Judge C.A. Leedy Professor of Law

School of Law

About Dennis D. Crouch

Dennis Crouch is the Judge C.A. Leedy Professor of Law at Mizzou Law. He is well known for his expertise in both intellectual property and artificial intelligence law.  He is widely published in academic journals and is also known as creator and primary author of the popular patent law blog, Patently-O that includes more than 6,000 substantive posts from the past 20 years and tens of millions of visitors.

He has taught a wide range of courses at Mizzou Law, including patent law and advanced patent law (experiential), copyright, internet law (writing intensive), licensing, law of the internet (popular undergraduate course), civil procedure I and II, property I and II, and professional responsibility.  His patent classes are known for including substantial experiential components, including an internal moot court competition and substantial patent drafting practice.  He has received several teaching awards.

Prior to joining the Mizzou Law Faculty, Crouch was a patent attorney in Chicago, Illinois, and taught at Boston University Law School.  He received a BSE in mechanical engineering cum laude from Princeton University, where he also earned a certificate in engineering management systems. He then earned his JD cum laude from the University of Chicago Law School. While at the University of Chicago, he was a Microsoft, Merck, & Pfizer scholar, and a member of the Olin program in law and economics.

Prior to attending law school, Professor Crouch worked on a number of interesting engineering projects that included time as a research fellow at NASA’s Glenn Research Center, as a software developer at the Mayo Clinic’s department of biomedical imaging, and as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ghana, West Africa. Dennis Crouch grew up on a farm near Pittsburg, Kansas.

Educational Background

BSE, cum laude, Princeton University, '97
JD, cum laude, University of Chicago Law School, '03