Professor Michael J. Madison

Professor Madison is the Faculty Director of the Innovation Practice Institute, and Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. Professor Madison writes and teaches about intellectual property law and policy, and about questions concerning the production and distribution of knowledge and innovation. He is the author of more than 30 journal articles and book chapters, the co-author of The Law of Intellectual Property (Wolters Kluwer, 5th edition 2017) and the co-editor of Governing Knowledge Commons (Oxford University Press 2014) and Governing Medical Knowledge Commons (Cambridge University Press 2017).

He is the co-founder of the global research network titled the Workshop on Governing Knowledge Commons. Classroom subjects include various disciplines of intellectual property law, contracts and commercial law, and property law. His research and scholarship address the emerging discipline of knowledge commons, governance of innovation institutions, and knowledge as a subject of legal regulation. Professor Madison joined the Pitt Law faculty in 1998. 

Before becoming a law professor, he practiced law in San Francisco and Silicon Valley for nine years. He received his J.D. from Stanford University and his B.A. from Yale.