Blogiversary: Guest Bloggers of the Technology & Marketing Law Blog (Part 8 of 10)

I’m continuing my coverage of my 20 year blogiversary. When I started the blog, I didn’t contemplate having guest bloggers. At minimum, I never assumed I’d have enough traffic or exposure to make it an attractive publication venue for others.

As it turns out, about 20% of the blog posts have been made by guest bloggers. The bulk of those came from Venkat, with nearly 800 posts.

Here’s an incomplete roster of about 70 guest bloggers who have published here over the past 20 years (I’m sure I’m missing some folks–email me with corrections):

• Tsan Abrahamson
• Ethan Ackerman
• Elliott Alderman
• Venkat Balasubramani
• Prof. Jane Bambauer (now at University of Florida)
• Prof. Mark Bartholomew (Buffalo Law)
• Sam Bayard
• Prof. Samuel Becher (Victoria University of Wellington)
• Mark Bender
• Jeff Breinholt
• Madeline Brewer
• Ed Cavazos
• Prof. Margaret Chon (Seattle U. Law)
• Nyssa Chopra
• Prof. Stephen Diamond (Santa Clara Law)
• Prof. Christine Haight Farley (American University)
• Philip Favro
• Tanya Forsheit
• Prof. Elizabeth Townsend Gard (Tulane Law)
• Cary Glynn
• Prof. Deborah Gerhardt (North Carolina Law)
• Kyle Graham
• Franklin Graves
• Prof. Leah Chan Grinvald (now at UNLV Law)
• Prof. Christian Helmers (Santa Clara University)
• Prof. Laura Heymann (William & Mary Law)
• Jeffrey Hunt
• Angie Jin
• Josh King
• Jonathan Klinger
• Prof. Jeff Kosseff (U.S. Naval Academy)
• Prof. Stacey Lantagne (now of Western New England Law)
• Prof. Christa Laser (Cleveland State Law)
• Prof. Yassine Lefouili (Toulouse School of Economics)
• David Levine (Elon Law)
• Yoram Lichtenstein
• Prof. Yvette Joy Liebesman (St. Louis Law)
• Marcel Leonardi
• Prof. Brian Love (Santa Clara Law)
• Prof. Glynn Lunney (Texas A&M Law)
• Kieran McCarthy
• Prof. J. Thomas McCarthy (USF Law emeritus)
• Luke McDonagh
• Jake McGowan
• Prof. Mark McKenna (now at UCLA Law)
• Paul Mersino
• Pablo García Mexía
• Prof. Jess Miers (now at Akron Law)
• Prof. Russell A. Miller (Washington & Lee Law)
• Sydney Muray
• Dan Nabel
• Prof. Tyler Ochoa (Santa Clara Law)
• John Ottaviani
• Dr. Matthias Pendl (Max Planck)
• Prof. Aaron Perzanowski (Michigan Law)
• Bilyana Petkova
• Riana Pfefferkorn
• Prof. Lisa Ramsey (USD Law)
• Prof. Alexandra J. Roberts (now at Northeastern Law)
• Prof. Guy Rub (now at Rutgers Law)
• Prof. Sharon Sandeen (Mitchell Hamline)
• Prof. Mark Schultz (now at Akron Law)
• David Silverman
• Prof. Marketa Trimble (UNLV Law)
• Lourdes Turrecha
• Rachel Lassig Wertheimer
• Heather Whitney
• Prof. Alex Yelderman/Alex Levy (now at Jacksonville Law)
• Sruli Yellin
• Prof. Sonya Ziaja (now at Baltimore Law)
• Gabriella Ziccarelli

This is an all-star roster of contributors. I’m proud and honored to have shared their works here.

[Note 1: all guest bloggers do it purely for the glory. No cash. Not even any blog schwag.]

[Note 2: I’ve had a few other guest bloggers at my personal blog, including Prof. Colleen Chien (UC Berkeley Law), Scott Moss, my wife Lisa, and my son Jacob.]

If you’re wondering how you can join this list…many of these guest bloggers emailed me with a pitch, sometimes cold. I’m always happy to have the conversation!

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I asked guest bloggers to weigh in on their experiences. Some responses:

From Alex Roberts:

My experience guest-blogging has been tremendously valuable for me—it offers all the fun of writing posts about interesting cases without any of the responsibility of running, hosting, or publishing a blog. Eric’s emails inviting me to guest-post always either center on a case I was aware of and already obsessing over, or a case that wasn’t on my radar but should have been. Even better, posting has enabled me to think through a doctrine (like failure to function) or category of cases (like tagmark litigation) that I was already pondering, setting the initial groundwork for what would become a more extended study in the form of a law review article or essay. Other times, I’m already exploring a particular topic in my research and posting about a recent decision gives me the opportunity to summarize and provide a teaser of that research. In other instances, I’ve recently published an article and the new case represents a subsequent development that illustrates a point I’ve made or bears out a development I predicted, making it a great follow-up to the longer piece.

Eric is insanely productive, remarkably on top of legal developments, and somehow maintains an awareness of what his colleagues in the field are interested in and writing about at any given time.  The blog is a consistent reflection of that knowledge, investment, and hard work. I am so grateful to be part of the blog and the community he has fostered!

From Kieran McCarthy:

This blog has given me a creative and intellectual outlet I would have never thought possible in the law. The law is typically a very hierarchical profession. And for someone of Eric’s stature to share his platform with someone like me is a rare opportunity that I deeply appreciate.

I was originally drawn to this blog because historically, it was the only source of decent analysis on trespass to chattels, web-scraping, and data-access issues. For years, I followed the blog like everyone else because I had clients in the space, and Eric and Venkat were the only people I could find online that were covering the issues consistently and intelligently.

And then in 2020, there was a particularly wonky 11th Circuit web-scraping case that Eric did not cover. At first, I was a little annoyed. Doesn’t he know how important this is?!?!!!? And then I thought to myself, if it’s so important, maybe I could write about it myself. I sent Eric an email asking if he’d mind a guest post. And I’ve been writing about those types of cases and issues here ever since.

When I first went to college nearly 30 years ago, I thought I wanted to be a philosophy professor. It took me one academic philosophy conference to realize that was not going to work out for me. But I still like to wax philosophically on topics of interest, albeit in a less rigorous, more informal setting. This blog gives me the perfect platform to share what I know and care about with a very smart and informed audience. I am eternally grateful for that opportunity.

[Eric’s comment: because of my philosophic waxings here, my wife calls my blog the “blah…”]

From Lisa Ramsey:

I was honored when Eric Goldman first asked me to write a guest blog post about the Federal Circuit’s decision in the case In re Elster in 2022. Since that time, Eric has invited me to write (or allowed me to write) other guest blog posts about cases involving potential conflicts between trademark laws and the right to freedom of expression. Given the large number of readers of the blog, this was a great opportunity for me to share my ideas with others who work in the intellectual property law area. It was also nice to have a place to immediately share my thoughts about the US Supreme Court oral argument and decisions in Elster and Jack Daniel’s: Guest Blog Post, Heightened Constitutional Scrutiny is Not Required for Content-Based Trademark Registration Laws that are Viewpoint-Neutral–Vidal v. Elster, Technology & Marketing Law Blog (June 27, 2024); Guest Blog Post, Evaluating the Constitutionality of Viewpoint-Neutral Trademark Registration Laws That Do Not Restrict Speech–Vidal v. Elster, Technology & Marketing Law Blog (Nov. 27, 2023); Guest Blog Post, Resolving Conflicts Between Trademark and Free Speech Rights After Jack Daniel’s v. VIP Products, Technology & Marketing Law Blog (June 21, 2023); Guest Blog Post, The First Amendment Limits Trademark Rights, But How? – Jack Daniel’s v. Bad Spaniels, Technology & Marketing Law Blog (April 3, 2023); Guest Blog Post, Trademark Registration of Political Messages for Expressive Merchandise-In re Elster, Technology & Marketing Law Blog (March 4, 2022)

From Yvette Joy Liebesman:

You and your Technology & Marketing Law blog have become an amazing resource for me and my students. Your encouragement, enthusiasm, engagement, and mentorship has propelled me and many others to become better scholars.

You welcome voices other than your own, and often have open invitations to post our thoughts on current Advertising/Marketing/IP/internet topics. Many single-owner law blogs do not afford such opportunities.  About 15 years ago, you published the first of two guest blogs from me, and I hope to avail myself of more in the future.  You truly have created a welcome avenue to discuss relevant issues of the day.

From Tyler Ochoa:

Many years ago, I considered starting a blog about copyright law, and I asked Eric for his advice about his experience. The number of hours he put in was daunting, and his candid advice was sufficient to deter me from starting something I could not consistently do well. But he kindly offered me the opportunity to start by contributing guest posts to his blog, so I could see what the experience was like without having to create (or re-create) the initial infrastructure. Guest blogging has been a fabulous opportunity for me: I get to opine occasionally on some of the important copyright and ROP issues of the day, to a guaranteed audience of interested professionals, without having to generate enough posts to maintain a blog and an audience of my own. And it serves as a handy resource to preserve my initial thoughts about a problem for later use. Just one example: my three-part monster posts on the Music Modernization Act of 2018. I had to read the legislation carefully in order to update the treatise and the casebook; but by blogging it, I could preserve my careful analysis for later use in both, while at the same time serving as a resource for informing others. Whenever I am confronted with an issue concerning the MMA, the first thing I do is to retrieve the relevant post(s), so I can quickly bring myself back up to speed.

I have now contributed 43 guest posts to the blog (about 3 or 4 per year in recent years). A great big “thank you” to Eric for providing the public forum. I trust from his kind comments over the years that it is a win-win opportunity for both of us.

[Eric’s comment: it is indeed a win for me and for blog readers when Tyler contributes. His posts are routinely among the most popular on the blog.]

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Coverage of the 20 year blogiversary:

Part 1: Celebrating the Blog’s 20th Blogiversary
Part 2: How Has the Blog Changed Over the Past 20 Years?
Part 3: Who Reads the Blog, and Why?
Part 4: Readers’ Favorite Topics, Posts, and Memes
Part 5: How the Blog Helps Readers
Part 6: Jess Miers Reflects on the Blogiversary
Part 7: Ethan Ackerman Reflects on the Blogiversary
Part 8: Guest Bloggers of the Technology & Marketing Law Blog
Part 9: How Information Consumption Habits Have Changed Over the Years
Part 10: What Will This Blog Look Like in 10 Years?

Coverage of the 10 year blogiversary:

Part 1: Happy 10th Blogiversary!
Part 2: The Blog’s Impact
Part 3: The Blogosphere’s Evolution
Part 4: Changes in Internet and IP Law
Bonus: A Video Interview About the Blog