Associate Director, Intellectual Property Institute
Professor of Law
About Professor Port
Professor Ken Port’s academic focus is on domestic, comparative, and international intellectual property law. He has received two Fulbright Research Grants to study Japanese trademark law at Tokyo University. He has served on ABA committees and international panels addressing this topic. He is fluent in Japanese and reads, writes, and presents in Japanese. He is a prolific author with some 40 law review articles and more than 10 books in print. Professor Port’s writing on Japan also focuses on vestiges of World War II, the development of law during the Occupation, and the interaction between the U.S. and Japan during that time. Professor Port’s scholarly writing on U.S. law focuses on the law and policy of trademarks.
Because the best legally trained person not only knows the right answer, they know why it’s the right answer, it is important that law students spend a significant amount of time and energy grappling with ‘why’. Because there are so many different career paths law students might choose upon graduation or later in life, it is fundamental that they possess critical thinking skills that will serve them no matter what job they happen to have.”
Education
B.A., 1982, Macalester College
J.D., 1989, University of Wisconsin Law School
Experience
Mitchell Hamline School of Law: professor of law, 2015-.
William Mitchell College of Law: director, Intellectual Property Institute, 2003-2014; professor of law, 2002-2015; visiting professor of law, 2001-2002.
Foreign research fellow, University of Tokyo, Business Law Center, 2005.
Summer visiting professor, University of Chuo Law School, Tokyo, 2004-; Aichi University, Nagoya, Japan, 2004-. Courses taught incldue Anglo-American Law, Summer 2006.
Professor of law, Marquette University School of Law, 1994-2001.
Fulbright visiting scholar, Tokyo University, 1995, 2000-2001.
Special consultant to the government of Jordan, drafting unfair competition and trade secret legislation, 1999-.
Visiting assistant professor of law, Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago-Kent College of Law, 1991-1994.
Associate, Masuda, Funai, Eifert & Mitchell, Chicago, 1989-1991.
Leadership & Service
Chair, ABA Section of Intellectual Property, Subcommittee on International Trademark Treaties, 1997-1999;
Faculty advisor to Student Intellectual Property Law Association;
Faculty advisor to Saul Lefkowitz Trademark Law Moot Court Competition and Giles Rich Moot Court Competition;
Secretary, Japan America Society of Minnesota, 2003-;
Summer visiting professor, Aichi University and Chuo University, Japan, 2003- .
