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Sharon Sandeen

B.A., University of California, Berkeley
J.D., University of the Pacific, McGeorge
LL.M., University of California, Berkeley School of Law

Areas of legal expertise: U.S. and International Intellectual Property Law, Computer and Internet Law, Unfair Trade Practices, Information Privacy Law.

Professor Sandeen practiced law for more than 15 years and served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Pacific, McGeorge School of Law for five years before coming to Hamline in the fall of 2002. Since 1996, she has taught a wide variety of intellectual property courses, including the IP survey course, Trademark Law, Copyright Law, International Intellectual Property, Computer and Internet Law, E-Commerce, and Information Privacy. Professor Sandeen's research interests and recent scholarship focus on trade secret law. 

Upon graduating from law school in 1985, Professor Sandeen focused her practice on trademark and trade secret law and intellectual property litigation. An active member of the federal bar during her years of practice, Professor Sandeen served on the Civil Justice Advisory Group for the U.S. District Courts, Eastern District of California, and as a lawyer representative to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference.

She was a founding member of the Intellectual Property Section of the Sacramento County Bar and a former member of the Executive Committee of the State Bar of California, Intellectual Property Law Section. She currently co-chairs the Intellectual Property Desk Book Working Group of the Intellectual Property Committee of the Section of Business Law of the American Bar Association.

 Sharon K. Sandeen Promoted to Professor of Law

Selected Publications

• The Treatment of Trade Secrets in Bankruptcy, published in 2008 in the Gonzaga Law Review as part of a Symposium by the (new) Gonzaga Commercial Law Center (forthcoming 2008).
• Kewanee Revisited: Returning to First Principles of Intellectual Property Law to Determine the Issue of Federal Preemption, 12 Marq. Intell. Prop. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2008).
• Intellectual Property Desk Book For Business Lawyers:  A Transactions-Based Guide to Intellectual Property La, American Bar Association, Section of Business Law, Intellectual Property Committee (Sharon K. Sandeen ed., June 2007). 
• Relative Privacy: What Privacy Advocates Can Learn from Trade Secret Law, 2006 MICH. ST. L. REV. 667 (2006). PDF
• Trade Secret Law:  The Cinderella of Intellectual Property Law, in Intellectual Property and Information Wealth, Issues and Practices in the Digital Age, (Peter K. Yu ed., Praeger Publishers 2006).
• Contract by Any Other Name is Still a Contract: Examining the Effectiveness of Trade Secret Clauses to Protect Databases, 45 IDEA 119 (2005). PDF
• Defenders of Small Business?: A Perspective on the Supreme Court’s Recent Trademark Jurisprudence, 30 WM. MITCHELL L. REV. 1705 (2004). PDF
• The Sense and Nonsense of Web Site Terms of Use Agreements, 26 HAMLINE L. REV. 499 (2003). PDF
• In for a Calf is not Always in for a Cow: An Analysis of the Constitutional Right of Anonymity as Applied to Anonymous E-Commerce, 29 HASTINGS CONST. L.Q. 527 (2002). PDF
• Preserving the Public Trust in State-Owned Intellectual Property: A Recommendation for Legislative Action, 32 MCGEORGE L. REV. 385 (2001). PDF
• Conflicting Rights: Intellectual Property Litigation and the Privilege Against Self Incrimination, 3 PROPRIETARY RTS. J. 9 (1991).