Patent Law

IP-Watch on Obama IP insiders

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

IP and technology experts such as Duke University law professor Arti Rai, former Federal Communications Chairman Reed Hundt, and MIT computer scientist Daniel Weitzner have been part of Obama?s inner campaign circle, according to sources.

Other names that have been associated with discussions of IP, technology and privacy during the campaign include: former American Intellectual Property Law Association President Jim Pooley, who has been working with the Obama campaign; Chris Sprigman, associate IP law professor at University of Virginia Law School; Beth Noveck, New York Law School professor and creator of the Peer-to-Patent pilot being operated by the school; Thomas Kalil, special assistant to the chancellor for science and technology at the University of California at Berkeley; Andrew McLaughlin, Head of Global Public Policy and Government Affairs for Google; and Peter Swire, a part-time senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and former Clinton Administration chief counselor for privacy, an Obama privacy and security advisor, according to sources.

Patent Docs wrote:

Harold Wegner, a partner at Foley & Lardner LLP and professor at George Washington University Law School, noted in a Wednesday newsletter to his e-mail subscribers that "[s]everal Foley members, particularly in Washington, D.C., and Chicago, have been actively involved with the Obama campaign." In particular, Prof. Wegner mentioned that Chicago-based Foley partner Sharon Barner (at left) has been both "actively involved" in the Senator Obama's campaign and, in addition, has "the longest association with President-elect Obama of any of the Foley team members involved in the Obama campaign." For those in the patent community who have been worried that the President-elect might be getting his patent advice solely from law school professors, Prof. Wegner's disclosure should come as a welcome relief.

(...)

Representing Senator Obama's campaign were Professor Arti Rai, from the Duke University School of Law (and a former classmate of Senator Obama's at Harvard Law School), and Associate Professor Christopher Sprigman, from the University of Virginia School of Law.

[IPBiz notes Sprigman is a former classmate of USPTO Director Dudas at UofC Law School.]

Full post as published by IPBiz on November 10, 2008 (boomark / email).