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Shontavia Johnson

Shontavia Johnson joined the Drake University Law School faculty in 2010 and was named the Kern Family Chair in Intellectual Property Law and Director of the Intellectual Property Law Center in 2016. She teaches Introduction to Intellectual Property, Trademark and Unfair Competition Law, Internet Law, Entertainment Law, and Property Law. Named one of the Top 40 Young Lawyers in the US by the American Bar Association, Shontavia was recently placed on the prestigious Fulbright Specialist roster and named a 2016 A. Leon Higginbotham Fellow by the American Arbitration Association.

Shontavia’s research focuses on intellectual property law, entrepreneurship, and innovation, and includes such topics as the protectability and reach of unregistered trademarks used on the Internet, the impact of the America Invents Act on startups and entrepreneurs, the role of the Thirteenth Amendment when permanent tattoos embody commercial trademarks, and viral meme trademarks. Her publications have appeared in the Berkeley Technology Law Review, the Michigan Telecommunications and Technology Law Review, the John Marshall Review of Intellectual Property Law, and the Arkansas Law Review. Shontavia has taught intellectual property law to students in the U.S. and abroad and served as a consultant to both startups and large corporations.

In 2014, Shontavia’s article, Trademark Territoriality in Cyberspace: An Internet Framework for Common Law Trademarks, was awarded the International Trademark Association Ladas Memorial Award, a competition that identifies the best article in the world on a trademark law topic. That same year, her article, Memetic Theory, Trademarks & the Viral Meme Mark, won third place in the competition. Shontavia has received the Iowa Organization of Women Attorneys Gertrude Rush Award, the South Carolina Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics Outstanding Alumnus Award, and the Jackie Robinson Foundation 42 Under 40 Alumni Award. In 2013, Shontavia was also named one of 40 Lawyers Under 40 by the National Bar Association and IMPACT.

Shontavia is also the founder and managing attorney of Jackson Johnson LLC, a boutique law firm serving entrepreneurs and entertainers. She frequently counsels clients in all areas of intellectual property law and consults with clients on entrepreneurial growth and development. She is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office and a licensed mediator and arbitrator.

Shontavia received a B.S. in Biosystems Engineering from Clemson University, where she was a Palmetto Fellows Scholar, Coca-Cola Clemson Scholar, and a Jackie Robinson Foundation Scholar. She received her J.D. from the University of Arkansas School of Law, where she was associate editor of the Arkansas Law Review and a member of the National Criminal Procedure Moot Court team. While in law school, she was named a Vincent W. Foster Scholar, Jim G. Ferguson Scholar, and Harold Flowers Law Society Scholar, and she also served as a judicial extern to Judge Jimm Larry Hendren of the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas. Shontavia also studied international law and comparative constitutional law at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa.

Can the world ever really keep terrorists off the internet?

Jun 09, 2017 18:28 pm UTC| Insights & Views Technology

After Londons most recent terror attacks, British Prime Minister Theresa May called on countries to collaborate on internet regulation to prevent terrorism planning online. May criticized online spaces that allow such...

America's always had black inventors – even when the patent system explicitly excluded them

Feb 15, 2017 06:38 am UTC| Insights & Views Law Politics

America has long been the land of innovation. More than 13,000 years ago, the Clovis people created what many call the first American invention a stone tool used primarily to hunt large game. This spirit of American...

Celebrity voices are powerful, but does the First Amendment let them say anything they want?

Dec 12, 2016 09:57 am UTC| Law

When NFL player Colin Kaepernick refuses to stand for the national anthem, or the cast of the Broadway musical Hamilton confronts the vice president-elect, or the Dixie Chicks speak out against war, talk quickly turns to...

US Election Series

Donald Trump tweeted himself into the White House

Nov 10, 2016 22:14 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics

Donald Trumps presidential election victory has been described as stunning, shocking and having elicited a primal scream from the media. The president-elect resonated enough with more than 59 million Americans that they...

How the IOC effectively maintains a gag order on nonsponsors of the Olympics

Aug 13, 2016 11:00 am UTC| Insights & Views Law Sports

If youre one of the billions of people around the world following the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in any form, youre probably aware of its most talked-about sports moments. Simone Biles of the United States (with dual Belizean...

Who owns your tattoo? Maybe not you

Aug 08, 2016 05:53 am UTC| Insights & Views Law

More than 20 percent of all Americans have at least one tattoo, and for millennials that number jumps to almost 40 percent. What could be more intimately a part of you than a work of body art permanently inked into your...

Can you sue if someone posts an unflattering photo of you on social media?

Mar 08, 2016 23:46 pm UTC| Law

Open your Twitter or Instagram account and chances are good somewhere in there you may see an unflattering photo of a stranger. Its become increasingly common to share pictures of people we dont know online. And it...

Economy

What should you do if you can’t pay your rent or mortgage?

The cost of living crisis is making it difficult for many people to pay their bills, including housing costs. Private sector rents have increased by an average 9% over the year to February 2024, and rising interest rates...

Some experts say the US economy is on the up, but here’s why voters don’t think so

Many Americans are gloomy about the economy, despite some data saying it is improving. The Economist even took this discussion to TikTok. When its US editor John Prideaux examined inflation, wage and employment numbers,...

Electric air taxis are on the way – quiet eVTOLs may be flying passengers as early as 2025

Imagine a future with nearly silent air taxis flying above traffic jams and navigating between skyscrapers and suburban droneports. Transportation arrives at the touch of your smartphone and with minimal environmental...

Electricity from farm waste: how biogas could help Malawians with no power

In sub-Saharan Africa, over 600 million people (more than 50% of the population) are without access to electricity. Malawi has one of the worlds lowest electricity access rates just 14.1% of the total population have...

High interest rates aren’t going away anytime soon – a business economist explains why

The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady at its May 1, 2024, policy meeting, dashing the hopes of potential homebuyers and others who were hoping for a cut. Not only will rates remain at their current level a...

Politics

Donald Trump Allegedly Offers Oil Execs a Deal to Scrap EV Incentives for $1B Donation

Former President Donald Trump reportedly proposed a $1 billion deal to oil executives, offering to end electric vehicle (EV) subsidies in return for campaign funding, according to The Washington Post. This move underscores...

Taiwan is experiencing millions of cyberattacks every day

Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety of grey zone tactics to pressure...

What the Supreme Court is doing right in considering Trump’s immunity case

Following the nearly three-hour oral argument about presidential immunity in the Supreme Court on April 25, 2024, many commentators were aghast. The general theme, among legal and political experts alike, was a...

US student Gaza protests: five things that have been missed

Coverage of the recent student encampments at more than 50 universities across the United States has focused on confrontations between opposing groups of protesters or between protesters and police. The spectacle of...

Will Solomon Islands’ new leader stay close to China?

Former foreign minister Jeremiah Manele has been elected the next prime minister of Solomon Islands, defeating the opposition leader, Matthew Wale, in a vote in parliament. The result is a mixed bag for former prime...

Science

IceCube researchers detect a rare type of energetic neutrino sent from powerful astronomical objects

About a trillion tiny particles called neutrinos pass through you every second. Created during the Big Bang, these relic neutrinos exist throughout the entire universe, but they cant harm you. In fact, only one of them is...

The Mars Sample Return mission has a shaky future, and NASA is calling on private companies for backup

A critical NASA mission in the search for life beyond Earth, Mars Sample Return, is in trouble. Its budget has ballooned from US$5 billion to over $11 billion, and the sample return date may slip from the end of this...

Dark matter: our new experiment aims to turn the ghostly substance into actual light

A ghost is haunting our universe. This has been known in astronomy and cosmology for decades. Observations suggest that about 85% of all the matter in the universe is mysterious and invisible. These two qualities are...

A Nasa rover has reached a promising place to search for fossilised life on Mars

While we go about our daily lives on Earth, a nuclear-powered robot the size of a small car is trundling around Mars looking for fossils. Unlike its predecessor Curiosity, Nasas Perseverance rover is explicitly intended to...

The rising flood of space junk is a risk to us on Earth – and governments are on the hook

A piece of space junk recently crashed through the roof and floor of a mans home in Florida. Nasa later confirmed that the object had come from unwanted hardware released from the international space station. The 700g,...

Technology

Pepe Coin Reaches New ATH as Smart Money Moves 250.5B PEPE Tokens

Pepe currency has emerged as one of the most promising cryptocurrencies in the meme coin industry this year, recently reaching a new all-time high. Despite the turmoil in the broader crypto market, the coin has defied...

Analysts Predict Bitcoin (BTC) Surge to $70K Soon, Here’s Why

Despite a rise beyond $63,000 on May 13, Bitcoins price has fallen to $61,500 today (May 14). One cause for the drop could be Coinbases operating troubles. System Outage on US-Based Exchange Repairs, Analysts Predict...

1.5 Trillion Shiba Inu (SHIB) Transacted in 24 Hours: Is a Comeback Imminent?

Shiba Inu has seen 1.5 trillion SHIB tokens move in huge deals over the previous 24 hours. These whale-tier transactions take place during a significant volume rise in the market over the last 48 hours. Shiba Inu may...

Huawei Disputes Kirin X-Series PC Chip Rumors Amid Intel, Qualcomm Export License Cancellation

Huawei has denied allegations about its Kirin X-series PC chip development following the revocation of Intel and Qualcomms export licenses by the United States. Intel Export License Revocation Recently, the United...

OKX Expands to Australia, Introduces BTC, ETH, SOL Trading Options

OKX, a leading worldwide cryptocurrency exchange and Web3 technology business, has officially launched its crypto exchange services in Australia. This expansion is a big milestone for OKX, since it now provides spot (buy...