Faculty Scholarship - University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis ...

John Cross
Grosscurth Professor or Law
Intellectual property survey, international intellectual property law, the IPcompetition
law interface, copyright, law of design protection, authors' and
performers' rights, civil procedure, comparative constitutional law, conflict of
laws, federal courts, animal law
John Cross joined the Louisville faculty in 1987 after several years in private practice in Minneapolis.
Since coming to Louisville, he has taught and published in a wide variety of areas, ranging from
the first-year course in Civil Procedure to Native American Law. In recent years, he has increasingly
focused his efforts in two broad areas: intellectual property law (both domestic and international),
and adjectival law (Civil Procedure, Conflicts, Federal Jurisdiction, and Comparative Systems). Because
of his exemplary work in the intellectual property field, John was named the Grosscurth Chair
in Law
in 2005.
John's teaching interests reflect this same focus. He currently oversees the intellectual property
curriculum at Louisville, and teaches many of the courses in that curriculum, including the Intellectual
Property Survey, International Intellectual Property Law, The IP-Competition Law Interface,
Copyright, Design Protection, and Authors’ and Performers’ Rights. He also continues to teach
courses in adjectival law, especially the first-year Civil Procedure Course and the capstone course
in Federal Jurisdiction.
John's recent research parallels his teaching. This work has delved into various issues - both historic
and contemporary - in intellectual property. For example, a 2007 article explores whether the
growing legal protection for "moral rights" can be reconciled with the limits of the First Amendment's
free speech clause. A 2008 work analyzes whether nations might grant rights akin to more ordinary
intellectual property rights in “traditional knowledge” such as folk music or herbal medicine. John is
also the lead author on a well-received casebook for the first year Civil Procedure course.
Because of the broad scope of John's research, his work has been recognized both in the United
States and abroad. Most significantly, in 2006 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Laws H.C.
from the University of Turku in Finland, in recognition of his significant contributions to legal scholarship.
He has also received two Fulbright awards (the maximum allowable), one in Finland (1995),
the other in Ireland (2000). John has been invited to teach classes and/or give lectures in a number
of foreign locales, including institutions in Argentina, Canada, Germany, England, Finland, Japan,
the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.
Books, Chapters, and Journal Articles
• Justifying Property Rights in Native American Traditional Knowledge, TEX. WESLEYAN L. REV.
(forthcoming 2009).
• *CIVIL PROCEDURE: CASES, PROBLEMS AND EXERCISES (2d ed. 2008).
• Competition Law and Copyright Misuse, 56 DRAKE L. REV. 427 (2008) (with Peter Yu).
• The Lingering Legacy of Trade-Mark Cases, 2008 MICH. ST. L. REV. 367.
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