J. Thomas McCarthy

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J. Thomas McCarthy (born July 2, 1937 in Detroit, Michigan) is a Senior Professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law, where he been on the faculty for over forty years. He is the Founding Director of the McCarthy Institute for Intellectual Property and Technology Law located at the University of San Francisco. He has practiced, written and taught in the field of trademarks and unfair competition and is a frequent speaker on the subject. He is a member of the California and the U.S. Supreme Court Bars and is admitted to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

He holds a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Detroit. He worked as an engineer for Chrysler Corp. Missile Division in the early days of the space program on the Redstone missile, which was used to launch the Explorer I satellite in January 1958. He received a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School.

He is an of counsel consultant with the law firm of Morrison & Foerster. He was a member of the A.L.I. Advisory Committee involved in drafting the 1995 Restatement of the Law of Unfair Competition, was a member of the Trademark Review Commission, which drafted the 1989 revisions to the Lanham Act, and has served for several years on the Editorial Board of The Trademark Reporter.

McCarthy was the recipient of: the 2003 President's Award of the International Trademark Association; the 2000 Pattishall Medal for excellence in teaching trademark law from the Brand Names Education Foundation; the 1997 Ladas Professional Author Award from the Brand Names Education Foundation; the Centennial Award in Trademark Law from the American Intellectual Property Law Association in 1997; the 1994 Jefferson Medal from the New Jersey Intellectual Property Law Association; the 1979 Rossman Award of the Patent and Trademark Office Society; and the 1965 Watson Award of the American Intellectual Property Law Association.

He delivered: the 1999 Niro Lecture at DePaul University College of Law; the 1997 Tenzer Lecture at Cardozo Law School; the 1995 H.S. Manges Lecture at Columbia University; and the 1989 Boal Memorial Lecture for the Brand Names Education Foundation. He was the 1994 Biebel & French Distinguished Visiting Scholar in Law & Technology at the University of Dayton.

McCarthy is the author of the seven volume treatise McCarthy on Trademarks and Unfair Competition (4th edition - updated quarterly), which has been relied upon as authority in over 3000 judicial opinions. Other books include the two-volume treatise The Rights of Publicity and Privacy (2d ed. 2000) (also published by West) and McCarthy’s Desk Encyclopedia of Intellectual Property, (with Schechter & Franklyn) published by BNA Press (3rd ed. 2004).