Eric E. Johnson

 

Associate Professor of Law
ejohnson@law.und.edu
www.ericejohnson.com

Eric E. Johnson teaches Torts, Intellectual Property, Media & Entertainment Law, Sports Law, and Antitrust, Bankruptcy & Consumer Law. His primary scholarship interests are intellectual property and entertainment law. Two projects of Professor Johnson’s, Copysquare and Konomark, are designed to encourage the sharing of copyrighted works on the internet. Another project of Professor Johnson's is the Museum of Intellectual Property, which is on display inside UND's Thormodsgard Law Library.

Professor Johnson received his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2000, where he was a member of the Board of Student Advisers and an instructor in legal reasoning and argument. He received his B.A. from the Plan II program at the University of Texas at Austin in 1994.

After law school, Professor Johnson was an associate in the litigation and intellectual-property litigation practices at Irell & Manella in Los Angeles, where his clients included Paramount, MTV, CBS, Touchstone, Immersion Corporation, and the bankruptcy estate of eToys.com. At Irell, Johnson’s matters included claims of patent infringement in the video-game industry, copyright infringement of a television series, breach of a motion-picture director’s contract, and breach of a profit-participation clause in a television executive-producer’s contract. Professor Johnson later became in-house counsel to Fox Cable Networks in Los Angeles, drafting and negotiating deals for Fox Sports Net (“FSN”) and Fox College Sports.

Outside of his legal career, Professor Johnson was a top-40 radio disc jockey, a stand-up comic, and a consultant at an early-stage internet start-up. In 2005, he was awarded a patent on a headrest he invented for patients suffering from Parkinson’s Disease.

Before joining the UND faculty, Johnson taught as an adjunct professor at Whittier Law School and the Pepperdine University School of Law, teaching Patent Law, Trademarks, and Entertainment Law.

Professor Johnson authors three blogs: Blog Law Blog, which covers the legal aspects of blogging; Pixelization, which mostly concerns intellectual property and entertainment law; and The Backbencher, a humorous take on the law, lawyering, and life as a law professor.

 

ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE

University of North Dakota School of Law
Assistant Professor of Law, 2007 - present
Courses: Torts, Intellectual Property, Media & Entertainment Law

Pepperdine University School of Law
Adjunct Professor of Law, 2006
Course: Trademarks, Unfair Competition and Unfair Trade Practices.

Whittier Law School
Adjunct Professor of Law, 2005 - 2006
Courses: Entertainment Law, Patent Law.

Harvard Law School
Instructor, member of Board of Student Advisers, 1998 - 2000
Course: Legal Reasoning and Argument.

 

PUBLICATIONS

A Populist Manifesto for Learning the Law
60 Journal of Legal Education 41 (2010) - SSRN

Intellectual Property's Need for a Disability Perspective
20 George Mason University Civil Rights Law Journal 181 (2010) - SSRN

The Black-Hole Case: The Injunction Against the End of the World
76 Tennessee Law Review 819 (2009) - SSRN

Rethinking Sharing Licenses for the Entertainment Media
26 Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal 391 (2008) - SSRN

Calibrating Patent Lifetimes
22 Santa Clara Computer & High Technology Law Journal 269 (2006 ) - SSRN

Lindstrom's Summary of Employment Law
June Co. Press (2000)

Reporter's Privilege , Communications Law 1999 (co-author)
Practising Law Institute, 580 PLI/Pat 27 (1999)

Reporter's Privilege , Recent Developments 1998-1999 (co-author)
Practising Law Institute, 580 PLI/Pat 7 (1999)

 

EDUCATION AND QUALIFICATIONS

Harvard Law School‚ J.D., cum laude, 2000

University of Texas at Austin‚ B.A., with highest honors and special honors, 1994
Major: Plan II Honors Program

Northwestern University‚ B.S.J. candidate, 1990 to 1991
Major: Journalism, Medill School of Journalism

Admitted to Practice:

State Bar of California
United States District Court for the Northern District of California
United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Fox Cable Networks
Los Angeles, California‚ 2005 to 2007
In-house counsel.

Irell & Manella LLP
Los Angeles, California‚ 2000 to 2004
Associate in the litigation and intellectual-property litigation practices.

Debevoise & Plimpton
New York, N.Y.‚ 1999
Summer associate in the litigation practice.

Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP
New York, N.Y.‚ 1998 and 1999
Summer associate in the litigation and corporate departments.

Macfarlanes
London, UK‚ 1998
Visiting article clerk in the company, commercial, and banking practice.

Cybersource Corporation
Menlo Park, CA‚ 1996
Consultant at very early stage internet start-up. Worked in operations eventually spun off as publicly traded beyond.com, a software retailer.