J. Thomas McCarthy

Professor J. Thomas McCarthy is an internationally renowned authority on trademarks and unfair competition and on the right of publicity. He is a Professor Emeritus at the University of San Francisco. He is the recipient of many distinguished awards, and the American Intellectual Property Lawyers Association named McCarthy the most influential trademark expert of the 20th century. In 2012 McCarthy was named to the Intellectual Property Hall of Fame by Intellectual Asset Management Magazine. He is the founding director of the McCarthy Institute for Intellectual Property Law.

He is the author of the seven-volume treatise, Trademarks and Unfair Competition, which was published in its fifth edition by Thomson Reuters in 2017. This treatise has been relied upon as an authority in over 6000 judicial opinions, including thirteen cases by the U.S. Supreme Court. Professor McCarthy is also the author (with Prof. Roger Schechter) of the two-volume treatise, The Rights of Publicity and Privacy.

Professor McCarthy was a member of the American Law Institute's advisory committee that drafted the 1995 Restatement of the law of Unfair Competition, and was a member of the Trademark Law Review Commission, which drafted the 1989 revisions to the Lanham Act.

Degree(s):
J.D., University of Michigan, 1963
B.S., University of Detroit,1960