 Ralph Oman |
CONTACT: Tory Olson, 515-271-1834, tory.olson@drake.edu
Ralph Oman, former register of copyrights, will
headline Drake Intellectual Property Law Center’s first Distinguished Lecture
in Copyright Law Tuesday, April 22. The talk, which is titled “The Role of the U.S. Copyright Office,” is free
and open to the public and will begin at 4:30 p.m. in room 201 of Cartwright
Hall.
In his lecture, Oman will discuss the role of the U.S. Copyright Office and the possibility of a
major revision of the copyright law.
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.
The Intellectual Property Law Center will also
host these upcoming events:
- a
one-of-its-kind summer institute on intellectual property, biotechnology
and agricultural sciences on May 19-20; - a major conference in Hong Kong on the latest Internet
developments in China on June 13-14. - an international conference in Turku, Finland on innovation
and communications law on July 17-18.
The Intellectual Property Law Center at Drake
University offers an innovative curriculum, providing students with a solid
foundation in both the theoretical and practical aspects of intellectual
property law.
Read more about the center on its Web site and its directoronline.