Joshua D. Sarnoff

Joshua D. Sarnoff is a professor of law at DePaul University where he received the 2018 DePaul Spirit of Inquiry Award, as well as numerous awards for his scholarship. He is an internationally recognized expert on the intersections of intellectual property law, environmental law, health law, and constitutional, administrative and international law.  In June 2019, he testified before the Intellectual Property Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee on pending legislation to revise subject matter eligibility doctrine under Section 101 of the Patent Act. From January 2014 to July 2015, he served as the Thomas A. Edison Distinguished Scholar at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. In February 2025, he was appointed to the Advisory Board of the American Antitrust Institute.

Professor Sarnoff is proficient in on-line, doctrinal, clinical and legal writing instruction. He has taught courses at American and international law schools and legal research centers. He previously directed the DePaul Center for Intellectual Property & Information Technology (CIPLIT®) and organized and moderated the 2018 Jaharis Health Law Symposium "Emergency and Technological Responses to Pandemic Diseases;" the 2024 and 2025 symposia on artificial intelligence and cybersecurity in health care; and the 2011, 2015, 2019 and 2025 Intellectual Property Scholars Conferences (IPSC). He also hosted CIPLIT's annual Edward D. Manzo Scholars in Patent Law series.

While a student at Stanford Law School, Professor Sarnoff was the administrative editor of the Stanford Law Review.After law school, he clerked for the Honorable Irving L. Goldberg of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He has substantial practice experience in the public and private sectors and as an academic providing litigation, counseling and advocacy services addressing international and domestic environmental, intellectual property, and food and drug laws. He has consulted for or advocated on behalf of legislative coalitions, intergovernmental organizations, foundations, corporations, nonprofit organizations and various groups of academics. He has filed numerous amicus briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, including for the American Medical Association and for law professors.

His current research focuses on innovation policy and technology development; climate change technology and data, climate modification and governance; utility and design patent empirical analyses, history and theory; responses to pandemic diseases; and intellectual property rights in genetic and natural resources, diagnostics and therapeutics. He is the editor and co-author of the Research Handbook on Intellectual Property and Climate Change (Edward Elgar Publ. 2016) and has published extensively in law reviews and peer reviewed journals.

Courses Taught

• Administrative Law
• Advanced Concepts in Patent Law
• Appellate Advocacy: Patent Moot Court
• Intellectual Property & Human Rights
• Law & Climate Change
• Patent Law