Lisa Larrimore Ouellette

- Deane F. Johnson Professor of Law
- Senior Fellow, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR)
- Room N321, Neukom Building
Expertise
- FDA Policy
- Health Law & Policy
- IP Policy Analysis
- Intellectual Property
- International Intellectual Property Law
- Patent Law
- Technology & the Law
- Trademarks
Biography
Lisa Larrimore Ouellette is the Deane F. Johnson Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, as well as a Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. Her scholarship addresses empirical and theoretical problems in intellectual property and innovation law. She takes advantage of her training in physics to explore policy issues such as how scientists use the technical information in patents, how scientific expertise might improve patent examination, the patenting of publicly funded research under the Bayh–Dole Act, and the integration of IP with other levers of innovation policy. She has applied these ideas to biomedical innovation challenges including the opioid epidemic, the COVID-19 pandemic, and pharmaceutical prices. She has also written about multiple legal issues in trademark law, about the evidentiary value of online surveys, and about the potential for different standards of review to create what she terms “deference mistakes” in numerous areas of law.
Professor Ouellette is also an acclaimed teacher and nationally recognized intellectual property law expert. She has coauthored a free patent law casebook, Patent Law: Cases, Problems, and Materials. She has written over 350 posts for her blog, Written Description, and her commentary has appeared in publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, TIME Magazine, and Slate. She has been selected to design and lead pedagogy training for other Stanford Law faculty. In 2018, she received the law school’s John Bingham Hurlbut Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Prior to her appointment at Stanford Law School in 2014, Professor Ouellette was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Information Society Project at Yale Law School. She also clerked for Judge Timothy B. Dyk of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and Judge John M. Walker, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, where she was an Articles Editor of the Yale Law Journal and a Coker Fellow in Contract Law. She earned a Ph.D. in physics from Cornell University as well as a B.A. in physics from Swarthmore College, and she has conducted scientific research at the Max Planck Institute, CERN, and NIST.
Education
- BA (Physics), Swarthmore College, 2002
- PhD (Physics), Cornell University, 2008
- JD, Yale Law School, 2011
Related Organizations
Courses
Key Works
News
Guest Post by Profs. Masur & Ouellette: Public Use Without the Public Using
Patently-O
Lisa Larrimore Ouellette (with Jonathan S. Masur) wrote a post, "Guest Post by Profs. Masur & Ouellette: Public Use Without the Public Using", published by Patently-O.
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Taking ‘Extraordinary Measures,’ Biden Backs Suspending Patents on Vaccines
Success of COVID-19 Vaccines Reveals Killer Flaws in Big Pharma’s Vaccine Market
Join the Conversation
What does "public use" mean in patent law? Use BY the public? Use IN public? @jonathanmasur and I discuss at @patentlyo in the context of two Fed Cir decisions this month. Thanks @IowaPatentLaw for posting! https://patentlyo.com/patent/2023/02/ouellette-public-without.html
Just posted new draft w/ @jonathanmasur on how patent law should deal w/ earlier uses & sales, or "real-world prior art"
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4339879
And we submitted some of our suggestions in response to @uspto's request for comments ...on patent initiatives
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4339956
To any of my IP students following me here, this will be your warm-up hypo for the start of next class!

when is twitter corporate or individual impersonation (now with a blue check) trademark infringement or dilution? when is it a violation of someone's right of publicity? when does it violate the platform TOU?
& when is it parody, protected speech, or another kind of fair use?