As an academic,she is a research fellow of the University of Oxford Intellectual Property Research Centre. From 1990 until 1995,she was a professor of law at the Catholic University of America teaching copyright,trademark,unfair competition,and international intellectual property law. Aside from academic journals articles and government reports,Perlmutter is the coauthor of a leading law school casebook on international intellectual property law and policy.[6]
Both in public lecture and in her academic writing,Perlmutter says the American people desire copyright laws that make sense,are fair,and reflect technology currently in use. She argues that the failure of law to adapt quickly to technological change causes disruption to trade,inefficiencies,among other negative effects.[8][9]
In 2020,she was appointed to head the United States Copyright Office by the librarian of Congress,who is the official overseeing that office since the creation in 1897.[7] In 2025,Perlmutter was fired by order of the Trump administration. The firing came after Perlmutter and her office issued a lengthy report about artificial intelligence that is critical of arguments that the use of copyright material to train generative artificial intelligence might be fair use as conceptualized under the Copyright Act (17 U.S.C.) or existing case law,[14][15] as claimed by those representing AI development firms that include Elon Musk's platform.[16][17]
Perlmutter has sued to dispute the legality of the dismissal,as the register is appointed by,and responsible to,the Librarian of Congress.[18]
Congressman Joe Morelle criticized the firing,speculating that Perlmutter was fired because "she refused to rubber-stamp Elon Musk's efforts to mine troves of [copyright] works to train AI models".[19] Other members of Congress,both Republican and Democratic,have pushed back at the Trump administration about its authority to take control of Congress' establishments.[20]
Earlier in the same week as the Perlmutter dismissal,the official who appointed Perlmutter to the office within the library,Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden,[16] had been fired abruptly and without explanation by Trump,[19][21] drawing similar criticism.[15] As of 12 May 2025 new personnel for both positions have not been nominated. The Perlmutter lawsuit followed soon thereafter.
On September 10,2025,a divided three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that Perlmutter is entitled to continue to serve as the register of copyrights at the Library of Congress,despite the White House's claim that Trump had fired her,"because Perlmutter leads an agency that is housed in the Legislative Branch and her primary role is to advise Congress."[22]
Notes
↑ As of May 25, 2025, Perlmutter is still listed as the Register by the Copyright Office website after President Donald Trump ordered her to be replaced by an associate deputy attorney general, Paul Perkins. However, this is an ongoing issue that is not resolved after congressional intervention and pending federal litigation. Perlmutter and Librarian of CongressCarla Hayden were fired by Trump as part of Trumps ongoing eforts to replace large portions of the federal government.[2][3][4]
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