Peter Karol

Professor Karol joined Suffolk University Law School in 2025, after spending over a decade as a professor and director of the intellectual property law programs at the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law and New England Law | Boston. He focuses his scholarship on intellectual property matters generally and art, museum, copyright, and trademark law in particular. Professor Karol has published widely in top law reviews, including most recently, articles exploring the trademark cases of the German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer and the legal implications of the rise of certificate-based conceptual and contemporary art practices. He is currently working on a full-length book with NYU Press exploring the intersection of visual art, creativity and trademark law.

Professor Karol cofounded a leading art law conference, makes regular radio appearances, and is a frequent contributor to top art publications, offering his views on everything from authorship in AI-generated works to the Supreme Court's Warhol v. Goldsmith opinion on copyright fair use. He has also long taught the law of real property and provided expert commentary on local and national property law matters, including Massachusetts zoning issues.

Prior to becoming a full-time law professor, Professor Karol was a partner at Sunstein LLP, where he represented clients in complex intellectual property litigation and trademark portfolio development and enforcement. He remains Of Counsel at the firm and continues to counsel clients and serve as an expert witness in intellectual property cases.

Publications

Books

• FROM DÜRER™ TO JUDD(R): CENTERING THE ARTIST IN TRADEMARK LAW (NYU Press) (under contract, work in progress)
• POSTHUMOUS ART, LAW AND THE ART MARKET: THE AFTERLIFE OF ART (Sharon Hecker and Peter J. Karol, eds., Routledge April 2022)

Articles

• What's the Use? The Structural Flaw Undermining Warhol v. Goldsmith, 71 J. Copyright Soc'y 107 (2024)
• Albrecht Dürer's Enforcement Actions: A Trademark Origin Story, 25 Vand. J. Ent. & Tech. 421 (2023)
• Permissive Certificates: Collectors of Art as Collectors of Permissions, 94 Wash. L. Rev. 1175 (October 2019)
• The Threat of Termination in A Dematerialized Art Market, 64 J. Copyright Soc'y U.S.A. 187 (Spring 2017)
• Trademark's eBay Problem, 26 Fordham Intell. Prop. Media & Ent. L.J. 625 (2016)

Chapters

• The Cost of Decommissioning, in POSTHUMOUS ART, LAW AND THE ART MARKET: THE AFTERLIFE OF ART (Sharon Hecker and Peter J. Karol, eds., April 2022)
• Mapping and Critiquing the Legal Landscape in the United States, in INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON DISABILITY EXCEPTIONS IN COPYRIGHT LAW AND THE VISUAL ARTS: FEELING ART (Jani McCutcheon and Ana Ramalho, eds., Routledge 2020)

Media

WBUR's Radio Boston

• What to know about the lawsuit against Milton over noncompliance with a housing law, Radio Boston (WBUR, October 4, 2024)
• Record labels accuse Cambridge AI startup Suno of massive copyright infringement, Radio Boston (WBUR, June 26, 2024)
• Unpacking the Law Surrounding "The Holdovers" Plagiarism Allegations, Radio Boston (WBUR, March 18, 2024)
• Donna Summer's Estate Takes on Kanye West in Copyright Battle, Radio Boston (WBUR, February 21, 2024)
• How the Supreme Court's ruling on a Jack Daniel's-inspired dog toy intersects with an old Cape Cod canine case, Radio Boston (WBUR, June 21, 2023)
• How a Supreme Court ruling on an Andy Warhol piece could shape the future of art, Radio Boston (WBUR, May 23, 2023)
• An Intellectual Property Law Expert on Warhol, Whiskey, and the Red Sox, Radio Boston (WBUR, April 3, 2023)

Selected Magazine Articles

• Ghosts in the Machine: Inside the bizarre world of AI copyright law, Aperture No. 257 (Winter 2024)
• After Warhol, The transformative impact of Warhol v. Goldsmith, Artforum (June 5, 2023)
• Royalty Check, Artforum (April 5, 2021)
• Why Did the Guggenheim Decommission a Donald Judd? Hyperallergic (May 31, 2020)
• Extraction Point: Copyright Termination and Dematerialized Art, Artforum (September 21, 2017)

Education

Harvard Law School, J.D.
Amherst College, B.A.

Bar Admittance:

Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Awards & Honors

Chair, Association of American Law Schools Art Law Committee (2025)
Faculty Director, Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectual Property (2023-2025)
Associate Dean, New England Law | Boston (2022-2023)
Justice of the Peace of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (2016 – 2023)