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(White) Racial Arithmetic as Intellectual Property Architecture

When: Thursday, March 13, 2025, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Where: Lecture Theatre, Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London, 67-69 Lincolns Inn Fields, London WC2A 3JB

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This talk, which employs critical race intellectual property (CRTIP) and quantcrit methodologies, focuses on the histories and presents of statistical analyses in the contexts of media industries and intellectual property, specifically vis-à-vis racial justice.

First, it explores how the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), led by Jack Valenti in collaboration with political actors such as Lyndon B. Johnson, built a Cold War technology-informed framework for producing and circulating claims about the catastrophic costs of sampling, piracy, and counterfeiting.

Second, it explores the myriad strategies that antiracist academics have used to produce empirical research that responds to MPAA and similar industry lobbying practices, as well as their respective efficacy in responding to racialized claims of infringement. Finally, it returns to the Article's central concepts of racial arithmetic and administrative quantification to articulate a path forward that develops statistical literacy backed by data-driven arguments.

Anjali Vats is Associate Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, with a secondary appointment in Communication. Her book, The Color of Creatorship: Intellectual Property, Race and the Making of Americans (Stanford UP, 2020), examines how intellectual property law is shaped by race, coloniality, and nationalism. She has published in law reviews and academic journals, including the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal, the Quarterly Journal of Speech, and Communication, Culture & Critique. Before joining the academy, she clerked for the Honorable A. William Maupin of the Supreme Court of Nevada. Vats served as a Soros Equality Fellow from 2022-2024. Her work has also been recognized by the AAUW, Waterhouse Family Institute, and Ford Foundation, among others.

The talk was chaired by Professor Johanna Gibson, Herchel Smith Professor of Intellectual Property Law, CCLS, QMUL / Director, LLM in Fashion Law, QMUL.

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