The evolution of copyright, trademark, and patent law in the U.S. is not racially neutral, but rather, as Anjali Vats contends, has been influenced by how we understand (white) American citizenship. Today, IP law continues to employ racially exclusionary categories, as demonstrated by high profile controversies over rap and hip hop, life-saving pharmaceuticals, and traditional knowledge.
In this live taping of the Harvard Black Law Students Association's podcast Hate 2 See It, co-hosts Joanna Anyanwu and James Holloway will interview Professor Vats on her forthcoming book The Color of Creatorship: Race, Intellectual Property, and the Making of Americans (Stanford University Press, September 2020). Vats, an Associate Professor at Boston College and Boston College Law School, draws on interdisciplinary methods to demonstrate that for over 200 years, the U.S. has marked “good intellectual property citizens” and “bad intellectual property citizens” in racial terms.
This event is co-sponsored by the Harvard Black Law Students Association and the Cyberlaw Clinic, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Dinner will be served.
No RSVP required
