law Be Constitutional?, Fourth Annual Intellectual Property and Communications Law Program Symposium "What Ifs and Other Alternative Intellectual Property and Cyberlaw Stories," Michigan State University College of Law (Mar. 31, 2007)