IBL Center Fall Speaker Series: The Myth of Race Neutrality in IP Law
Nov 8, 2021
12:45 PM - 01:45 PM
130 Byington Road, Iowa City, IA 52246
Anjali Vats
Associate Professor of Law
University of Pittsburgh School of Law
The Myth of Race Neutrality in Intellectual Property Law: Taking a Relational Approach to Rethinking Copyright, Patent & Trademark Exclusion
Drawing on the Color of Creatorship: Intellectual Property, Race, and the Making of Americans (Stanford UP 2020), this talk identifies three pernicious legal standards that have evolved historically to structurally exclude people of color from equal recognition of creatorship in intellectual property contexts. Through a historical analysis of the evolution of core legal doctrinal standards and their associated cultural mythologies in copyright, patent, and trademark law, it makes an argument for renewed scrutiny of the effects of such jurisprudence on inequity and racial literacy about how to respond to such entrenched racialization of citizenship.
BLB 235 and via Zoom: https://uiowa.zoom.us/j/98727951951
If you plan to attend in person, please RSVP to sara-k-clark@uiowa.edu to reserve a boxed lunch.
Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa–sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact in advance at