Pamela Samuelson

Pamela Samuelson is the Richard M. Sherman Distinguished Professor of Law and Information at the University of California, Berkeley, with a joint appointment in Berkeley Law School and the School of Information. She serves as Co-Director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology and chairs the board of Authors Alliance. Her expertise spans intellectual property law, digital copyright, cyberlaw, and information policy. She has held visiting roles at Harvard Law School, the University of Melbourne, and the University of Toronto.

Samuelson earned a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Hawaii (1971–1972) and a J.D. from Yale Law School (1976). She has contributed over 70 columns to Communications of the ACM since 1990 and was a MacArthur Foundation Fellow (1997–2002). Her awards include the Women of Vision Award (2005) and Public Knowledge’s IP3 Award (2010).

Her research focuses on balancing IP rights with public access to knowledge, particularly in digital environments. Key topics include copyright injunctions, software protection, AI’s legal implications, and patent boundaries. Her work emphasizes empirical analysis and policy reform.

Samuelson advises Authors Alliance and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. She has authored influential articles on topics like the Google v. Oracle case, design patent remedies, and software fair use. Her interdisciplinary approach bridges legal and computational disciplines.