Sapna Kumar
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Henry J. Fletcher Professor of Law
University of Minnesota Law School 

 
Professor Kumar is a patent scholar whose work touches on international intellectual property, public health, administrative law, and federal courts. Her most recent work, Scientific Expertise After Loper Bright (forthcoming, Duke Law Journal) focuses on the difficulties appellate judges will face interpreting ambiguous technical statutes without Chevron deference. She has recently published a book chapter and several articles about how patent rights and know-how can hinder governmental responses to public health emergencies.

Professor Kumar is the 2018-2019 Fulbright-Schuman Innovation Grant recipient, which allowed her to research the use of technically-trained patent judges at the University of Strasbourg's Center for International Intellectual Property Studies in France and at the Max-Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in Germany. She spent Fall 2022 as a Visiting Scholar at the University of Copenhagen's Center for Advanced Studies in Biomedical Innovation.

Prior to joining the Minnesota Law faculty, Professor Kumar held the John Mixon Chair at the University of Houston Law Center, where she also co-directed the Institute for Intellectual Property and Information Law.

Professor Kumar received her J.D. at the University of Chicago, where she served as a staff member of the University of Chicago Law Review. She clerked for Judge Kenneth Ripple on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

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Recent Major Publications

  • Scientific and Technical Expertise After Loper Bright, 74 Duke L. J. 1569 (2025)
  • Centralizing Pharmaceutical Innovation, 83 Maryland L. Rev. 653 (2024)
  • Contractual Solutions to Overcome Drug Scarcity During Pandemics and Epidemics, 40 Nature Biotech. 301-303 (March 2022) (with Ana Santos Rutschman)
  • Compulsory Licensing of Patents During Pandemics, 54 Conn. L. Rev. 57 (2022)
  • Judging Patents, 62 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 871 (2021)
  • Patent Law's Balance of Power, 104 Iowa L. Rev. 2511 (2019)
  • Innovation Nationalism, 51 Conn. L. Rev. 205 (2019)

Other Recent Publications

  • Planning for Pandemic and Epidemic-Related Drug Scarcity, in "Intellectual Property, COVID-19, and the Next Pandemic: Diagnosing Problems, Developing Cures," Cambridge U. Press (Dec. 2024) (with Ana Santos Rutschman)
  • Using Contracts to Lessen Inequities in Access to Medicines in Pandemics and Epidemics, Bill of Health (March 25, 2022) (with Ana Santos Rutschman)
  • Reducing Drug Scarcity During Pandemics and Epidemics Through Contracts, Nature Health Community (March 18, 2022) (with Ana Santos Rutschman)
  • Promoting Public Health Through State Sovereign Immunity, 4 J. L. & Innov. 1 (2021) (invited)
  • WTO Global Health: Shifting away from a Punishment Mindset, PatentlyO (May 9, 2021)
  • Pandemic Drug Shortages: Is Compulsory Licensing the Answer?, PatentlyO (Jan. 28, 2021)

Recent Invited Presentations

  • Scientific and Technical Expertise After Loper Bright, University of Houston Law Center Spring Speaker Series (2025)
  • Patent Justice in an Age of Conflict, Change and Continuity in the Global Intellectual Property Order symposium, Center for Law and Intellectual Property at Texas A&M University School of Law (2025)
  • Planning for Pandemic and Epidemic-Related Scarcity of Medicine, book launch for Intellectual Property, COVID-19, and the Next Pandemic (Cambridge 2024) at Texas A&M University School of Law (2025)
  • Scientific and Technical Expertise After Loper Bright, The Future of Administrative Law After Loper Bright, Duke Law Journal’s 55th Annual Administrative Law Symposium (2025)
  • Overcoming the Patent Impasse During Future Pandemics, International Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research in IP (2024)
  • Extraterritoriality for Patents & Trademarks: A Decade of Change, A Decade of Growth and Transformation in Intellectual Property and Technology Law Symposium, Texas A&M Law School (2024)
  • The Impact of "Patents in Cyberspace," A Celebration of Dan Burk, U.C. Irvine Law (2024)



Classes Taught

  • International Intellectual Property Law
  • Property
  • Legislation and Regulation
  • Advanced Administrative Law
  • Federal Courts
  • Patents

Recent Honors

Elected to the American Law Institute (2024)
University of Houston 50 in 5 Scholar (2022, 2018)
UHLC Order of Barons Professor of the Year (2022)
Fulbright-Schuman Innovation Grant (Spring 2019)
German Academic Exchange Service Scholarship Recipient (2018)

Interests

I enjoy traveling, running, and cooking. I am conversant (B2) in German.

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