Rebecca Tushnet
Frank Stanton Professor of the First Amendment
Rebecca Tushnet is a professor of law at Harvard Law School. After clerking for Chief Judge Edward R. Becker of the Third Circuit and Associate Justice David H. Souter on the Supreme Court, she practiced intellectual property law at Debevoise & Plimpton before beginning teaching. Her publications include “Worth a Thousand Words: The Images of Copyright Law” (Harvard L. Rev. 2012); “Gone in 60 Milliseconds: Trademark Law and Cognitive Science” (Texas L. Rev. 2008); and “Copy This Essay: How Fair Use Doctrine Harms Free Speech and How Copying Serves It” (Yale L.J. 2004). Her work currently focuses on copyright, trademark and false advertising law. Her blog, at tushnet.blogspot.com, has been on the ABA’s Blawg 100 list of top legal blogs for the past three years. Professor Tushnet helped found the Organization for Transformative Works, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting and promoting fanworks, and currently volunteers on its legal committee. She is also an expert on the law of engagement rings.
Education
- A.B. Harvard College, 1995
- J.D. Yale Law School, 1998
Clerkships
- Edward R. Becker, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, 1998 - 1999
- Justice David H. Souter, U.S. Supreme Court, 1999 - 2000
Recent Publications
- Rebecca Tushnet, A Hobgoblin Comes for Internet Regulation, VerfBlog (Feb. 19, 2024).
- Mark A. Lemley & Rebecca Tushnet, First Amendment Neglect in Supreme Court Intellectual Property Cases, 2023 Sup. Ct. Rev. 85 (2024).
- Rebecca Tushnet, Trademark Theory in an Antitrust Case: FTC v. 1-800 Contacts, in Research Handbook on the Law and Economics of Trademark Law (Glynn S. Lunney, Jr. ed., 2023).
- Rebecca Tushnet, Best Laid Plans: The Challenges of Implementing Article 17, Jotwell: J. Things We Like (Lots) 1 (2023).
- S. Sean Tu & Rebecca Tushnet, Free Speech Challenges to the Inflation Reduction Act, JAMA (2023).