Tim Murphy

Tim Murphy joined the College of Law as an Assistant Professor of Law in 2021 and teaches Contracts and various intellectual property courses. Tim specializes in intellectual property law and in particular, trade secrets issues. Prior to this current appointment, Tim was a clinical professor for three years, teaching in entrepreneurship clinics at Idaho and the University of Michigan Law School.

Before entering academia full-time, Tim was Senior Patent and Trademark Counsel at Micron Technology, Inc. His responsibilities at Micron included managing a portion of Micron’s patent and non-patent IP portfolios. Additionally, Tim was responsible for managing the legal group responsible for all of Micron’s non-disclosure agreements. Tim also spent many years at Micron doing intellectual property licensing in support of Micron’s M&A, joint venture, and joint development programs, in addition to supporting day-to-day business operations.

Prior to joining the Micron legal team, Tim practiced as a patent attorney/agent for several years in Portland, Oregon and Boise, Idaho. Before attending the University of Michigan Law School, Tim held various positions with multiple companies, including R&D engineer, manufacturing engineer, equipment technician, hydroelectric plant operator, and diesel truck mechanic. Tim also served six years in the U.S. Navy as a nuclear reactor plant mechanic and, as a crew member on board the U.S.S. South Carolina, participated in Operation Desert Storm.

• Timothy Murphy, Can Trade Secrets Protection of Routine Business Information Be Justified?, submitted for publication in Spring 2024.
• Timothy Murphy, Do Androids Dream of Economic Incentives, forthcoming in Akron Law Review in Spring 2024.
• Timothy Murphy, Can't Get It out of My Head: Trade Secrets Liability for Remembered Information, 2023 Wɪs. L. Rᴇᴠ. 1929 (2023).
• Timothy Murphy, Memorizing Trade Secrets, 57 Rich. L. Rev. 533 (2023).
• Timothy Murphy, How Can a Departing Employee Misappropriate Their Own Creative Outputs?, 66 Vill. L. Rev. 529 (2021). 
• Timothy Murphy, An Instance of Open Hardware: A Different Approach to Free and Open Source Hardware Licensing, 30 Fordham Intell. Prop. Media & Ent. L. J. 1045 (2020).

Alumni Award for Excellence Inspirational Mentor (2023)

Denise O'Donnell-Day Pro Bono Award, Idaho State Bar, 2011