Dustin Marlan
Associate Professor of Law, and Director of the Intellectual Property Clinic
Areas of Expertise
- Advertising and Marketing Law
- Copyright Law
- Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law
- Entrepreneurship and the Law
- Intellectual Property Law
- Internet Law
- Media Law
- Privacy Law
- Public Interest Law
- Science and Technology Law
- Trademark Law
Biography
Dustin Marlan’s area of interest is intellectual justice. His research explores how metaphor, rhetoric, and imagery shape intellectual property and technology law, with particular focus on trademarks, the right of publicity, and bioethics. His scholarship has appeared in leading law reviews, including the Boston University Law Review, Texas A&M Law Review, UC Davis Law Review, Washington Law Review, and William & Mary Law Review, and was recently featured in JOTWELL.
As Director of the Intellectual Property Clinic, Marlan supervises students who assist entrepreneurs, small businesses, and nonprofits in protecting trademark and other IP assets, applying his academic research in real-world contexts. He also teaches the Privacy Law Survey course. He was previously an affiliated researcher with the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School’s Project on Psychedelics and Regulation (POPLAR) and remains engaged in this emerging field.
Marlan earned his J.D., cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, where he served as a senior editor of the Journal of Constitutional Law. He practiced law at K&L Gates LLP and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC before entering academia. Prior to joining Carolina Law, he taught at the University of Michigan Law School and the University of Massachusetts School of Law.
Selected Publications
The Trademark Bargain, 75 AM. U. L. REV. (forthcoming 2026).
Servicing Trade Dress: Demystifying the Tertium Quid, 58 U.C. DAVIS L. REV. 1513 (2025).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN
Psychedelic Capitalism and the Perceptual Threshold, 103 B.U. L. REV. 643 (2023).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein
The Nightmare of Dream Advertising, 65 WM. & MARY L. REV. 259 (2023).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein | BEPress
The Dystopian Right of Publicity, 37 BERKELEY TECH. L.J. 803 (2022).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein
Is the Word "Consumer" Biasing Trademark Law?, 8 TEX. A&M L. REV. 367 (2021).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein | BEPress
Rethinking Trademark Law's "Consumer" Label, 55 GONZ. L. REV. 422 (2020).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein
Unmasking the Right of Publicity, 71 HASTINGS L.J. 419 (2020).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein | BEPress
Beyond Cannabis: Psychedelic Decriminalization and Social Justice, 23 LEWIS & CLARK L. REV. 851 (2019).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein
Visual Metaphor and Trademark Distinctiveness, 93 WASH. L. REV. 767 (2018).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein