Rutgers Law School in Camden has received a $50,000 gift to support an annual lecture series focused on intellectual property.

William McNichol, an adjunct professor at Rutgers Law School in Camden, contributed this gift to make certain that the annual Greg Lastowka Memorial Lecture continues to grow as a premier national forum for experts in intellectual property to share their insights into this rapidly evolving field.

The series commemorates Lastowka, a Rutgers Law School faculty member who lost a courageous battle against cancer in 2015. The scholar was known internationally for his pathbreaking scholarship in the areas of copyright, trademark, cyber property, video games, and virtual worlds, which forged new fields and impacted multiple areas of intellectual property and other law.

“The Lastowka Lecture has become an important part of the vibrant intellectual property program at Rutgers Law School,” says McNichol. “It is also a fitting way to honor the memory of our dear friend Greg Lastowka, who contributed so much to Rutgers and its intellectual property program. I'm very happy to see the lecture remain as a part of the life of the law school.”

According to Michael Carrier, a distinguished professor at Rutgers Law School in Camden, the Lastowka Lecture addresses cutting-edge issues of intellectual property at the heart of the modern economy and society. “Congress, the courts, and the general public are engaging with important issues related to patents, copyrights, and antitrust that affect consumers in their use of technology, entertainment, and pharmaceuticals,” says Carrier. “This gift will mean that Professor Lastowka’s legacy will live on in a format that keeps alive his imaginative and far-sighted perspectives on intellectual property. Professor Lastowka made a difference inside and outside the academy and this gift will continue that impact.”

Since 1999, McNichol has served as a faculty member at Rutgers Law School in Camden. A leading expert on intellectual property law, McNichol has lectured throughout the United States, Asia, South America, and Europe. He has represented clients in such prominent cases as Administrators of the Tulane Educational Fund v. Ipsen Pharma and Perricone v. Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp.

McNichol has published his scholarship in such journals as The Trademark Reporter and the Journal of the Patent and Trademark Office Society.

He is a graduate of Villanova University, where he earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and law degrees.