Sarah Fackrell joined the Chicago-Kent College of Law faculty in fall 2024 as a professor of law. She previously taught at Suffolk University Law School and at the University of Oklahoma College of Law.
Professor Fackrell’s research focuses on the intersection between art, design, and intellectual property law. She is an internationally-recognized expert in design patent law. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in the Harvard Law Review, the Duke Law Journal, and the Ohio State Law Journal, among other places.
Prior to becoming a law professor, Professor Fackrell worked as an intellectual property litigation associate in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP and served as a law clerk to the Honorable Robert W. Pratt in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa.
Professor Fackrell has been quoted in media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, Reuters News, Wired.com, Forbes.com, Time.com, Fast Company, Curbed, 99u.com, 404 Media, Managing IP, Law360, and Bloomberg Law.
Professor Fackrell earned her B.A in art and design and journalism and mass communication from Iowa State University and her J.D. from the University of Chicago. She is admitted to the bar in the Supreme Court of Illinois, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the Supreme Court of the United States.
Professor Fackrell previously published under the name Sarah Burstein.
Education
J.D., University of Chicago Law School
B.A., Iowa State University
Publications
The Counterfeit Sham, 138 Harv. L. Rev. __ (forthcoming 2024).
Uncreative Designs, 73 Duke L.J. __ (forthcoming).
The Truth About Design Patents, 71 Am. U. L. Rev. 1221 (2022) (with Saurabh Vishnubhakat).
Whole Designs, 92 Colo. L. Rev. 181 (2021).
How Design Patent Law Lost its Shape, 41 Cardozo L. Rev. 555 (2019).
Is Design Patent Examination Too Lax?, 33 Berkeley Tech. L.J. 607 (2018) (symposium).
The “Article of Manufacture” Today, 31 Harv. J.L. & Tech. 781 (2018).
The “Article of Manufacture” in 1887, 32 Berkeley Tech. L.J. 1 (2017).
Costly Designs, 77 Ohio St. L.J. 107 (2016).]
The Patented Design, 83 Tenn. L. Rev. 161 (2015).
Faux Amis in Design Law, 105 Trademark Rep. 1455 (2015) (invited contribution).
Moving Beyond the Standard Criticisms of Design Patents, 17 Stan. Tech. L. Rev. 305 (2013) (symposium).
Republished (in shortened and updated form) as: The Standard Criticisms of U.S. Design Patents, 25 Jap. Soc. Sci. Des. 84 (October 2017) (Japanese translation by Kodai Kimura).
Not (Necessarily) Narrower: Rethinking the Relative Scope of Copyright Protection for Designs, 3 IP Theory 114 (2013) (symposium).
Visual Invention, 16 Lewis & Clark L. Rev. 169 (2012).
Casebook
Patent Law: An Open-Access Casebook (2021) (with Sarah R. Wasserman Rajec & Andres Sawicki),
Presentations
UC Berkeley School of Law, Intellectual Property Scholars Conference (IPSC), The Counterfeit Sham (Aug. 9, 2024).
New York University School of Law, Innovation Policy Colloquium, Uncreative Designs (Mar. 28, 2024).
M3 IP Scholars Workshop, A Counterfeit Rationale for Design Protection (May 19, 2023).
Boston University School of Law, Intellectual Property Workshop, A Counterfeit Rationale for Design Protection (Apr. 24, 2023).
Suffolk University Law School, Twentieth Annual Works-in-Progress Intellectual Property Colloquium, Secret Design Litigation (Feb. 3, 2023) (with Saurabh Vishnubhakat).
Hofstra Law, Intellectual Property Colloquium, Uncreative Designs (Jan. 24, 2023).
ChIPs New York, “Rethinking the Design Bar: A Conversation with Sarah Burstein” (Jan. 10, 2023).
Suffolk University Law School, Fourth Annual IP & Innovation Conference, Moderator & Organizer, “Designing the Patent Bar” (Nov. 10, 2022).
U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, TC2900 Design Speaker Series, “Why Design Patent Examination Matters” (Nov. 9, 2022) (the first in a new series of learning opportunities for design patent examiners).
Selected Media Appearances and Quotations
Quoted in news outlets including The Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio (All Things Considered), Reuters News, Wired.com, Forbes.com, Time.com, Fast Company, Curbed, 99u.com, 404 Media, Managing IP, Law360 & Bloomberg Law
Sarah Burstein & Saurabh Vishnubhakat on the Truth About Design Patents, Ipse Dixit Popcast (Feb. 22, 2022).
Burstein, Rajec & Sawicki on Writing an Open-Access Patent Law Casebook, Ipse Dixit Popcast (Oct. 9, 2020).
Sarah Burstein on the Ontology of the Patented Design, Ipse Dixit Popcast (Apr. 1, 2019)