Melissa M. Eckhause
Melissa M.听Eckhause
Co-Director, Arts & Entertainment Law Clinic
Associate Professor of Law
Degrees
- LL.M. University of California, Berkeley School of Law
- J.D. 海角大神 School of Law
- B.A. University of Wisconsin
Biography
Melissa Eckhause’s research lies at the intersection of technology, intellectual property law, and art, and focuses on the rights of visual artists, musicians, and other creators in the digital age. Prior to entering academia, for over ten years, she represented music and film producers, Fortune 500 companies, start-ups, entertainment professionals, and professional athletes.
Professor Eckhause joined the Detroit Mercy Law faculty in 2020 as a Visiting Professor of Law. In 2022, she was promoted to Assistant Professor of Law and founded Detroit Mercy Law’s Arts & Entertainment Law Clinic. In 2025, she was promoted to Associate Professor of Law. She previously taught at the University of Southern California, Golden Gate University School of Law, and Texas A&M University School of Law.
Professor Eckhause enjoys biking, skiing, and traveling with her family. In her free time, she also writes screenplays, and her script “Manny’s Mutts” won a screenwriting award.
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Courses Taught
Applied Legal Theoryand Analysis I and II
Arts & Entertainment Law Clinic
Copyright Law
Entertainment Law
First Amendment
Trademark Law
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Selected Publications
Closed Doors to Justice: How the Copyright Claims Board is Shuttering Out Pro Se Litigants, 43 CARDOZO ARTS & ENT. L.J. 1 (2025)
Copyright Troll in ELGAR ENCYCLOPEDIA OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW (Paul Torremans et al. eds., Edward Elgar Pub’g 2023), (contributor)
Fighting Image Piracy or Copyright Trolling? An Empirical Study of Photography Copyright Infringement Lawsuits, 86 Albany Law Review 111 (2022)
Digital Sampling v. Appropriation Art: Why is One Stealing and the Other Fair Use? A Proposal for a Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Digital Music Sampling, 84 Mo. L. Rev. 371 (2019).
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Selected Presentations
Intellectual Property Scholars Conference, (presenter), August 2024, Berkeley, California.
“Copyright Trolling and the Copyright Claims Board,” (speaker), Federal Bar Association Eastern District of Michigan, June 2024, online.
Conference on Innovation and Communications Law, (presenter), June 2024, University of Leeds, United Kingdom.
University of Pennsylvania and Columbia Law School’s Ninth Copyright Scholarship Roundtable, (presenter), May 2024, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
“The Copyright Claims Board and the Fears of Copyright Trolling,” (speaker), U.S. Inventors, February 2024, online.
Duke Law School and Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law’s 7th Workshop on Empirical Methods in Intellectual Property, (presenter), July 2023, Durham, North Carolina.
“Copyright Claims Board Roundtable Discussion,” The Copyright Society (Speaker, virtual appearance, May 2023)
“Fighting Image Piracy or Copyright Trolling?: An Empirical Study of Photography Copyright Infringement Lawsuits,” 7th Annual Copyright Scholarship Roundtable, hosted by Columbia Law School (Presenter, New York, NY, June 2022)