Sayoko Blodgett-Ford

Biography

Professor Sayoko Blodgett-Ford is an Associate Professor of Law and the inaugural Edmund Sease Research Professor. Her expertise includes intellectual property, artificial intelligence, and privacy law.

Her impressive background includes serving as general counsel of Tetris Online, Inc., and as Senior Manager of the Intellectual Property Group at Nintendo of America Inc. She has also taught intellectual property law courses at the University of Washington, the University of Hawaii, and Boston College. 

Professor Blodgett-Ford’s passion for intellectual property law is rooted in her love of art and science. She finds the field to be a never-ending source of new information and interest. She also uses her background as a physicist to explore artificial intelligence law, ethics, and philosophy. Her interdisciplinary approach to IP law enriches her teaching and research, offering students distinctive perspectives on emerging legal challenges.

Professor Blodgett-Ford graduated from Yale Law School in 1994. She has an MA in Philosophy from Columbia, an MS in Physics from the University of Maryland, and recently completed a Bioethics Fellowship (with a research focus on AI) at New York University.

Areas of Expertise

Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence, and Privacy Law

Education

• JD, Yale Law School
• Bioethics Fellowship, New York University School of Global Public Health
• MA, Columbia University
• MS, University of Maryland College Park
• BS, College of William and Mary

Selected Publications

• "Copyright, Fair Use and AI Technology Development: Time to Sunset the 'Transformative Purpose' Test" (book chapter) in the Research Handbook on the Law of Artificial Intelligence (2nd edition - forthcoming summer 2025 - Publisher: Edward Elgar) (Woodrow Barfield and Ugo Pagallo, editors).
• “From myth to metrics: Communities can leverage the real costs of generative AI when negotiating for data centres” (Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (May 7, 2025)).
• Human Enhancement Technologies and Our Merger with Machines (Published June 2021) (co-editor with Woodrow Barfield).
• "A Real Right to Privacy for Artificial Intelligence" (book chapter) in the Research Handbook on the Law of Artificial Intelligence (Publisher: Edward Elgar) (Woodrow Barfield and Ugo Pagallo, editors) (1st edition 2018).
• Advertising Legal Issues in Virtual and Augmented Reality (book chapter) in Research Handbook on the Law of Virtual and Augmented Reality (Publisher: Edward Elgar) (Woodrow Barfield and Marc Blitz, editors) (2018) (co-authors: Woodrow Barfield and Alexander Williams)
• Data Privacy Legal Issues in Virtual and Augmented Reality (book chapter) in Research Handbook on the Law of Virtual and Augmented Reality (Publisher: Edward Elgar) (Woodrow Barfield and Marc Blitz, editors) (2018) (co-author Mirjam Supponen).
• The Changing Meaning of the Right to Bear Arms, 6 SETON HALL CONST. LAW J. 101 (1995); Do Battered Women Have a Right to Bear Arms? 11 YALE L. & POL’Y REV. 509 (1993)
• Gun Controls and the Connecticut Constitution, 66 CONN. BAR J. 425 (1992) (with J. Drake Turrentine); Intense-field multiphoton ionization of a two-electron atom, J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 29 (1996) L33–L42 (with Jonathan Parker, K T Taylor and Charles W Clark)
• Sequential vs. simultaneous ionization of two-electron atoms by intense laser radiation, in Optical Society of America Annual Meeting, Technical Digest Series (Optica Publishing Group, 1992), paper PD29 (with J. Parker and C. Clark)
• Integration of the Schrödinger Equation on a Massively Parallel Processor, in Short- Wavelength Coherent Radiation: Generation and Application, Technical Digest Series (Optica Publishing Group, 1991), paper TuA6 (with J. Parker and C. Clark)

Speaking Engagements

• Panelist, “AI: The Magic, Some Realities, and the Future,” Yale Law School Center for the Study of Corporate Law, February 27, 2025, Yale Law School, New Haven, CT (Co-sponsored with the Yale Law & Business Society and the Chae Initiative in Private Sector Leadership).
• Speaker, "Opening the Curtain to Reveal the Great and Powerful Oz!  De-Bunking Myths About AI," Iowa Federal Practice Seminar, December 13, 2024, Des Moines, IA.
• Speaker, “Intellectual Property Intersection(s) with Artificial Intelligence,” Iowa Intellectual Property Law Association – November 15, 2024.
• Speaker, Iowa State Legislature – Legislative Services Agency Fall Legal Seminar Series, November 13, 2024, Des Moines, IA (presented on AI key terminology and financial impacts of power and water consumption).
• Speaker, "Opening the Curtain to Reveal the Great and Powerful Oz!  De-Bunking Myths About AI," Iowa Administrative Law Judges Conference, November 8, 2024, Des Moines, IA.
• Speaker, “Intellectual Property Aspects of Artificial Intelligence,” Practicing Law Institute, Sept. 30, 2024 (New York) and October 21, 2024 (San Francisco).