Lyman Ray Patterson (18 February 1929 – 5 November 2003) was an American law professor and an influential copyright scholar and historian.
During Patterson's tenure at Mercer he attended Harvard Law School and wrote his S.J.D.
The dissertation became the foundation for his influential book Copyright in Historical Perspective, published in 1968 and still in print as of 2024.
In 1987, he joined the University of Georgia (UGA) School of Law faculty and remained there until his death in 2003.
His oldest grandson, Thomas Ray Hilado, also attended Mercer University in his grandfather's footsteps.