OUR FACULTY

• Tenured and Tenure-Track Faculty
• Visiting Faculty
• Special Faculty Appointments
• Pence Law Library Faculty
• Adjunct Faculty (Summer 2013)
• Adjunct Faculty (Spring 2013)
• Adjunct Faculty (Fall 2012)
• Emeritus Law Faculty

FACULTY SCHOLARSHIP

Jorge Contreras currently teaches in the areas of intellectual property transactions, law and science, and property law. His research focuses primarily on the effects of intellectual property structures on the dissemination and production of technological innovation, with a focus on basic scientific research and technical standards development. He has studied these effects in industries ranging from genomics and bioinformatics to sustainable building materials, telecommunications and computer networking. Professor Contreras is Co-Chair of the National Conference of Lawyers and Scientists (NCLS) and Co-Chair of the American Bar Association Section of Science & Technology Law’s Committee on Technical Standardization. He serves as a member of the Advisory Council of NIH’s National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS) and the National Academy of Science’s Committee on Intellectual Property Management in Standard-Setting Processes. He previously served as a member of the Council of the National Human Genome Research Institute at NIH (NHGRI). Professor Contreras is the editor of the Technical Standards Patent Policy Manual (ABA Publishing: Chicago, 2007) and has written numerous articles, book chapters and blog postings relating to intellectual property and standards development. Prior to joining the faculty of American University, Professor Contreras was a Senior Lecturer and Acting Director of the Intellectual Property Program at Washington University in St. Louis and a partner at the international law firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School (JD) and Rice University (BA, BSEE).

• Selected Publications

  • Jorge Contreras, Implementing Procedural Safeguards for the Development of Bioinformatics Interoperability Standards, 39, No. 2 N. Ky. L. Rev. (2012).
  • Jorge Contreras, Standards, Patents, and the National Smart Grid, 32 Pace L. Rev. 642 (2012).
  • Jorge Contreras, Open Access Scientific Publishing and the Developing World, 8 (no. 1) St. Antony's Intl. Rev. 43 (May 24, 2012).
  • Jorge Contreras, Confronting the Crisis in Scientific Publishing: Latency, Licensing and Access, Santa Clara L. Rev. (forthcoming).
  • Jorge Contreras, Equity, Antitrust, and the Reemergence of the Patent Unenforceability Remedy, The Antitrust Source (October 2011). SSRN Link
  • Jorge Contreras, Natl. Inst. Standards & Tech. Study Report: An Empirical Study of the Effects of Ex Ante Licensing Disclosure Policies on the Development of Voluntary Technical Standards, Natl. Inst. Stands. & Tech. (June 27, 2011).
  • Jorge Contreras, Bermuda’s Legacy: Patents, Policy and the Design of the Genome Commons, 16 Minn. J.L. Sci. & Tech. 61 (2011).
  • Jorge Contreras, Prepublication Data Release, Latency, and Genome Commons, 329 Sci. 393 (2010).
  • Jorge Contreras, Data Sharing, Latency Variables and Science Commons, 25 Berkeley Tech. L.J. 1601 (2010).