Zahr Said

Professor Zahr K. Said is an Associate Professor of Law, promoted to Full Professor effective September 2019. She holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Harvard University, a J.D. from Columbia (where she was a Kent Scholar and served as Articles Editor for the Columbia Journal of Law and the Arts) and a B.A. from U.C. Berkeley (magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa). She taught at the University of Virginia School of Law for three years as a Visiting Professor of Law, and taught at Stanford Law School in 2018. Said's research applies humanistic methods, theories, and texts to problems in legal doctrine and policy. Her work has appeared in the Lewis and Clark Law Review, the Iowa Law Review, the Cardozo Law Review, the North Carolina Law Review, the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology, the Stanford Technology Law Review, and the Columbia Journal of Law and the Arts, among others. Current works in progress examine the role of the jury in copyright law and jury instructions in copyright litigation. Said has also undertaken a qualitative empirical study of the craft brewing scene in Seattle to map its attitudes and norms around creation, collaboration, sharing, and IP enforcement. She is the recipient of the UW Law Faculty Scholarship Award (2015), the Philip A. Trautman 1L Professor of the Year Award (2016), and the UW University Global Innovation Fund Grant. She teaches Torts, Copyright, and Advanced Copyright, and she has taught Advertising as well as the Proseminar for Ph.D. students, which is an introduction to American jurisprudence.

Peer Reviewed Journals & Law Reviews

• Zahr K. Said, Craft Beer and the Rising Tide Effect: An Empirical Study of Sharing and Collaboration among Seattle’s Craft Breweries, 23 Lewis & Clark L. Rev. 355-423 (2019).
• Zahr K. Said & Jessica Silbey, Narrative Topoi in the Digital Age, 68 J. Legal Educ. 103-14 (2018).
• Zahr K. Said, A Transactional Theory of the Reader in Copyright Law, 102 Iowa L. Rev. 605-50 (2017).
• Zahr K. Said, Copyright's Illogical Exclusion of Conceptual Art That Changes Over Time, 39 Colum. J. L. & Arts 335-54 (2016).
• Zahr K. Said, Foreword: Fair Use in the Digital Age, and Campbell v. Acuff-Rose at 21, 90 Wash. L. Rev. 579-96 (2015).
• Zahr K. Said, Defending Deference: A Reply to Professor Sylvain’s Disruption and Deference, 74 Md. L. Rev. 777-84 (2015).
• Zahr K. Said, Reforming Copyright Interpretation, 28 Harv. J. L. & Tech. 469-524 (2015).
• Zahr K. Said, Mandated Disclosure in Literary Hybrid Speech, 88 Wash. L. Rev. 419-74 (2013).
• Zahr K. Said, Only Part of the Picture: A Response to Professor Tushnet's Worth a Thousand Words, 16 Stan. Tech. L. Rev. 349-68 (2013)
• Zahr Said, Fixing Copyright in Characters: Literary Perspectives on a Legal Problem, 35 Cardozo L. Rev. 769-829 (2013).
• Zahr K. Said, Incorporating Literary Methods and Texts in the Teaching of Tort Law, 3 Calif. L. Rev. Circuit 170-81 (2012).
• Zahr Said, Embedded Advertising and the Venture Consumer, 89 N. C. L. Rev. 99-170 (2010).
• Zahr Said Stauffer, Note, ‘Po-mo Karaoke’ or Postcolonial Pastiche? What Fair Use Analysis Could Draw from Literary Criticism, 31 Colum. J.L. & Arts 43-90 (2007).

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Book Chapters

• Zahr Said Stauffer, Rethinking the Arab-African Novel: A Case for Thematization, in Teaching the African Novel (Gaurav Gajanan Desai ed., Modern Language Association 2009). (MLA Options for Teaching no. 24)

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Book Reviews

• Zahr K. Said, Coming of Age in IP: What Goods, Infrastructures, and Property Theory Suggest about the Flourishing of Intellectual Property Scholarship, 49 Tulsa L. Rev. 515-25 (2013) (reviewing Ronald A. Cass & Keith N. Hylton, Laws of Creation: Property Rights in the World of Ideas (2013); Madhavi Sunder, From Goods to a Good Life: Intellectual Property and Global Justice (2012); Brett M. Frischmann, Infrastructure: The Social Value of Shared Resources (2012)).

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Professional Publications

• Zahr Said, A Response to Madhavi Sunder’s From Goods to a Good Life: Intellectual Property and Global Justice, Concurring Opinions (Sep. 11, 2012).

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Other Publications

• Zahr Said Stauffer, The Politicisation of Shakespeare in Arabic in Youssef Chahine’s Film Trilogy, 47 Eng. Stud. Afr. 41-55 (2004).

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• Speaker, "The Coase of Copyright", Oral Argument (podcast) (May 26, 2017)
• Moderator, "The Values and Ethics of Deals", The Art and Science of the IP Deal, University of Washington School of Law (April 7, 2017)
• Speaker, "Interpretive Complexity in Copyright and Trademark: Comparing Substantial Similarity and Likelihood of Confusion", 2014 Works-in-Progress Intellectual Property, Santa Clara School of Law (February 7, 2014)
• Speaker, "Comparing Substantial Similarity and Likelihood of Confusion: A Metacritical Analysis of Copyright and Trademark", 2013 IP Scholars Conference, Cardozo School of Law (August 9, 2013)
• Speaker, "Comparing Methodological Transparency in Copyright and Trademark: A Metacritical Analysis", Annual Meeting, Law and Society Association (May 30, 2013)
• Panelist, "Disclosure in Speech", 2013 Symposium: The Disclosure Crisis, Washington Law Review (February 28, 2013)
• Speaker, "Reverse Engineering Textual Meaning", 12th Annual IP Scholars Conference, Stanford Law School (August 9, 2012)
• Speaker, "Copyright Law and the Ethics of Nonfiction", Annual Meeting and 2012 International Conference on Law and Society, Law and Society Association (June 8, 2012)
• Panelist, "A Response to Robert P. Merges’s", Justifying Intellectual Property, Notre Dame Law School, Symposium, (April 27, 2012)
• Speaker, "Copyright in Characters: A Literary Perspective", IP in the Trees Series, Lewis & Clark Law School (April 4, 2012)
• Speaker, "Copyright in Characters: A Literary Perspective", Center for Intellectual Property Law, Whittier College of Law (March 20, 2012)
• Speaker, "Incorporating Literary Methods and Texts in Teaching Tort Law", Panel on Pedagogical Approaches to the Humanities in Law Schools, Association of American Law Schools (January 6, 2012)
• Speaker, "Teaching Advertising in the Context of Tort Law", Workshop on Advertising Law, University of Tulsa Law School (September 16, 2011)
• Speaker, "Copyright and the Ethics of Nonfiction", 11th Annual Intellectual Property Scholars Conference, De Paul Law School (August 11, 2011)
• Speaker, "Reforming Protection for Literary Characters in Intellectual Property Law", Third Annual Conference on Innovation and Communications Law, La Trobe University School of Law (May 30, 2011)

• Oral Argument: Topoi (Prof. Said interviewed)
  Mar 24, 2019 | Source: Oral Argument podcast
• Did Bremerton hip-hop artist inspire song in Adam Sandler's Netflix special? (Prof. Said)
  Oct 31, 2018 | Source: Kitsap Sun
• Opinion: The Senate Should Not Confirm Kavanaugh
  Oct 03, 2018 | Source: The New York Times
• The Coase of Copyright - A discussion with Prof. Zahr Said
  May 26, 2017 | Source: Oral Argument (Podcast)
• When Copyright Law Falls Short, Public Shaming Can Help - Prof. Said interviewed
  Jul 28, 2016 | Source: KUOW
• Could You Take A Robot To Court If It Steals Your Work? - Prof. Zahr Said quoted
  Nov 11, 2015 | Source: Fusion.net
• Artist Spots Stolen Seahawks Design But Has Little Recourse - Prof. Zahr Said Quoted
  Jan 30, 2015 | Source: KUOW