DePaul Law Professors Joshua Sarnoff and Michael Grynberg have been co-appointed the 2024-2025 Raymond P. Niro Professor of Intellectual Property Law.  “Professors Sarnoff and Grynberg have been valuable members of the DePaul law faculty for many years, and we are very excited to recognize their leadership in intellectual property with this honor,” says Interim Dean Julie Lawton. 

Professors Sarnoff and Grynberg have significant intellectual property (IP) law expertise. Sarnoff is a renowned patent law expert who, in 2024, co-authored an amicus brief and replied to multiple requests for comments to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Grynberg has written extensively on trademark law with recent articles published in the Berkley Technology Law Journal and the Yale Journal of Law & Technology. He also regularly updates his own free online Trademark Law casebook and has an accompanying YouTube channel.  

Grynberg says, “The Niro Professorship has a legacy of excellence. I’m honored to have the chance to participate in carrying that tradition forward." Sarnoff similarly expresses his honor “to share the Niro professorship with Professor Grynberg, and to follow the earlier leadership of [the first holder of the professorship,] Professor Roberta Kwall.”  

Sarnoff and Gyrnberg have several events planned for the academic year, including a workshop for Chicago IP faculty and, in August 2025, the return to DePaul of the two-day Intellectual Property Scholars Conference, which is co-sponsored by the DePaul, UC Berkeley, Cardozo and Stanford law schools. 

The Raymond P. Niro Professor of Intellectual Property Law was created in 1999 through a gift from late IP attorney Raymond P. Niro, whose brother, two sons and nephew are alumni of DePaul Law.  Niro remarked at the time, "Invention, innovation and the protection offered by intellectual property really act as a fuel for our entire economy. I hope that my gift to DePaul College of Law will stimulate others to study and perhaps forge a career in one of the most exciting fields available."