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Shontavia Johnson

Shontavia Johnson

Shontavia Johnson joined the Drake University Law School faculty in 2010 and was named the Kern Family Chair in Intellectual Property Law and Director of the Intellectual Property Law Center in 2016. She teaches Introduction to Intellectual Property, Trademark and Unfair Competition Law, Internet Law, Entertainment Law, and Property Law. Named one of the Top 40 Young Lawyers in the US by the American Bar Association, Shontavia was recently placed on the prestigious Fulbright Specialist roster and named a 2016 A. Leon Higginbotham Fellow by the American Arbitration Association.

Shontavia’s research focuses on intellectual property law, entrepreneurship, and innovation, and includes such topics as the protectability and reach of unregistered trademarks used on the Internet, the impact of the America Invents Act on startups and entrepreneurs, the role of the Thirteenth Amendment when permanent tattoos embody commercial trademarks, and viral meme trademarks. Her publications have appeared in the Berkeley Technology Law Review, the Michigan Telecommunications and Technology Law Review, the John Marshall Review of Intellectual Property Law, and the Arkansas Law Review. Shontavia has taught intellectual property law to students in the U.S. and abroad and served as a consultant to both startups and large corporations.

In 2014, Shontavia’s article, Trademark Territoriality in Cyberspace: An Internet Framework for Common Law Trademarks, was awarded the International Trademark Association Ladas Memorial Award, a competition that identifies the best article in the world on a trademark law topic. That same year, her article, Memetic Theory, Trademarks & the Viral Meme Mark, won third place in the competition. Shontavia has received the Iowa Organization of Women Attorneys Gertrude Rush Award, the South Carolina Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics Outstanding Alumnus Award, and the Jackie Robinson Foundation 42 Under 40 Alumni Award. In 2013, Shontavia was also named one of 40 Lawyers Under 40 by the National Bar Association and IMPACT.

Shontavia is also the founder and managing attorney of Jackson Johnson LLC, a boutique law firm serving entrepreneurs and entertainers. She frequently counsels clients in all areas of intellectual property law and consults with clients on entrepreneurial growth and development. She is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office and a licensed mediator and arbitrator.

Shontavia received a B.S. in Biosystems Engineering from Clemson University, where she was a Palmetto Fellows Scholar, Coca-Cola Clemson Scholar, and a Jackie Robinson Foundation Scholar. She received her J.D. from the University of Arkansas School of Law, where she was associate editor of the Arkansas Law Review and a member of the National Criminal Procedure Moot Court team. While in law school, she was named a Vincent W. Foster Scholar, Jim G. Ferguson Scholar, and Harold Flowers Law Society Scholar, and she also served as a judicial extern to Judge Jimm Larry Hendren of the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas. Shontavia also studied international law and comparative constitutional law at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa.

Can the world ever really keep terrorists off the internet?

Jun 09, 2017 18:28 pm UTC| Insights & Views Technology

After Londons most recent terror attacks, British Prime Minister Theresa May called on countries to collaborate on internet regulation to prevent terrorism planning online. May criticized online spaces that allow such...

America's always had black inventors – even when the patent system explicitly excluded them

Feb 15, 2017 06:38 am UTC| Insights & Views Law Politics

America has long been the land of innovation. More than 13,000 years ago, the Clovis people created what many call the first American invention a stone tool used primarily to hunt large game. This spirit of American...

Celebrity voices are powerful, but does the First Amendment let them say anything they want?

Dec 12, 2016 09:57 am UTC| Law

When NFL player Colin Kaepernick refuses to stand for the national anthem, or the cast of the Broadway musical Hamilton confronts the vice president-elect, or the Dixie Chicks speak out against war, talk quickly turns to...

US Election Series

Donald Trump tweeted himself into the White House

Nov 10, 2016 22:14 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics

Donald Trumps presidential election victory has been described as stunning, shocking and having elicited a primal scream from the media. The president-elect resonated enough with more than 59 million Americans that they...

How the IOC effectively maintains a gag order on nonsponsors of the Olympics

Aug 13, 2016 11:00 am UTC| Insights & Views Law Sports

If youre one of the billions of people around the world following the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in any form, youre probably aware of its most talked-about sports moments. Simone Biles of the United States (with dual Belizean...

Who owns your tattoo? Maybe not you

Aug 08, 2016 05:53 am UTC| Insights & Views Law

More than 20 percent of all Americans have at least one tattoo, and for millennials that number jumps to almost 40 percent. What could be more intimately a part of you than a work of body art permanently inked into your...

Can you sue if someone posts an unflattering photo of you on social media?

Mar 08, 2016 23:46 pm UTC| Law

Open your Twitter or Instagram account and chances are good somewhere in there you may see an unflattering photo of a stranger. Its become increasingly common to share pictures of people we dont know online. And it...

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Economy

RBI Clamps Down on Rupee NDF Activity, Banks Face Steeper Losses

Indian banks are bracing for heightened uncertainty after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) tightened its grip on currency markets, barring lenders from offering rupee non-deliverable forwards (NDFs) to both resident and...

Oil Prices Surge Over $5 as Trump Vows to Continue Iran Strikes

Global oil prices jumped sharply on Thursday after President Donald Trump declared that the United States would press forward with military strikes against Iran, stopping short of outlining any concrete timeline or exit...

Trump's Iran War Speech Sparks Market Anxiety Over Extended Conflict

President Donald Trump addressed the nation Wednesday evening, declaring that U.S. military operations against Iran were nearing their core objectives but warned that intensive strikes would continue for another two to...

Trump Threatens Escalation Against Iran, Warns of Infrastructure Strikes

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that the United States would significantly intensify its military operations against Iran within the next two to three weeks, while warning of devastating strikes on the countrys...

Asian Stocks Drop as Trump Signals Iran War Escalation

Asian equity markets retreated sharply on Thursday, erasing earlier gains as U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans to intensify military operations against Iran within the next two to three weeks. The remarks sent...

Politics

Federal Judge Rules CBP Violated Warrantless Arrest Order During Sacramento Immigration Sweep

A federal judge in California has found that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials violated a prior court order when they conducted a warrantless immigration sweep at a Sacramento Home Depot parking lot. U.S....

Coral Springs Vice Mayor Nancy Metayer Bowen Killed in Suspected Domestic Violence Incident

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Trump Administration Plans 100% Tariffs on Pharmaceutical Imports

The Trump administration is moving forward with plans to impose tariffs as high as 100% on pharmaceutical imports, according to a Financial Times report citing sources familiar with the matter. The levies could be...

Trump Defends U.S.-Israel War on Iran in Prime-Time Address as Public Support Wanes

President Donald Trump took to prime-time television Wednesday night to defend the ongoing U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran, now entering its second month. In a 19-minute White House address, Trump claimed...

Trump Claims Iran Sought Ceasefire as Middle East War Escalates

Tensions in the Middle East reached a new flashpoint this week as U.S. President Donald Trump publicly claimed that a senior Iranian official requested a ceasefire, a statement Tehran swiftly and firmly rejected. The...

Science

NASA Artemis II: First Crewed Moon Mission Since Apollo Takes Four Astronauts on 10-Day Lunar Journey

NASAs Artemis II mission launched Wednesday, marking humanitys return to crewed lunar exploration for the first time since the Apollo era. Carrying four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft, this historic 10-day mission...

NASA's Artemis II Mission: First Crewed Lunar Journey Since Apollo

NASAs Artemis II mission launched Wednesday, marking humanitys return to crewed lunar exploration for the first time since the Apollo era. Carrying four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft, this historic 10-day mission...

NASA's Artemis II Crew Arrives in Florida for Historic Moon Mission

The four astronauts chosen for NASAs Artemis II mission have touched down at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, marking the beginning of final launch preparations for the first crewed lunar journey in over 50 years. NASA...

SpaceX Pivots Toward Moon City as Musk Reframes Long-Term Space Vision

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has revealed a significant shift in the companys near-term space exploration strategy, announcing that SpaceX is now prioritizing the development of a self-growing city on the Moon rather than focusing...

SpaceX Prioritizes Moon Mission Before Mars as Starship Development Accelerates

Elon Musks SpaceX is shifting its near-term space exploration strategy, choosing to prioritize a return to the Moon before pursuing missions to Mars, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report citing sources familiar...

Technology

SpaceX Eyes Historic IPO at $1.75 Trillion Valuation

Elon Musks aerospace giant SpaceX has quietly filed a confidential IPO registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, according to Bloomberg News sources familiar with the matter. The move signals that the...

Annie Altman Amends Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman

Annie Altman has filed an amended civil lawsuit against her brother, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, accusing him of sexually abusing her over a span of nearly a decade. The amended complaint was submitted Wednesday in St. Louis...

TSMC Japan's Second Fab to Produce 3nm Chips by 2028

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the worlds leading contract chipmaker, has confirmed plans to begin equipment installation and mass production of 3-nanometre wafers at its second fabrication plant in...

Apple Turns 50: From Garage Startup to AI Crossroads

In early 1976, engineer Steve Wozniak finished designing a computer circuit board he planned to share with fellow hobbyists at a local California tech club. His friend Steve Jobs recognized a commercial opportunity, and...

Rubio Directs U.S. Diplomats to Use X and Military Psyops to Counter Foreign Propaganda

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has instructed American diplomats to leverage social media platform X and collaborate with Pentagon psychological operations units as part of a broader strategy to combat foreign...
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