Posts Tagged: "In Loving Memory"

Unfortunately, I’ve known for a couple of weeks what this month’s column was likely to be about. After a brief illness, my friend Howard Bremer died last Friday… Working through WARF, Howard’s efforts were critical in our eventual success enacting Bayh-Dole despite long odds. Over the years, he remained a steadfast defender pushing back against the critics of the patent system… Howard attended the Association of University Technology Managers meeting this year—an organization he helped found in the 1970’s to foster the profession. Howard knew it was his last as he was not physically able to travel any longer. But there was no sadness; he enjoyed seeing many of his friends for what he knew was the final time…

At precisely 10:00 pm on Tuesday, July 30, 2013, Renee’s father and my father-in-law, Richard Compasso passed. I write this article to honor Pop, as I took to calling him in recent years. I would like everyone to know about the good many that I knew and how he will be missed.

Dad left this mortal world this past Thursday, December 27, at the age of 94, having experienced a full life and after a final year and a half of fairly steady (and occasionally precipitous) physical and mental decline. For about 11 years, Dad was a patent examiner at the USPTO in one of the chemical art units. Dad then spent another 30 years or so as a patent attorney with the former IP law firm of Cushman, Darby, and Cushman, first as an associate, and later as a partner. In all, Dad prosecuted and obtained several thousand patents for his clients, mostly in the chemical arts. (That’s correct, several thousand patents.) Dad often wrote patent applications the old fashioned way, by hand, usually starting with the abstract, and going forward from there.

It is with an indescribably profound sadness that I write this article. In the early morning hours of May 17, 2012, my mother — Mary Catherine Quinn — passed, succumbing to her fight against cancer. My mother was my closest friend and I will miss her more than any words could possibly describe.

If you’re in the profession of technology transfer, you just lost a close friend. Whether you knew him or not, you are a beneficiary of Norman J. Latker who passed away last weekend. Concerned that new innovations were driving up health care costs (a familiar sounding theme), the Carter Administration terminated the program. Norm, Howard Bremer, and Ralph Davis of Purdue set up a meeting with Senator Birch Bayh’s office asking that the program be made the basis for a uniform government patent policy. This request led to the introduction of the Bayh-Dole Act.

It is with great sadness that I am writing to inform that Robert H. Rines passed away on Sunday, November 1, 2009.  Bob was a patent lawyer, an inventor and the founder of Franklin Pierce Law Center, where I received both my JD and LL.M. degrees.  He was a fierce advocate for independent inventors, a tremendous patent attorney and world-class…