Zaneta Robinson

Professor Zaneta Robinson is a tenured Professor at Wake Forest University School of Law and founding director of the Intellectual Property Law Clinic, where she provides students with hands-on legal experience while serving entrepreneurs, emerging businesses, and Indigenous communities through trademark advocacy and cultural rights protection.

Her academic credentials include:

• Juris Doctor (JD), Wake Forest University School of Law, 2003

Professor Robinson's research critically examines intersections between intellectual property law and linguistic diversity, focusing on systemic failures to protect traditional knowledge of Indigenous communities and address trademark registration vulnerabilities amid global language extinction. She challenges U.S. legal frameworks that recognize only individual/corporate ownership, advocating for reforms to prevent exploitation of cultural heritage while analyzing AI/blockchain impacts on authorship concepts and ownership paradigms in digital landscapes.

Her 2025 scholarship explores how trademark systems inadequately handle endangered languages and applies corpus linguistics to foreign equivalence doctrine, revealing critical gaps in institutional approaches to linguistic preservation. This work identifies urgent needs for updated USPTO tools and public education regarding language-death implications in intellectual property decisions.

Through the Intellectual Property Law Clinic, Professor Robinson mentors students in navigating client representation complexities and professional uncertainty, emphasizing personalized career development over standardized paths. Her experiential pedagogy transforms theoretical knowledge into practice while supporting underserved communities through direct legal services.

The Intellectual Property Law Clinic functions as both an educational incubator for future lawyers and a community resource, specifically advancing intellectual property rights for Indigenous groups and early-stage entrepreneurs through real-world casework under Professor Robinson's supervision.