
Preparing Future Leaders in IP Law
Exploring the world of intellectual property law through UW Law’s globally renowned IP LL.M. program.
Phone: (206) 685-2459
Email: pnicolas@uw.edu
B.A. 1991 (Economics), M.P.P. 1992, University of Michigan J.D. 1999, Harvard University A.A.A.S. 2021 (Music Performance), Shoreline Community College B.A. 2023 (Music), University of Washington
Affirmative Action — Civil Rights — Constitutional Law — Copyright Law — Evidence — Federal Courts — LGBTQ Rights — Music Law — Reproductive Rights
See the full list under the Publications tab below.
Professor Nicolas joined the UW law school faculty in 2000 following a clerkship with Judge Michael Boudin on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard, where he served on the editorial board of the Harvard Law Review. His teaching and research interests include evidence, constitutional law, copyright, music law, sexual orientation and gender identity law, federal courts, international civil litigation and conflict of laws.
Professor Nicolas is a nationally recognized expert in the fields of evidence, constitutional law, music law, federal courts and sexual orientation law. He is the author of three national textbooks on the topics of evidence; constitutional law; and sexual orientation, gender identity and the law. His textbooks have been adopted for classroom use at law schools throughout the United States.
Professor Nicolas's scholarship has been cited by countless scholars and dozens of federal and state courts, including the United States Supreme Court. He has served as a consultant on cases nationwide involving the rights of same-sex couples and he has been invited to give lectures to attorneys and judges on the nuances of evidence and constitutional law.
Professor Nicolas's current teaching and scholarship focuses on the intersection of copyright law and music theory. Professor Nicolas teaches courses on copyright, music law and policy, and music industry deals, and his current scholarship focuses on the intersection of the two fields. Professor Nicolas has studied music at Shoreline Community College and the University of Washington, with a focus on music theory; music history; composition; piano; and popular and classical voice. He is frequently consulted by national news outlets on questions related to music law. He currently serves as the faculty director of the School of Law's LL.M. program in intellectual property law and policy.
From 2008–2010, Professor Nicolas served as Associate Dean of the UW law school. His responsibilities in that capacity included faculty career development; curriculum delivery (including course scheduling and teaching assignments); appointing faculty committees and serving as a liaison to the academic standards, admissions and curriculum committees; supervising the Director of Academic Services and the Director of Academic Advising; honor code enforcement; and working closely with the Dean and other members of the law school's leadership on all aspects of institutional development and planning.
Prior to pursuing a career in the law, Professor Nicolas was a Research Economist at the University of Michigan and served for two, two-year terms as a member of the Ann Arbor, Michigan, City Council. He is a member of the bars of New York, U.S. District Court of Colorado and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Is Tool being a bunch of tools? Part of their fan base seems to think so. At the band’s inaugural destination festival in Punta Cana this past weekend, attendees — some of whom shelled out thousands of dollars to be there — raged after a promise of “two unique sets” was not upheld. Peter Nicolas, professor of law at the UW, is interviewed.
Because it’s both a religious institution and a university that’s subject to Title IX regulation, the administration’s actions fall into a legal gray zone, said Peter Nicolas, a professor of law at the University of Washington.
Peter Nicolas, music and IP law professor at University of Washington, also predicted Spotify’s victory lap would last until the next royalty board sit-down. “Spotify may be able to make some cash in the short term,” but songwriters and publishers will “negotiate hard” at the next board meeting, he said.
Royalty-chasing by inflating streaming numbers isn’t new, but the use of AI was a “critical ingredient” for Smith’s seven-year-long scheme, said music and intellectual property law professor Peter Nicolas from the University of Washington School of Law. “Otherwise, it would have just been very clunky to commit the fraud on this level,” Nicolas said. “Having the thousands of songs was key to his ability to avoid detection for a while.”
This means that “only the person who composed the underlying music, and not an artist who made a sound recording of someone else’s musical composition, has a performance right,” Peter Nicolas, the director of the Intellectual Property Law & Policy Graduate Program at the University of Washington, told McClatchy News.
“Because you’ve got all of this AI-generated stuff kind of filling up a lot of people’s time and space, it’s going to diminish the the amount of money that these artists and songwriters get,” University of Washington School of Law professor Peter Nicolas said.
Professor Nicolas is nationally known as an expert in constitutional law, evidence, sexual orientation law and intellectual property. Now Nicolas has combined his legal training with his growing academic interest in the study of music.
It's a dramatic period of time for LGBTQ+ rights in this country. Just last week, we marked the 10-year anniversary of legal same-sex marriage in Washington state. Washington was among the first states to approve it. And tomorrow, President Biden is set to sign into law the Respect for Marriage Act, which requires the federal government to recognize same-sex and interracial marriages from across the country.
While the legislation provides some redundant protections already offered by Obergefell, "that's not necessarily a bad thing [when], from what we've seen this year, we can't rely on Supreme Court decisions to remain permanent," said University of Washington professor of law Peter Nicolas, who specializes in, among other matters, LGBTQ issues.
While the legislation provides some redundant protections already offered by Obergefell, “that’s not necessarily a bad thing (when), from what we’ve seen this year, we can’t rely on Supreme Court decisions to remain permanent,” said University of Washington professor of law Peter Nicolas, who specializes in, among other matters, LGBTQ issues.
On July 25, 2022, four days before Beyoncé was set to stop the world with her new album Renaissance, a Kelis fan page on Instagram claimed that a track would sample one of the hip-hop artist’s early 2000s hits. Beyoncé, it turned out, appears to have interpolated Kelis’s 2003 song “Milkshake” on her new track “Energy.” Responding to the fan page, Kelis claimed that Beyoncé did so without giving her a heads-up and slammed the Neptunes’ Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, with whom she worked on the single decades ago, for not originally giving her credit. Peter Nicolas, professor of law at the UW, is interviewed.
An adjunct nursing professor at Seattle Pacific University filed a lawsuit this week accusing the private Christian university of discriminating against him and refusing him job opportunities because of his sexual orientation. Peter Nicolas, professor of law at the UW, is quoted.
Peter Nicolas, the William L. Dwyer Chair in Law at the University of Washington, agrees that Coney Barret’s history and a more conservative Supreme Court could see some rights and protections for LGBTQ+ people eroded by arguments for religious exemptions to anti-discrimination laws, but says sweeping overturns of rights like LGBTQ+ marriage are unlikely.
Peter Nicolas, professor of law at the UW, explains how the Supreme Court ruling protecting LGBTQ from workplace discrimination could have a broader reach.
Exploring the world of intellectual property law through UW Law’s globally renowned IP LL.M. program.
Faculty organized an expert panel to discuss topics including developments in the federal courts and the Supreme Court, LGBTQ+ rights, environmental policy and immigration.
Royalty-chasing by inflating streaming numbers isn’t new, but the use of AI was a “critical ingredient” for Smith’s seven-year-long scheme, said music and intellectual property law professor Peter Nicolas from the University of Washington School of Law. (Source: Bloomberg)
On June 12, learn the history of anti-LGBTQ+ jurisprudence in Washington courts and hear about current and future issues affecting case law in LGBTQ+ rights from UW Law Professor Peter Nicolas and other distinguished panelists.
In three minutes, Peter Nicolas, the William L. Dwyer Chair in Law and an adjunct professor of music, covers the lawsuit and explains why the jury ultimately sided with pop star Ed Sheeran in this landmark case.
Professor Nicolas is nationally known as an expert in constitutional law, evidence, sexual orientation law and intellectual property. Now Nicolas has combined his legal training with his growing academic interest in the study of music.