Richard Harvey Stern (born September 9, 1931) is an American attorney and law professor.

Biography

Born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, Stern received an A.B. ''

cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

'' from Columbia College in 1953 and a B.S. in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

from

Columbia University School of Engineering The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science (also known as SEAS or Columbia Engineering; historically Columbia School of Mines) is the engineering and applied science school of Columbia University, a private research university i ...

in 1954. He served in the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

from 1955 to 1956,Richard H. Stern
at

George Washington University Law School The George Washington University Law School (GW Law) is the law school of George Washington University, a Private university, private research university in Washington, D.C. Established in 1865, GW Law is the oldest law school in Washington, D. ...

. and then returned to civilian life and earned an

LL.B. A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

Yale Law School Yale Law School (YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824. The 2020–21 acceptance rate was 4%, the lowest of any law school in the United ...

, studying under and acting as teaching assistant for Professor

Friedrich Kessler Friedrich "Fritz" Kessler (August 25, 1901 – January 21, 1998) was an American law professor who taught at Yale Law School (1935–1938, 1947–1970), University of Chicago Law School, and University of California, Berkeley School of Law. He was ...

and graduating ''cum laude'' and

Order of the Coif The Order of the Coif () is an American honor society for law school graduates. The Order was founded in 1902 at the University of Illinois College of Law. The name is a reference to the ancient English order of trial lawyers, the serjeants-at-la ...

, in 1959. He served as a

law clerk A law clerk, judicial clerk, or judicial assistant is a person, often a lawyer, who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by Legal research, researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial ...

for Justice

Byron White Byron Raymond "Whizzer" White (June 8, 1917 – April 15, 2002) was an American lawyer, jurist, and professional American football, football player who served as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, associate justice of the Supreme ...

at the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

from 1962 to 1963. Thereafter Stern worked at the Department of Justice in the Antitrust Division. He was chief of the

Patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

Section and then the

Intellectual Property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

Section in the Antitrust Division of the

U.S. Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of federal laws and the administration of justice. It is equi ...

from 1970 to 1978. Among the Supreme Court cases in which he was counsel for the Government were '' Aro Mfg. Co. v. Convertible Top Replacement Co.'', '' Federal Trade Commission v. Dean Foods Company'', '' Lear, Inc. v. Adkins'', '' FTC v. Sperry & Hutchinson Co.'', ''

Gottschalk v. Benson ''Gottschalk v. Benson'', 409 U.S. 63 (1972), was a Supreme Court of the United States, United States Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled that a process claim directed to a numerical algorithm, as such, was not patentable because "the pat ...

'', and ''

Parker v. Flook ''Parker v. Flook'', 437 U.S. 584 (1978), was a 1978 United States Supreme Court decision that ruled that an invention that departs from the prior art only in its use of a mathematical algorithm is patent eligible only if there is some other "inv ...

''. Stern was a distinguished visiting professor of law at the

University of Minnesota Law School The University of Minnesota Law School is the law school of the University of Minnesota, a public university in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The school confers four law degrees: a Juris Doctor (J.D.), a Master of Laws (LL.M.), a Master of Science in Pa ...

in 1974. He is the author of ''Semiconductor Chip Protection'' and articles on antitrust, the exhaustion doctrine, computer software, patent, and copyright law.Se
Bibliography
at

. Since 1982 he has been legal editor and a member of the board of editors of ''

IEEE Micro ''IEEE Micro'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the IEEE Computer Society covering small systems and semiconductor chips, including integrated circuit processes and practices, project management, development tools and i ...

'', a magazine published by the

IEEE Computer Society IEEE Computer Society (commonly known as the Computer Society or CS) is a technical society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) dedicated to computing, namely the major areas of hardware, software, standards and people ...

, and author of the magazine's ''Micro Law'' column, and has written a number of articles in that publication concerning antitrust law, computer software-related law, and legal issues relating to standardization. Stern believed that Computer Software Copyright Act of 1980 and other uses of the

intellectual property clause The Copyright Clause (also known as the Intellectual Property Clause, Copyright and Patent Clause, or the Progress Clause) describes an enumerated power listed in the United States Constitution ( Article I, Section 8, Clause 8). The clause, whi ...

was inadequate for software, and advocated for legislation based on the

commerce clause The Commerce Clause describes an enumerated power listed in the United States Constitution ( Article I, Section 8, Clause 3). The clause states that the United States Congress shall have power "to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and amon ...

. One author noted Stern's "analytical optimism for technological advances in noncoded aspects of computer programs, and recombinant DNA technology". Stern has also been a professorial lecturer in law at

The George Washington University Law School The George Washington University Law School (GW Law) is the law school of George Washington University, a private research university in Washington, D.C. Established in 1865, GW Law is the oldest law school in Washington, D.C. GW Law has an al ...

, 1990–present, where he teaches patent and copyright law, with a focus on the eligibility of business methods and software-related inventions for patent grants.Se
Computer Law
at George Washington University Law School. He has also served as an official at the

U.S. Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce (DOC) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for gathering data for business and governmental decision making, establishing industrial standards, catalyzing econo ...

and at the

Federal Trade Commission The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) United States antitrust law, antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. It ...

, and was of counsel at

Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick, PLLC (formerly Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel, PLLC) is a prestigious American law firm based in Washington, DC. It was founded in 1993 by three former Harvard Law School classmates (’82), ...

, P.L.L.C., in

Washington D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

References

External links

Richard H. Stern
at

Richard H. Stern
at Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel, P.L.L.C. {{DEFAULTSORT:Stern, Richard H. Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni Yale Law School alumni 1931 births American legal scholars George Washington University Law School faculty Lawyers from Washington, D.C. American patent attorneys Intellectual property law scholars Computer law scholars Patent law scholars Columbia College (New York) alumni Living people

Biography

See also

References

External links