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, How Can a Departing Employee Misappropriate Their Own Creative Outputs?, 66 Vill. L. Rev. (forthcoming 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).
• T.E. Murphy, D.Y. Chen, E. Cagin, and J.D. Phillips, Electronic Properties Of ZnO Epilayers Grown On C-Plane Sapphire By Plasma-Assisted Molecular Beam Epitaxy, Proceedings from the 22nd North American Molecular Beam Epitaxy Conference, October 10-13, 2004, Banff, Canada, Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology B, Volume 23 (3), 1277-1280 (2005).
• T.E. Murphy, D.Y. Chen, and J.D. Phillips, Growth And Electronic Properties Of ZnO Epilayers By Plasma-Assisted Molecular Beam Epitaxy, Proceedings from the 2004 U.S. Workshop on the Physics and Chemistry of II-VI Materials, October 5-7, 2004, Chicago, Illinois, Journal of Electronic Materials, Volume 34 (6), 699-703 (2005).
• T. E. Murphy, J. O. Blaszczak, K. Moazzami, W. E. Bowen, And J. D. Phillips, Properties Of Electrical Contacts On Bulk And Epitaxial n-Type ZnO, Proceedings from the 46th TMS Electronic Materials Conference, June 23-25, 2004, Notre Dame, Indiana, Journal of Electronic Materials, Volume 34 (4), 389-394 (2005).
• T.E. Murphy, S. Walavalkar, and J.D. Phillips, Epitaxial growth and surface modeling of ZnO on c-plane Al2O3, Applied Physics Letters, Volume 85 (26), 6338-6340 (2004).
• T.E. Murphy, D.Y. Chen, and J.D. Phillips, Electronic Properties Of Ferroelectric BaTiO3/MgO Capacitors On GaAs, Applied Physics Letters, Volume 85 (15), 3208-3210 (2004).
• T.E. Murphy, D.Y. Chen, and J.D. Phillips, Integration of BaTiO3 Ferroelectric Thin Films with GaAs for Functional Devices, Proceedings of the 15th Biennial University/Government/Industry Microelectronics Symposium, June 30-July 2, 2003, Boise, Idaho (2003).

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