Peter Karol

Peter J. Karol

Professor
FACULTY DIRECTOR, FRANKLIN PIERCE CENTER FOR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Phone: (603) 513-5108
Office: UNHL JD Instruction, 2 White Street, Concord, NH 03301

Professor Karol joined the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law in 2023, after spending over a decade as associate dean, professor, and director of the intellectual property law certificate program at New England Law | Boston. In addition to teaching, Professor Karol also serves as the faculty director of the school’s renowned Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectual Property. He focuses his scholarship on intellectual property matters generally and art, museum, copyright, and trademark law in particular.

Professor Karol has published widely in top law reviews, including most recently, articles exploring the trademark cases of the German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer and the legal implications of the rise of certificate-based conceptual and contemporary art practices. He is a frequent contributor to Artforum’s opinion column, offering his views on everything from the Supreme Court’s Warhol v. Goldsmith decision to artist resale royalty rights in NFT smart contracts. Called one of our “favorite intellectual property law experts” by Radio Boston’s Tiziana Dearing, Prof. Karol also makes regular radio guest appearances to discuss intellectual property matters.

Prior to becoming a full-time law professor, Professor Karol was a partner at Sunstein LLP, where he represented clients in complex intellectual property litigation and trademark portfolio development and enforcement. He remains Of Counsel at the firm.

Courses Taught

  • LGP 952: Property
  • LGP 990: LawSpcTop/Law& The Visual Arts
  • LIP 944: Fund of Intellectual Property
  • LIP 977: Trademarks&Deceptive Practices
  • LSK 960: Law Journal Staff
  • LSK 961: Law Journal Editorial Board

Education

  • J.D., Harvard Law School

Research Interests

  • Law
  • Patents, Copyrights, Trademarks
  • Museums
  • Intellectual Property
  • Property
  • Art Works/Artifacts - Restoration & Preservation

Selected Publications

  • Karol, P. (2023). Albrecht Dürer’s Enforcement Actions: A Trademark Origin Story. Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law, 25, 421.

  • Karol, P. (2023). After Warhol, The transformative impact of Warhol v. Goldsmith. Artforum.

  • Hecker, S., & Karol, P. J. (2022). Posthumous Art, Law and the Art Market The Afterlife of Art. Routledge.

  • Hecker, S., & Karol, P. J. (n.d.). Posthumous Art, Law and the Art Market. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781003185697

  • Karol, P. (2021). Royalty Check. Artforum.

  • McCutcheon, J., & Ramalho, A. (Eds.) (n.d.). International Perspectives on Disability Exceptions in Copyright Law and the Visual Arts. In . Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780429342677

  • Karol, P. (2020). Why Did the Guggenheim Decommission a Donald Judd?. Hyperallergic.

  • Karol, P. (n.d.). The Threat of Termination in A Dematerialized Art Market, 64 J. Copyright Soc’y U.S.A. 187 (Spring 2017). J. Copyright Soc’y U.S.A., 64, 187.

  • Karol, P. (n.d.). What's the Use? The Structural Flaw Undermining Warhol v. Goldsmith. Journal of the Copyright Society of the USA, 71.

  • Karol, P. (n.d.). Permissive Certificates: Collectors of Art as Collectors of Permissions. SSRN Electronic Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.3295181