Home Law School News Longtime register of copyrights to give Drake lecture Oct. 25

Longtime register of copyrights to give Drake lecture Oct. 25

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Ralph Oman

Ralph Oman, former register of copyrights, will present the Drake Intellectual Property Law Center’s Distinguished Lecture in Copyright Law on Monday, Oct. 25. ‘

The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 4:30 p.m. in room 201 of Cartwright Hall.

Oman, a member of the District of Columbia and the Supreme Court bars, began his career as a law clerk for a U.S. District Court judge for the District of Maryland. He then became a trial attorney with the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

In 1975, Oman moved to the U.S. Senate, where he worked as chief minority counsel, senior lawyer and chief counsel for the Subcommittee on Patents, Trademarks and Copyrights.

Oman was register of copyrights from 1985-93. His highest priority was increasing the international protection of American copyrights. He established the International Copyright Institute to train foreign copyright officials.

He was counsel for the intellectual property practice group of the law firm Dechert, LLP and is currently the Pravel, Hewitt, Kimball and Kreiger Professorial Lecturer in Intellectual Property and Patent Law at The George Washington University Law School, for which he has been an adjunct professor since 1993.

Oman holds a Doctor of Law degree from Georgetown University and a bachelor’s degree from Hamilton College.