Honoring inventors, IP jurists, lawyers, academics, legislators, industrialists: The Pierce Advantage
For decades Pierce Law has honored those who have made distinguished contributions to the IP field with named buildings, classrooms and awarding the prestigious degree of Doctor of Laws (LL.D.).
Honorary degree recipients include:
1970's
1977 - Frank Rowe Kenison, Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court (d. 1977) While on the Court he wrote several influential intellectual property opinions.
1977 - Thomas Meloy, Industrialist
1978 - Hugh Henry Bownes, Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the
First Circuit who wrote scores of intellectual property opinions.
1979 - Hon. Rya W. Zobel, Judge, United States District Court for the
District of Massachusetts 1977 who wrote scores of intellectual property opinions.
1980's
1980 - Jordan J. Baruch, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Science and
Technology, U.S. Department of Commerce; inventor and university
professor
1984 - Harold E. Edgerton, Inventor of the Strobe Light
1986- Kenneth Germeshausen, Chief Executive Officer, EG&G Corporation
1989 - Homer Blair is a former prestigious corporate patent counsel who was appointed to the Pierce Law Faculty to teach licensing and IP management. He founded the Master of Intellectual Property Program that has trained hundreds of global IP professionals.
1989- Hon. Howard T. Markey, Chief Judge, United States Court of
Appeals for the Federal Circuit (d. 2006) who wrote hundreds of intellectual property opinions.
1990's
1991 - Pauline Newman, Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the
Federal Circuit who has written hundreds of intellectual property opinions.
1991 - Helen W. Nies a former Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (d1996) who wrote over one hundred intellectual property opinions.
1993 - Judge Giles Rich (d. 1999) who wrote nearly one thousand intellectual property opinions.
1998 - Hon. George J. Mitchell. former U.S. Senator/Senate Majority and expert on the topic of the globalization of the world economy.
1999 - Dr. Kamil Kidris is a Sudanese international civil servant. He was Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) from November 1997 to September 2008. He was also head of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV).
2000's
2004 - Robert Rines is an third generation patent lawyer, inventor, composer and explorer. His inventions underlie high-resolution image-scanning radar that was used in the Gulf War, and ultrasound scanning used in the search for the wrecks of the Titanic and the Bismarck.
Rines received the Boston Patent Law Association "Lifetime Achievement Award" for his contributions to the field of Intellectual Property. Rines also was inducted as member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1994 and the U.S. Army Signal Corps Wall of Fame. He is also the founder of the Academy of Applied Science, a Massachusetts and New Hampshire based organization dedicated to the promotion of science, technology and inventions, particularly among high school students. Rines founded the Franklin Pierce Law Center.
2005 - C. Yardley Chittick (d. 2008) had for several years been the oldest living patent attorney in the United States.
2009 - Karl Jorda completed 20 years of distinguished service as an IP professor at Pierce Law. He was IP corporate for three decades prior. Professor Jorda was inducted into the global Intellectual Property Hall of Fame in October 2007 for his "outstanding contribution to the development of intellectual property law and practice, thereby helping to establish intellectual property as one of the key business assets of the 21st century." He also received the 1996 Jefferson Medal of the NJIPLA - "the United States' highest honor in intellectual property" - for "extraordinary contributions to the U.S. intellectual property law system," the 1989 PIPA medal for "Outstanding Contributions to International Cooperation in the Intellectual Property Field," and the 1998 Distinguished Alumni Award of the University of Great Falls.
The Judge Giles Rich Classroom
The Robert Rines Building
