J. Thomas McCarthy

J. Thomas McCarthy is a Professor Emeritus at the University of San Francisco School of Law and the Founding Director of the McCarthy Institute for Intellectual Property and Technology Law.

McCarthy has practiced, written, taught, and lectured in the field of trademarks and unfair competition. He is a member of the California and the U.S. Supreme Court Bars and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

He was a member of the A.L.I. Advisory Committee involved in drafting the 1995 Restatement of the Law of Unfair Competition, was a member of the Trademark Review Commission, which drafted the 1989 revisions to the Lanham Act, and served for many years on the Editorial Board of The Trademark Reporter. He is also an of counsel consultant with the law firm of Morrison & Foerster in its San Francisco office. 

In 2012 McCarthy was named to the Intellectual Property Hall of Fame by Intellectual Asset Management Magazine. McCarthy was the recipient of the 2003 President's Award of the International Trademark Association; the 2000 Pattishall Medal for excellence in teaching trademark law from the Brand Names Education Foundation; the 1997 Ladas Professional Author’s Award from the Brand Names Education Foundation; the Centennial Award in Trademark Law from the American Intellectual Property Law Association in 1997; the 1994 Jefferson Medal from the New Jersey Intellectual Property Law Association; the 1979 Rossman Award of the Patent and Trademark Office Society; and the 1965 Watson Award of the American Intellectual Property Law Association.

McCarthy’s other books include the seven-volume treatise McCarthy on Trademarks and Unfair Competition (5th edition, updated quarterly and also published by Thomson Reuters) and McCarthy’s Desk Encyclopedia of Intellectual Property, (with Schechter & Franklyn) (3rd ed. 2004).

Titles by This Author