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Sayoko Blodgett-Ford

Sease Faculty Research Scholar
Associate Professor of Law


sayoko.blodgettford@drake.edu 

Expertise: Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence, and Privacy Law

Education

JD, Yale Law School
Bioethics Fellowship, NYU School of Global Public Health
MA, Columbia University - Philosophy
MS, University of Maryland College Park - Physics (Theoretical Quantum Mechanics)
BS, College of William and Mary - Physics

Experience

  • GTC Law Group PC & Affiliates
  • Tetris Online Inc.
  • Nintendo of America Inc.
  • Boston College Law School (adjunct)
  • University of Hawaii William S. Richardson School of Law (lecturer-in-law)
  • University of Washington Law School (IP LLM - adjunct)
  • Foley Hoag & Eliot LLP, Law Clerk to Judge Douglas P. Woodlock
  • U.S. District Court (D. Mass), Arnold & Porter (summer associate)
  • U.S. Dept. of Justice Honors Program (summer intern - Federal Programs Branch)
  • National Institute of Standards and Technology
  • KFMM radio station Arizona (disc jockey)

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), available at https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/usd/research-handbook-on-the-law-of-artificial-intelligence-9781035316489.html
  • “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)) available at https://oecd.ai/en/wonk/from-myth-to-metrics-real-costs-of-generative-ai.
  • Human Enhancement Technologies and Our Merger with Machines (Published June 2021) (co-editor with Woodrow Barfield), available at https://www.mdpi.com/books/pdfview/book/3859
  • "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) https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/research-handbook-on-the-law-of-artificial-intelligence
  • 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) https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/research-handbook-on-the-law-of-virtual-and-augmented-reality
  • 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).

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.