Stanford CIS

Christopher Sprigman

Affiliate Scholar

Chris Sprigman is an Associate Professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, where he teaches intellectual property law, antitrust law, competition policy, and comparative constitutional law. His scholarship focuses on how legal rules affect innovation and the deployment of new technologies. Sprigman received his B.A. with honors from the University of Pennsylvania in 1988. He attended the University of Chicago Law School, graduating with honors in 1993. At Chicago he served as an editor of the University of Chicago Law Review. Following graduation, Sprigman clerked for the Honorable Stephen Reinhardt of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and for Justice Lourens H. W. Ackermann of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. Sprigman also taught at the law school of the University of the Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg, South Africa. From 1999 to 2001, Sprigman served as Appellate Counsel in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he worked on U.S. v. Microsoft, among other matters. Sprigman then joined the Washington, D.C. office of King & Spalding LLP, where he was elected a partner. In 2003, Sprigman left law practice to become a Residential Fellow at the Center for Internet & Society at Stanford Law School. Sprigman joined the UVA law faculty in 2005.

Recent articles

Multimedia

Episode #41: Who Owns That Joke

CIS Affiliate Scholar Christopher Sprigman comments on Infinite Guest: Life of the Law. "If someone stole something from you — let’s say, your TV — you’d…

Press

Introducing Christopher Sprigman

For the full profile of CIS Affiliate Scholar Christopher Sprigman, visit NYU Law Magazine. One afternoon last October when Christopher Sprigman heard that the…

Publication

Piracy Fuels the Fashion Industry

When, in 2011, Oprah Winfrey asked Ralph Lauren how he “keeps reinventing,” Mr. Lauren answered: “You copy. Forty-five years of copying; that’s why I’m here.” M…

Press

The Humor Code

"In the wake of the controversy, Oliar and Sprigman decided take a scholarly look at the matter. “It just seemed odd,” says Sprigman, a visiting professor…