William (Terry) Fisher

William (Terry) Fisher is the Hale and Dorr Professor of Intellectual Property Law. Every other year he teaches Intellectual Property: International and Comparative Dimensions, and increasingly in his regular Copyright and Patent courses he uses materials drawn from foreign practice in recognition of the increasingly global character of those fields. He is currently working on a book (with SJD student Talha Syed) on how the legal system — and particularly the patent system — could be adjusted to improve the development and distribution of drugs in developing countries. Between 1997 and 2000, Terry spent time in Central America working on a project funded by five Central American countries to examine real and intellectual property systems with an eye to improving them. With Martha Field he co-authored Legal Reform in Central America: Dispute Resolution and Property Systems (2001). Recently Terry traveled to Honduras where many of his recommendations were accepted and implemented. His 2004 book Promises to Keep: Technology, Law and the Future of Entertainment argued that an alternative compensation system would be superior to the copyright regime as a mechanism for managing the online distribution of digital audio and video recordings. He is now exploring opportunities for the creation of such a system in Brazil, China and Eastern Europe. Terry is on the policy committee for Harvard's David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies.

For contact and additional information, see: http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/facdir.php?id=20

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