It may have been chance that ultimately landed Professor Tom Cotter on the Minnesota Law faculty in 2006, but the serendipitous steps that led him there provided strong footing for a rewarding career in domestic and international property law, antitrust, and law and economics. 

The Chicago native was planning to major in civil engineering at Georgia Tech but instead switched to economics, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Wisconsin. Not one to do math all day, he decided against a Ph.D. and instead chose law school. “It was sort of by default, but I found it a very good fit for what I enjoyed,” he says. 

Intellectual property (IP) law classes were rare then, so Cotter says he knew virtually nothing about IP when he took on his first case—a patent case—in practice at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, New York. Later, at Jenner& Block, Chicago, he was assigned a trademark case, again tackling a gap in his legal knowledge. But he found IPso interesting and intellectually engaging, he committed to pursuing that area of law in the academic world. 

Cotter joined the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law in 1994, when its sole IP professor, who taughta single IP class, was retiring and the world of IP was beginning to explode. 

“With the growth of the internet, new issues beganto arise that nobody had confronted before,” he says. “Software patents and issues related to trademarks were uncharted territory at that point. Now you have artificial intelligence and the internet of things. These issues are going to continue to proliferate—what the law is, what new laws are going to be created, how old laws are interpreted.” 

‘A panoply of human creativity’ 

Cotter’s background in science, math, and economics proved valuable. Becoming a patent litigator without having a technical background is possible, he says. But, he adds, “You have to have a creative mind, and you need to be scientifically literate. There’s always something new and interesting you have to learn how to do.” 

Copyright and other aspects of IP law cover what Cotter terms “a panoply of human creativity,” from entertainment and sports to fine arts, literature, and music. “It’s such an interesting field, and for me it’s an exceptionally good fit.” 

In today’s sophisticated high tech world, IP is also increasingly important, both domestically and internationally. In addition to books and articles, Cotter writes a widely respected blog on comparative patent remedies, taking on litigation issues that create tension among different jurisdictions. “While patents and IP are territorial, commerce is global,” he says. “An enormous amount of money is at stake.” 

A Scholar and Practitioner 

Sharing this specialized expertise means that Cotter serves the community not only as a scholar but also as someone with practitioner experience, says professor and patent law program director Christopher M. Turoski ’98. He describes Cotter as a generous colleague and an accessible, supportive mentor with an open-door policy. Cotter is also known for championing new ideas and forging connections with other parts of the University, as well as legal and corporate communities.

Students often follow Cotter from course to course, benefitting from his experience with real world cases.“I try to help them think strategically about one argument versus another, thinking through the logic of both sides of an issue and making the best case they can,” Cotter says. “I very much enjoy teaching such intelligent, eager students.” 

As the Law School’s associate dean for research and planning, Cotter is “a delight, super-organized, very conscientious,” says Professor Oren Gross, associate dean for academic affairs. “I feel that things won’t fall through the cracks. He’s never dramatic, doesn’t hyperventilate, or go into panic mode. To me, that’s fantastic.” 

Gross lauds Cotter’s ability to focus on research components and alert faculty to grants and other opportunities, as well as his efforts to reach outside academia to serve as expert witness and conference participant. “Every aspect of IP has huge significance in today’s world,” says Gross. “For example, clashes over patents very much affect all of us, whether we know it or not.” 

As Cotter details in his book Patent Wars, people generally do not realize how many patented inventions and other forms of intellectual property are embodied in the products and services we use every day. Thinking about IP, and about how it can be used and abused, is what Cotter loves to do. He also relishes his role as associate dean where he gets to work with and promote “a wonderful group of scholars who are productive, engaged, and committed.” With two book projects pending, he continues to thrive and grow, right along with the field he fell into so serendipitously.