DEKALB – Naperville resident and Northern Illinois University College of Law Associate Professor Yolanda M. King participated as a panelist at a highly regarded copyright symposium at Columbia Law School on October 2. Called “Copyright: Outside the Box”, the symposium was part of an annual series of copyright symposiums hosted by the Columbia Law School’s Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts in New York City.
Recently profiled in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, in a feature article entitled “NIU Professor Becomes Expert on IP Tattoo Law,” King has become a “go to” resource for her thought leadership in the areas of Intellectual Property Law and Entertainment Law. She has written two articles on the copyrightability of tattoos and the enforcement of tattoo copyright.
A third article, set for publication this spring in the Nevada Law Journal, takes it a step further. ‘My third article assumes that there are enforceable copyrights, but if the tattoo is on the body of a celebrity, then the tattoo-bearer may have a right of publicity claim independent of the tattoo artist’s copyright claim,” said Professor King.
“There’s not a lot of literature out there on tattoos, so Yolanda is one of the few scholars who has explored it in an academic manner,” said Pippa Almond, one of the organizers of the Columbia Law School symposium where King is speaking.
After receiving her J.D. from Harvard University, Professor King practiced intellectual property law at Husch Blackwell Sanders Welsh & Katz and Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione in Chicago, Illinois, where she engaged in domestic and international copyright and trademark prosecution, handled licensing issues, and represented clients in domain name matters. In addition, she served as an attorney in the City of Chicago Department of Law.
Professor King is currently Of Counsel at Advitam IP, an intellectual property law firm in Chicago. She is a member of the Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago, International Trademark Association and Society for American Law Teachers. In 2009, she received the 2009 Corporate Woman of Achievement Award by the National Association of Women Business Owners.
The NIU College of Law is the only public law school in the Chicago area – and has been named a top law school nationally for diversity, value, and careers in public interest and government service. NIU Law provides unique opportunities for its students, beginning with its highly accomplished faculty who are personally invested in the success of their students and their students’ careers. Although many alumni serve as public interest attorneys, prosecutors, defenders, elected officials, and judges, they are equally prepared for careers as solo practitioners or as lawyers in multinational firms.
For more information on Yolanda M. King and the NIU College of Law, visit www.niu.edu/law.
