John F. Duffy

John F. DuffySenior Scholar

Direct Dial: (434) 243-8544
Email: jfduffy@law.virginia.edu

Professor John F. Duffy is a Senior Scholar at C-IP2 and the Samuel H. McCoy II Professor of Law and the Elizabeth D. and Richard A. Merrill Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law. Professor Duffy received an A.B. in physics from Harvard College in 1985 and a J.D. from the University of Chicago in 1989. Prior to entering academics, Professor Duffy clerked for Stephen Williams on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and for Justice Scalia on the Supreme Court of the United States and also served as an Attorney-Advisor in the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel.

Professor Duffy is the co-author of a leading casebook on patent law, Patent Law and Policy (6th ed. 2013) (with Robert Patrick Merges) and has published articles on a wide range of regulatory and intellectual property issues in journals such as University of Chicago Law Review, Columbia Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, Virginia Law Review, Texas Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, NYU Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review and the Supreme Court Review. His 2008 article “Are Administrative Patent Judges Unconstitutional?” was covered on National Public Radio (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90245762) and in the New York Times (Adam Liptak, In One Flaw, Questions on Validity of 46 Judges, May 6, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/06/washington/06bar.html). The article subsequently led to the enactment of legislation that restructured the appointment process for patent judges.

Professor Duffy also consults on litigation and has served as counsel for parties or amici in cases such as KSR v. Teleflex, 550 U.S. 398 (2007), Lucent Technologies, Inc. v. Gateway, Inc., 580 F. 3d 1301 (Fed. Cir. 2009), Bilski v. Kappos, 561 U.S. 593 (2010), Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Eli Lilly and Co., 598 F. 3d 1336 (Fed. Cir. 2010) (en banc), TC Heartland. v. Kraft Foods, 137 S.Ct. 1514 (2017), Oil States Energy Services, LLC v. Greene’s Energy Group, LLC, 138 S.Ct. 1365 (2018), and Helsinn v. Teva,  139 S. Ct. 628 (2019).