Cathay Y. N. Smith joined the Chicago-Kent College of Law faculty in fall 2024 from the University of Montana Blewett School of Law. She has also taught at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, New York Law School’s London Program, and was a visiting academic and research fellow at the Oxford Intellectual Property Research Centre (OIPRC) at the University of Oxford.
Smith’s research focuses on copyright law and free speech in contemporary culture and the art world. She teaches copyright law, property law, and art and cultural property law courses.
Professor Smith currently serves as co-director of Chicago-Kent’s Intellectual Property Law Program. Her past leadership experiences include serving as co-acting dean at Montana Law, and as the 2022 chair and 2021 chair-elect of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Intellectual Property.
Prior to entering academia, Professor Smith was an associate in the trademark and copyright group at Katten in Chicago where she represented multinational technology, fashion, and entertainment and media corporations. She’s admitted to the Bar in Illinois, Colorado, United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Education
M.Sc., The London School of Economics and Political Science
J.D., Loyola University Chicago School of Law
B.S., Washington and Lee University
Publications
Law Review Articles & Essays
The Criminally Complicated Copyright Questions About Trump’s Mugshot, 76 Stanford L. Rev. Online 135 (2024)
Rewriting History: Copyright, Free Speech, & Reimagining Classic Works, 69 Villanova L. Rev. 319 (2024)
Editing Classic Books: A Threat to the Public Domain?, 109 Virginia L. Rev. Online 1 (2024)
Cancelling Dr. Seuss, 26 Vanderbilt J. Enter. & Tech. L. 73 (2023)
Weaponizing Copyright, 35 Harvard J. of L. & Tech. 193 (2022)
Copyright & Memes: The Fight for Success Kid, 110 Georgetown L.J. Online 142 (2021) (with Stacey Lantagne)
Political Fair Use, 62 William & Mary L. Rev. 2003 (2021)
Copyright Silencing, 106 Cornell L. Rev. Online 71 (2021)
Creative Destruction: Copyright’s Fair Use Doctrine and the Moral Right of Integrity, 47 Pepperdine L. Rev. 601 (2020)
Truth, Lies, and Copyright, 20 Nevada L. J. 201 (2019)
Beware the Slender Man: Intellectual Property and Internet Folklore, 70 Florida L. Rev. 601 (2018)
Squeeze Blood from Turnip®: Abusing Trademark Law's Morality Provision in the TTAB, 65 UCLA L. Rev. Disc. 88 (2017)
Oral Tradition and The Kennewick Man, 126 Yale L.J. F. 216 (2016)
Community Rights to Public Art, 90 St. John’s L. Rev. 369 (2016)
Food Art: Protecting Food Presentation Under U.S. Intellectual Property Law, 14 John Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 1 (2014)
Street Art: An Analysis Under U.S. Intellectual Property Law and Intellectual Property’s ‘Negative Space’ Theory, 24 DePaul J. Art, Tech. & IP Law 259 (2014)
Book Chapters
Copyright in Culinary Presentations, in Non-Conventional Copyright: Do New and Atypical Works Deserve Protection?, 128-149 (E. Bonadio & N. Lucchi eds.) (2018)
Additional Publications
Roald Dahl, Hugh Lofting, & Dr. Seuss: Exploring Copyright Implications of Revising Classic Children’s Works, CREATe Blog (May 5, 2023)
From Roald Dahl to Goosebumps, revisions to children’s classics are really about copyright, The Conversation UK (March 7, 2023)
Food Plating and Trade Dress: Can a Chef Claim Trademark Protection for a Signature Dish?, Cardozo Art & Entertainment Law Journal Blog 75 (April 16, 2015)
“Copyright is for losers©TM”: Street Art Flourishes in Intellectual Property’s Negative Space, Cardozo Art & Entertainment Law Journal Blog 49 (June 20, 2014)
Service
Chair, AALS IP Section (2022)
Chair-Elect, AALS IP Section (2021)
Executive Committee Member, AALS IP Section (2020)
(Inaugural Founding) Member, IP Law Section of the State Bar of Montana (2016-present)
Board of Directors, Missoula Art Museum (MAM), Missoula, MT (2017-2023)
Elected Member, Public Art Committee, City of Missoula, MT (2016-2019)
Selected Published Cases
Kinbook LLC v. Microsoft Corp., 866 F.Supp.2d 453 (E.D.Pa. 2012) (aff'd 2013 WL 116516 (3d Cir. 2013))
James Braddock v. Angelina Jolie, 103 U.S.P.Q.2d 1344 (N.D.Ill. 2012)
PODS Enterprises v. ABF Freight System, Inc., 100 U.S.P.Q.2d 1708 (M.D.Fla. 2011)
Facebook Inc. v. Various Inc., 99 U.S.P.Q.2d 1300 (N.D.Cal. 2011)
Arcadia Group Brands Ltd. v. Studio Moderna SA, 99 U.S.P.Q.2d 1134 (T.T.A.B. 2011)
Penthouse Digital Media Productions, Inc. v. Cloudstreet Inc., 98 U.S.P.Q.2d 1496 (T.T.A.B 2010)
Roxbury Entertainment v. Penthouse Media Group, Inc., 669 F.Supp.2d 1170 (C.D.Cal. 2009) and 91 U.S.P.Q.2d 1173 (C.D.Cal. 2009)
Bausch & Lomb Incorporated v. Karl Storz GmbH & Co. KG, 87 U.S.P.Q.2d 1526 (T.T.A.B. 2008)