Professor Peter S. Menell is an Edison Distinguished Scholar and expert consultant at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). He supports the agency in its efforts to enhance patent examination practices to ensure the issuance of robust and reliable patents. He also advises USPTO leadership on intellectual property policy.
Professor Menell is the Koret Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, co-founder, former Executive Director, and Director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, and co-founder and Faculty Director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute. He has taught at Georgetown University Law Center, Harvard Law School, Stanford Law School, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and Tel Aviv University. Professor Menell served as Vice-Chair of the National Academies of Sciences project on copyright and innovation. In 2012-2013, he served as an inaugural Thomas Alva Edison Visiting Professional at the USPTO. In 2013, he delivered the 42nd Brace Lecture, the U.S. Copyright Society’s major annual lecture. In 2018, the California Lawyers Association recognized Professor Menell’s contributions to the intellectual property (IP) field with its IP Vanguard Award.
Professor Menell’s research and teaching have focused on intellectual property law. He has authored more than 100 articles and 15 books, including leading casebooks, IP treatises, and research handbooks. Professor Menell’s patent and copyright scholarship has been widely cited by the courts and scholars, and his proposal to immunize whistleblowers from trade secret liability was adopted in the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016. He has also made notable contributions to the fields of environmental law and policy, property law, and law and economics. Professor Menell has organized more than 60 intellectual property education programs for the Federal Judicial Center since 1998. He is the lead author of the "Patent Case Management Judicial Guide," now in its third edition. He is co-leading the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) international patent case management judicial guide project.
Professor Menell received a Bachelor of Science in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a doctorate in economics from Stanford University, and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.