Jay Kesan

Biography

Jay Kesan is Professor of Law and the Mildred Van Voorhis Jones Faculty Scholar at the University of Illinois College of Law. His academic interests are in the areas of patent law and policy, intellectual property, entrepreneurship, internet law/regulation, digital government (e-gov), agricultural biotechnology law, and biofuels regulation. He directs the Program in Intellectual Property and Technology Law at the College of Law and is Group Leader of the Business, Economics & Law of Genomic Biology (BioBEL) theme at the Institute of Genomic Biology.

At the University of Illinois, Professor Kesan holds positions in the College of Law, the Institute of Genomic Biology, the Information Trust Institute, the Coordinated Science Laboratory, the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, and the Department of Agricultural & Consumer Economics. He has published extensively and recieved numerous awards recognizing his scholarship and writing, including several Best Paper awards. He has received numerous, multi-year, research grants for his work in the areas of intellectual property and technology regulation from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Energy Biosciences Institute, the Federal Judicial Center, the Net Institute, the Coleman Foundation, and the University of Illinois Campus Research Board.

Professor Kesan continues to be professionally active in the areas of patent litigation and technology entrepreneurship. He was appointed by federal judges to serve as a Special Master in patent litigations, and has served as a technical and legal expert and counsel in patent matters. He participated twice in panels at the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice Hearings on the Implications of Competition and Patent Law and Policy. He has also worked with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Civilian Research & Development Foundation on their intellectual property protection and technology commercialization activities in the former Soviet Union countries.

He was a JSPS Invited Fellow and Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Tokyo, Japan and has also served as a Foreign Research Fellow at the Institute of Intellectual Property (IIP) in Tokyo, Japan. He has also served as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Georgetown University Law Center, and as the Jerold Hosier Distinguished Visiting Professor in Intellectual Property at DePaul University.
He serves as Faculty Editor-in-Chief of the University of Illinois Journal of Law, Technology & Policy, which published its inaugural issue in Spring 2001. He has also developed an online course on "Legal Issues in Technology Entrepreneurship," supported by a grant from the Coleman Foundation.
He received his J.D. summa cum laude from Georgetown University, where he received several awards including Order of the Coif, and served as Associate Editor of the Georgetown Law Journal. After graduation, he clerked for Judge Patrick E. Higginbotham of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Prior to attending law school, Jay Kesan-who also holds a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering-worked as a research scientist at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center in New York. He is a registered patent attorney and practiced at the former firm of Pennie & Edmonds LLP in the areas of patent litigation and patent prosecution. In addition, he has published numerous scientific papers and obtained several patents in the U.S. and abroad.

Professor Kesan was born in Mumbai, India, he is an avid cricket fan, and he continues to be active in professional activities in India.