About:

Mark Edward Blankenship Jr. joined Ott Law Firm as an Associate in April 2021, and serves as the 2022-2023 Media Law Committee Chair for the Missouri Bar Association. His specializations include: Labor and Employment Law, Commercial Tort Litigation, Intellectual Property Law, Sports and Entertainment Transactions and Licensing, and Data Privacy Law. Blankenship’s legal scholarship has been featured in the Notre Dame Journal of Legislation, the Wake Forest Journal of Business & Intellectual Property, the Nevada Law Journal Forum, the Rutgers Journal of Law & Public Policy, the UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law, and many others.

Blankenship obtained his Master of Laws (LL.M.), with an emphasis in intellectual property law, at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University. He also received his Juris Doctor from the University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law (2019), where he served as the Operations Manager for Volume 107 of the Kentucky Law Journal (the tenth oldest continually published law review in the United States), the Vice President for the UK Sports & Entertainment Law Society, and as a research assistant for the Spears-Gilbert Professor of Law Brian L. Frye. During law school he did internships for the Georgia Public Defender, the Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville’s Volunteer Lawyers and Professionals for the Arts (VLPA), and a judicial externship for Hon. Kimberly N. Bunnell of the Fayette County Circuit Court in Lexington, KY.

Prior to law school, he graduated magna cum laude from Georgia Southern University with a B.A. in Music (percussion emphasis), and a minor in Business. During his time at Georgia Southern University, Blankenship participated in various ensembles and became a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Music Fraternity and other honor societies.

Academic Publications:

• “I’m Not a Biologist”: A Hayekian Perspective on the Judge’s Implementation of Knowledge and the Umpire Analogy, 20 Rutgers J.L. Pub. Pol’y _ (forthcoming 2023).
• Dead Frogs, Dissected Jokes, & Thin Copyright: Analyzing Copyrightable Elements and Legal Protection of Stand-Up Comedy, 2 Fla. Enter. & Sports L. Rev. _ (forthcoming 2023).
• “Apprenticeship” as IP Metaphor: A Modern & Innovative Natural Law Approach in Intellectual Property Law, 50 N. Ky. L. Rev. _ (forthcoming 2023).
• Oh Brother, Where Art Thou Royalties? Reflecting on the Emergence of Bluegrass and Appalachian Folk Music in Promoting the American Music Fairness Act, 49 J. Legis. _ (forthcoming 2022).
• Laid to Rust: Proposing Strict Liability in Tort for Prop Firearm Injuries Following the Alec Baldwin Shooting, 7 Nev. L.J. Forum _ (forthcoming 2022).
• With Eyes to See and Ears to Beer: Navigating Multisensory Intellectual Property Rights in the Craft Beer Industry, 21 Wake Forest J. Bus. & Intell. Prop. 395 (2021).
• A Horse Walks into a Bar: Comparing Easterbrook’s Criticized Cyberlaw Analogy to the Study of Alcoholic Beverage Law & Regulation, 25 Ill. Bus. L.J. 41 (2020).
• Harry Potter & the “Chinese” Philosopher’s Stone: Deconstructing Copyright Piracy Through Shanzhai, 19 UIC Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 101 (2020).

Affiliations:

• American Bar Association (2021-Present)
• American Intellectual Property Law Association (2021-Present)
• Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis (2021-Present)
• Federal Communications Bar Association (2022-Present)
• Intellectual Property Owners Association (2022-Present)
• International Association of Privacy Professionals (2021-Present)
• Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association (2022-Present)
• Missouri Bar Media Law Committee Chair (2022-2023)