Abu-Ghazaleh Elected to IP Hall of Fame 2007

CHICAGO -16 September 2007-Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, Chairman and CEO of Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization (TAGorg) became the first expert from the outside the G8 to join the world?s most prominent figures in Intellectual Property as the names of 2007?s inductees into the IP Hall of Fame (www.iphalloffame.com) were announced by the Intellectual Asset Management magazine (UK)
Abu-Ghazaleh and eight other international figures joined last year?s 23 prominent personalities from government, business and academia such as Thomas Edison, Victor Hugo, and president Thomas Jefferson, President James Madission in addition to others for their outstanding contribution to the development of today?s Intellectual Property (IP) system. A total of 32 leaders are now installed in the IP Hall of Fame.
This year, the list included in addition to Abu-Ghazaleh, Hisamitsu Arai, Jerome Gilson, Karl Jorda, Sir Hugh Laddie, Gerald Mossinghoff, Pauline Newman, Kevin Rivette, Joseph Straus.
?I owe my election into the IP Hall of Fame to my distinguished peers who voted me in. I owe my name to my colleagues in Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property who through excellence built AGIP into a global leader. I owe my recognition to my valued clients and associates all over the world who honored me with their confidence. I salute the Arab world community who supported my leadership of Arab Society for Intellectual Property, the regional IP association. I am proud to be in such great company. I thank IAM Magazine for launching this initiative to honor the IP profession worldwide,? Abu-Ghazaleh stated. 
The Intellectual Asset Management magazine announced the names of 2007?s inductees into the IP Hall of Fame after a five month process in which IP leaders around the world had the chance to submit their votes and identify individuals who have helped in establishing IP as one of the key business assets of the 21st century.
An official award ceremony will be held to honor the new members of the IP Hall of Fame in Chicago, October 24, 2007, hosted by Ocean Tomo.

The 2006 and 2007 lists of IP Hall of Fame members are attached.

IP Hall of Fame

The IP Hall of Fame was launched in 2005 by IAM magazine and the process to find inductees for 2007 began in April with the appointment of the IP Hall of Fame Academy. This comprises all living inductees from 2006 and a number of other individuals recognized for their expertise and experience in international IP issues.

Having assembled the Academy, IAM magazine then invited members of the global IP community to submit nominations for potential induction. Over 300 nominations were received in the period from April to June. These were then collated and a short list of around 100 names was sent to Academy members, who then submitted their votes. The voting process ended on 1st September.
The 2007 list:
Talal Abu-Ghazaleh:

Abu-Ghazaleh has provided assistance and support to governmental committees and officials charged with revising and drafting new laws and regulations for the protection and enforcement of IP rights across the Arab world and beyond. As an author, he has also assisted in the publication of numerous groundbreaking reference works on IP in the Arab world, including the compilation of an English translation of all Arab IP laws and a major IP dictionary in Arabic.

Hisamitsu Arai:

One of the most influential Commissioners of the Japanese Patent Office, Arai served a rare two terms and is one of the few Japanese Commissioners to remain a leader in the IP community, both in his home country and internationally, serving on the WIPO Policy Advisory Commission. He was also Secretary General, Intellectual Property Strategy Headquarters, a cabinet secretary position, and is credited with elevating IP issues to the Prime Minister level and continuing to lead Japan?s IP policy.

Jerome Gilson:

The original author of Trademark Protection and Practice, a standard treatise in the field which has been re-named Gilson on Trademarks, Gilson has worked extensively in drafting trademark legislation that has been enacted by Congress, such as the Trademark Law Revision Act 1988 and the Federal Trademark Dilution Act 1995.

Karl Jorda:

Jorda is a Professor of Intellectual Property Law as well as the Director of the Germeshausen Center for the Law of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Franklin Pierce Law Center. Before joining Pierce Law in 1989, Jorda was Chief IP Counsel for 26 years at Ciba-Geigy.

Sir Hugh Laddie:

Laddie has devoted most of his career to IP and has dealt with the subject in the UK as a barrister, judge, solicitor/consultant, mediator and teacher. He has a unique view and insight which he generously shares. He is now a consultant at Rouse & Co International and Professor of Intellectual Property Law at UCL.

Gerald Mossinghoff:

Mossinghoff is a former Commissioner of the USPTO, he currently advises the firm Oblon Spivak. One of the worlds premier IP specialists, he advised President Reagan on the establishment of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which strengthened and brought certainty to patent law in the US. He also initiated an automation program at the USPTO which computerized the USPTO?s databases.

Pauline Newman:

Newman is a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. She is one of the most prominent women patent lawyers in the world. She was, for many years, the only female chief patent counsel of a major company, the FMC Corporation. Newman was instrumental in bringing about a number of the patent reforms of the early 1980s, including the creation of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. President Reagan later appointed her to that court.

Kevin Rivette:

Rivette is a former patent attorney, founder of Aurigin Systems and, until recently, VP of IP Strategy at IBM. Few books have had more impact on intellectual asset management than Rembrandts in the Attic, a book that played a pivotal role in making IP much more accessible to the non-specialist.

Joseph Straus:

Professor Straus is a director of Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property in Munich. He is a leading academic figure in European patent law and one of the most renowned and influential patent scholars worldwide. He shaped many of the current IP doctrines and his opinion is most respected by national governments and non-governmental institutions. Straus teaches at many leading IP institutions worldwide.

The 2006 list:

Don Banner
A founding partner of IP boutique Banner & Witcoff LLP and a former Commissioner of the US Patent and Trademark Office, Banner played a key role in the development of the international IP system. He was a Chairman of the American Bar Association Intellectual Property Law Section, Co-founder and Chairman of the Association of Corporate Patent Counsel, Trustee of the Licensing Executives Society, President of the American Patent Law Association, Chairman of the International Patent and Trademark Association, and Co-founder and President of IPO (Intellectual Property Owners). He also headed the US delegation to the international conferences on the revision of the Paris Convention; and was a member of the US delegation to the conferences establishing the Patent Cooperation Treaty. Sadly, he died just days before the final IP Hall of Fame induction vote was concluded.
Heinz Bardehle
A founding partner of Munich IP boutique Bardehle Pagenberg, Bardehle has had a long involvement in international intellectual property issues - especially with regard to the harmonization of patent law and practice - as well as serving as an adviser to the German government on IP. He began his career with Siemens in Berlin, becoming head of the telecommunication division of the patent department. In 1967 he moved to private practice and later co-founded Bardehle Pagenberg, the first partnership of patent attorneys and attorneys at law in Germany. In 2001 Bardehle was awarded the Great Cross of Merit of the German Federal Republic by the Minister of Justice. He is Honorary President of FICPI and chairs the AIPPI?s working group for the Patent Cooperation Treaty.
Birch Bayh
Bayh, a Democratic senator from Indiana from 1963 to 1981, was a co-author of the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980. This piece of legislation allowed US universities and non-profit organizations to own and commercialize inventions that were created with federal funding. As a result, universities became much more active in patenting their inventions and transferring their IP to the private sector for commercialization through license agreements and other forms of technology transfer. The Economist said that: "The Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 is perhaps the most inspired piece of legislation to be enacted in America over the past half-century... More than anything, this single policy measure helped to reverse Americas precipitous slide into industrial irrelevance."
Friedrich Karl Beier
Beier was for many years the managing director of the Max-Planck Institute for Foreign and International Patent Trademark Copyright and Competition Law in Munich. He took over the leadership of the Institute from its founder, Eugen Ulmer, and it was during Beier?s reign that the Institute expanded and flourished. Over the decades, the Institute has influenced the development of jurisdiction and legislation in the field of intellectual property in many ways across Europe. By way of example, the Institute influenced the European harmonization of unfair competition law, trademark law and legislation on design rights, copyright and the patenting of biotechnological inventions.
Johann van Benthem
One of the founding fathers of the European Patent Office (EPO), as well as its first President. The patent regime in Europe owes its current shape to the former Dutch resistance fighter who, like many others, emerged from the Second World War determined that a more integrated Europe would lead to a lasting peace. Starting with a meeting in Brussels in 1960, he worked tirelessly, alongside four German counterparts and friends (Kurt Haertel, Albrecht Krieger, Romuald Singer and Klaus Pfanner), to build the European Patent System, which was finally approved by the Munich diplomatic conference of 1973. The EPO, originally designed for a maximum of one-seventh of today?s application volumes, is recognized as a rare, self-financing, European success story.
Arpad Bogsch
Bogsch was the Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) from 1963 to 1997, as well as serving as Secretary General of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants. Under his direction, WIPO expanded its role and influence in the world of industrial and intellectual property. Bogsch launched a multitude of groundbreaking initiatives, notably by advocating the conclusion and revision of numerous international treaties, launching an ambitious program of assistance to developing countries, modernizing the system for the international registration of marks, creating the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Centre, and presiding over the baptism of ATRIP, a world association of intellectual property teachers and researchers. He was also the father of the Patent Cooperation Treaty. In addition, he contributed extensively to providing China with a modern intellectual property system and welcoming it into the international intellectual property community. Similarly, when the Soviet Union broke up he actively assisted the countries that emerged to create their own national systems and, as far as most are concerned, to build up a common patent regime through the Eurasian Patent Convention.
Sir Edward Coke
An influential English jurist and author of the Statute of Monopolies of 1624, the basis of the distinction between patents of invention and patents given at the caprice of the sovereign. Coke has long been acclaimed as a key figure in the emergence of the modern free-market economy in England. During a long career in which he was successively Attorney General (1594-1606), Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas (1606-1613), Chief Justice of the Court of King?s Bench (1613-1616) and, from 1620, leader of the Parliamentary opposition to the King in the House of Commons, many historians have lauded Coke as a significant force behind the deregulation of the English economy, most notably through his role as a leading opponent of royal grants of monopoly rights to favored individuals.
Thomas Edison
One of the greatest inventors and industrial leaders in history, he obtained 1,093 US patents, the most issued to any individual. Edisons greatest contribution was the first practical electric lighting. He invented the first successful electric light bulb and set up the first electrical power distribution company. He invented the phonograph, made improvements to the telegraph, telephone and motion picture technology, and also founded the first modern research laboratory. He remains today the outstanding example of the use of the patent system to enable industrial and economic development. "The Wizard of Menlo Park" was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production to the process of invention. He is also credited as pioneering the first fully fledged R&D laboratory. Through his inventions and entrepreneurial business use of IP, he is often considered to be one of the most influential persons in shaping the modern world.
Kurt Hartel
Hartel was president of the German Patent Office at a time when the European Patent Convention was under discussion; he played a leading role in ensuring that the convention became a realty. He was the driving force behind both the Munich and the Luxembourg Patent Conventions, negotiating (among others) on behalf of the Federal Republic of Germany to get those treaties in place. Before becoming President of the German Patent Office in 1963, he spent many years working within the German Ministry of Justice.
Victor Hugo
French author Hugo was known not only for his literary works, but also for his key role in mobilizing support for the international protection of authors? rights. At the time, internationally known writers were increasingly concerned about the unauthorized copying of their works in other countries, but existing bilateral copyright treaties were complex and difficult to enforce. In 1878, under Hugo?s leadership, they formed the International Literary Association in Paris. At its 1883 meeting in Berne, at which Hugo presided, the group produced a draft text of an international copyright agreement. They persuaded the Swiss government to organize an international conference, using the draft as the basis for an international convention on copyright. International conferences continued in Berne over the following three years, resulting in the completion in 1886 of the Berne Convention, the foundation for international copyright protection.
Sir Robin Jacob
The senior patent judge in the UK and one of the rare IP judicial experts in Europe. His judgments are highly influential in the European arena. His major achievement as a judge in the English courts has been to streamline procedures in patent cases. This has resulted in a considerable acceleration of the procedure and a reduction in the cost. He has therefore helped to maintain the English courts as among the top IP courts in Europe, if not the world. Jacob once famously condemned his colleagues by stating that if one could bring all the experienced patent judges together, they would fit in a minibus. At the same time, he highlighted the political and economic folly of not having a centralized IP court system in Europe. More recently, he has stepped outside his usual judicial cloak and lobbied actively for the European Patent Litigation Agreement, which would centralize patent litigation for 1.6 million active patents in Europe. Diplomatically, on this occasion, he lobbied together with slightly more colleagues than would fit in a minibus.
Thomas Jefferson
In addition to serving as the third president of the United States and to numerous other accomplishments, Jefferson was an inventor and the first head of the US Patent and Trademark Office. One of the primary framers of the US Constitution, Jefferson is widely believed to have been influential in the drafting of Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8, which states: "The Congress shall have power to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries." This is seen as one of the origins of the IP system that exists today, particularly in regard to time-limited protection. He was also responsible for the phrase "any new and useful art, machine, manufacture or composition of matter and any new and useful improvement on any art, machine, manufacture or composition of matter", which appeared in the patent law of 1793 and more or less still remains in the US patent law today. Jeffersons writings - among them letters to James Madison - highlight his concern at maintaining a balance between incentives for creators and benefits for the public. They are still cited today by proponents on both sides of the debate over greater protection for IP versus greater access to the public domain.
Klaus-Dieter Langfinger
Klaus-Dieter Langfinger, Head of Patents, Trademarks and Licenses at BASF, is one of the key industry voices advocating the importance of the IP system to the future of the European and world economy. Through his vigorous participation in many national, European and international organizations, such as UNICE (the Union of Industrial and Employers Confederations of Europe), he has been actively involved in industry efforts to promote solutions in the Community Patent debate that meet the needs of the users of the patent system in Europe. He was instrumental in winning the support of German industry, contributing to the ratification by the German government of the London agreement on translation costs. He has been an active supporter of the European Patent Litigation Agreement. Both initiatives are designed to improve the European patent system in terms of costs and legal certainty.
Bruce Lehman
The longest-sitting and first activist Commissioner of the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Lehman was an architect of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and helped to negotiate the TRIPS agreement. He met monthly at the White House with President Clinton and his technology advisers, and won an award from Vice President Gore for streamlining USPTO operations. He founded the International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI) in 1999, a think-tank and development organization that has helped nations to understand, develop and harmonize their patent laws and facilitate commerce. The National Law Journal named him Lawyer of the Year in 1994. As well as his IIPI activities, Lehman also works in the Washington DC offices of law firm Akin Gump.
James Madison
Madison was the fourth US President and a principal drafter of the US Constitution. He is credited with including Article III, Section 8 - the Patent and Copyright Clause - in the Constitution, providing the basis for IP in the basic US constitutional system and ensuring that Congress had a specifically enumerated power (among only a very few) to establish both a patent and a copyright system. This led to the adoption of the first Patent Act and Copyright Act by the first US Congress in 1790. This early establishment, particularly of the Patent Act, is widely credited with fostering technological growth in the US throughout much of its history. Madison is one of the unsung heroes of the world patent system. He convinced Jefferson to accept the notion that limited monopolies, such as those conferred by patents, are good for prosperity and progress - a bargain between the state and the inventor. He wrote to Jefferson in 1788: "With regard to monopolies they are justly classed among the greatest nuisances in government. But is it clear that as encouragements to literary works and ingenious discoveries, they are not too valuable to be wholly renounced?... It is much more to be dreaded that the few will be unnecessarily sacrificed to the many."
Howard T. Markey
Markey was a driving force for the creation of the US Federal Circuit Court of Appeal and its first chief justice. Among other things, the Federal Circuit was established to hear all appeals of district court decisions in patent cases, helping to harmonize patent law and practice in the US, so creating much greater certainty for patent owners and encouraging them to invest in expensive R&D projects. He also served as judge and chief judge of the late Court of Customs and Patent Appeals, which heard cases resulting from decisions of the US Patent and Trademark Office. After stepping down from the bench, Markey served as Dean of the John Marshall School of Law in Chicago.
Alexander von Muhlendahl
Alexander von Muhlendahl is currently with the Munich firm of Bardehle Pagenberg Dost Altenberg & Geissler, but is best known for his work as Vice President of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) in Alicante between 1994 and 2005. He was the chief German representative during the negotiations leading up to the adoption of the legislation on the European Community Trademark (CTM) system, and has also been instrumental in explaining and developing the CTM system. Through his well-founded pleadings before the European Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance, he also influenced and shaped the jurisprudence referring to the CTM. Prior to his time at OHIM, von Muhlendahl had a distinguished career in the German Ministry of Justice as Head of the Division for Trademarks and Unfair Competition Law from 1985 to 1994. He was the principal author of the German Trademark Reform Law of 1994. In his honor, the main library at OHIM has been named the Alexander von Muhlendahl Library.
Melville Nimmer
Melville Nimmer was a distinguished professor of law at UCLA law school, where he wrote his four-volume treatise on copyright, published in 1963. This has been continuously updated since then and remains the "gold standard" scholarly resource on copyright in the US and around the world. His work is the most highly regarded non-judge-made authority on copyright in the US and is routinely cited in legal opinions issued on copyright cases in the country, including those of the US Supreme Court. As a copyright scholar, Nimmer also gained distinction as an advocate both of furthering the moral rights of authors in the US and of maintaining a balance between copyright protection and the right to free speech. If there is a giant in US copyright, it is Nimmer
Marshall Phelps
Phelps put IP on the corporate map. He forced senior managements (and Wall Street) to regard IP not as a legal overhead, but as a profit centre. He took IBM from a few million dollars in IP-related annual revenues in the late 1980s to over a billion dollars in a little over a decade. He helped to popularize the notion that everything a company owns can be licensed at the right price and time. He also helped to establish the virtuous circle of using patent and other licensing revenue to fund R&D activities to create more product and licensing opportunities. Finally, at the urging of Bill Gates, he came out of retirement to head Microsoft?s IP strategy and help establish the company as an emerging patent leader, and to expand upon its copyright and trademark successes.
Judge Giles Rich
As a dedicated lawyer, professor and judge, Rich played a significant role in the development and evolution of intellectual property law in the United States. He was a private practice lawyer from 1929 to 1956, specializing in patent and trademark law. He was one of the two people principally responsible for drafting the 1952 Patent Act, which served as the first codification of all federal patent laws and which has been in force for half a century without significant revision. In 1956 President Eisenhower appointed him as an associate judge for the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals (CCPA). Then, in 1982, he was appointed as a Circuit Judge for the CCPAs successor court, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which holds exclusive jurisdiction for patent appeals. From his seat on the Federal Circuit, Rich authored landmark decisions clarifying some of the most difficult concepts in patent law, including decisions that have been hailed as laying the foundation for the modern biotechnology industry and important cases dealing with the complex area of software and computer-related inventions. In 1992 Rich earned special recognition from President Bush for his contributions to the US patent code.
Frank Isaac Schechter
In his extremely influential article The Rational Basis of Trademark Protection, Schechter challenged as outdated the idea that the function of a trademark is solely one of indicating source or origin. Instead, he argued that the primary function of trademarks is the creation and retention of custom. The value of the modern trademark, he said, lies "in its selling power". He rejected the idea that a trademark?s sole function is to indicate source or origin of the goods to which it is affixed, contending that the role of a trademark in fact goes far beyond this. Schechter argued that certain trademark uses on non-competing goods do not trigger confusion, but nevertheless constitute a wrong against the trademark owner. It is from this groundbreaking article that the concept of "trademark dilution" developed in the US, leading to the passage of a number of state anti-dilution laws and ultimately the Federal Trademark Dilution Act.
Dudley Smith
Smith is widely recognized as a leader in the field of licensing intellectual property. He began his career as a patent examiner in the US Patent and Trademark Office and became a licensed patent attorney. He worked for several companies where he was very active in licensing their patents and trademarks. In the mid-1960s he became the prime mover behind the formation of the Licensing Executives Society (LES). Today, LES has over 6,000 members in North America and over 11,000 members worldwide. LES is the premier professional society for persons involved in intellectual property licensing. Smith was instrumental not only in the creation of LES, but also in its growth. He served as President of LES (USA & Canada), and later as President of LES International. In 1971 he was awarded the first LES Gold Medal for his contributions to the licensing profession.
Korekiyo Takahashi
Korekiyo Takahashi was the first commissioner of the Japan Patent Office (and was later President of the Bank of Japan, Minister of Agriculture and Industry, Minister of Finance and Prime Minister). During a visit to the US Patent and Trademark Office in the early 1880s he is reported to have said: "We have asked, What is it that makes the United States such a great nation? and found that it was patents, and so we will have patents." On 18th April 1885 he introduced Japans first patent system by promulgating the Patent Monopoly Act. With this Act, Takahashi began the transformation of Japan into a technology-based nation and one of the largest users of the international intellectual property system.