In Memoriam
Dan L. Burk
Distinguished and Chancellor's Professor of Law
UC Irvine
1962-2024
Distinguished and Chancellor's Professor Dan L. Burk passed away on February 4, 2024, sadly just before a festschrift honoring his work on February 9, 2024, held at the University of California, Irvine School of Law attended by many of his mentees, colleagues and former students. He is remembered for his profound contributions to scholarship and leadership in law and technology, patent law, intellectual property, trademark, copyright, electronic commerce, artificial intelligence, and biotechnology. As a Founding Faculty member at the University of California, Irvine School of Law, founded in 2008, he contributed to its curriculum and early leadership in intellectual property, technology and artificial intelligence, where he taught courses in Patent Law, Copyright, Intellectual Property, Torts, Remedies, Law and Technology, and Cross Border Technology Transfers.
He was consistently ranked as one of the leading scholars in intellectual property in the United States. In addition to teaching at UCI, he was a professor of law at the University of Minnesota, Seton Hall and a Visiting Professor at Cornell, Berkeley, George Mason, and many international law faculties including the Universities of Leuven (Belgium), Humboldt (Germany), Bocconi (Italy), Sciences Po (France), Lucerne (Switzerland), London School of Economics and Oxford (UK), Haifa (Israel), Munich (Germany), Tilburg (Netherlands), Toronto (Canada), and the Max Planck Institute for Innovation, among others. He was awarded Fulbright Scholarships twice and a Leverhulme Fellowship to lecture in the UK on biotechnology and software patenting. He was the recipient of many awards for his work, including, the IP Vanguard Award from the California Bar and many endowed lectureships throughout the world.
Professor Burk authored dozens of articles on the legal and social impact of new technologies including in medicine, biotech and gene patenting, the arts, digital copyright, electronic sports, and the implications of trademark and patent law for properly encouraging and supporting innovation. He demonstrated a vast expertise and interest in multidisciplinary study of his subjects including pathbreaking work on the role of gender and race in patent and intellectual property law. He co-authored a major book, The Patent Crisis and How the Courts Can Solve It with Professor Mark Lemley of Stanford Law School. At the time of his death, he was working on several creative articles on intellectual property and literary theory, critical theory and the sociology of science.
In his final interview on the UCI Law podcast, recorded on January 17, 2024, he urged all legal academics to "take some risks, but never risk quality. You might want to choose a topic that's a little offbeat. You might want to work in an environment that is a little bit different. But always do quality lawyering. You always do quality scholarship and that's not something that I'm willing to take a risk with."
Professor Burk obtained his B.S, in microbiology from Brigham Young University, an M.S. in molecular biology and biochemistry from Northwestern University, his J.D. from Arizona State University and his J.S.M. from Stanford Law School.
Austen Parrish, Dean and Chancellor's Professor of Law
UC Irvine School of Law
He was consistently ranked as one of the leading scholars in intellectual property in the United States. In addition to teaching at UCI, he was a professor of law at the University of Minnesota, Seton Hall and a Visiting Professor at Cornell, Berkeley, George Mason, and many international law faculties including the Universities of Leuven (Belgium), Humboldt (Germany), Bocconi (Italy), Sciences Po (France), Lucerne (Switzerland), London School of Economics and Oxford (UK), Haifa (Israel), Munich (Germany), Tilburg (Netherlands), Toronto (Canada), and the Max Planck Institute for Innovation, among others. He was awarded Fulbright Scholarships twice and a Leverhulme Fellowship to lecture in the UK on biotechnology and software patenting. He was the recipient of many awards for his work, including, the IP Vanguard Award from the California Bar and many endowed lectureships throughout the world.
Professor Burk authored dozens of articles on the legal and social impact of new technologies including in medicine, biotech and gene patenting, the arts, digital copyright, electronic sports, and the implications of trademark and patent law for properly encouraging and supporting innovation. He demonstrated a vast expertise and interest in multidisciplinary study of his subjects including pathbreaking work on the role of gender and race in patent and intellectual property law. He co-authored a major book, The Patent Crisis and How the Courts Can Solve It with Professor Mark Lemley of Stanford Law School. At the time of his death, he was working on several creative articles on intellectual property and literary theory, critical theory and the sociology of science.
In his final interview on the UCI Law podcast, recorded on January 17, 2024, he urged all legal academics to "take some risks, but never risk quality. You might want to choose a topic that's a little offbeat. You might want to work in an environment that is a little bit different. But always do quality lawyering. You always do quality scholarship and that's not something that I'm willing to take a risk with."
Professor Burk obtained his B.S, in microbiology from Brigham Young University, an M.S. in molecular biology and biochemistry from Northwestern University, his J.D. from Arizona State University and his J.S.M. from Stanford Law School.
Austen Parrish, Dean and Chancellor's Professor of Law
UC Irvine School of Law
