Call For Nominations for the Pasquale J. Federico Memorial Award

The Patent and Trademark Office Society [SOCIETY] hereby requests nominations for the 2009 Pasquale J. Federico Memorial Award.

In 1993, the SOCIETY established the Pasquale J. Federico Memorial Award. The Federico Award is intended to recognize outstanding contributions to the Patent and Trademark Systems of the United States of America. It may be given to an individual, a group of individuals, a corporation or an institution.  Awards to individuals may be made posthumously. No more than one award may be given in each year. The selection process is handled by a special committee of the SOCIETY.  Anyone may make a nomination.

Nominations need not be in any special format. It would be very helpful if the nomination papers themselves presented enough information so that the selection committee can judge the worthiness of the nominee.  Nomination letters and any other correspondence will become the property of the SOCIETY and will not be returned.  Any nominee not selected for the current Award may be retained on the nomination list for further consideration.

Please address all nominations and correspondence concerning this Award to FedericoAward@PTOS.org

In order to be considered for the 2009 award, any nomination must be emailed no later than November 18, 2009.

The first Federico Award was presented to the late Giles S. Rich, who had served on the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and its predecessor court, the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals for over four decades. Honorees from other years include Donald Banner, Charles E. Van Horn, Pauline Newman, C. Marshall Dann, Herbert Wamsley, Helen Wilson Nies, Mike Kirk, Tom Arnold, Howard T. Markey, Rene D. Tegtmeyer, and Isaac Fleischmann.

The award is named in honor of Pasquale J. (Pat) Federico who was an institution within the Patent and Trademark Office.  Pat entered then Patent Office in 1923 as a junior examiner in Division 43.  By 1935, he was the Assistant Chief of his division and he became the Division  Chief in 1940.  He was appointed to the Board of Appeals in 1947 and remained there until his retirement from the Office in 1977.  Pat Federico was a prolific author of articles dealing with intellectual property.  Perhaps his greatest achievement was writing the first draft of the 1952 Patent Act.  He was also, according to Giles Rich, the man most responsible for getting the 1952 Patent Act through Congress and enacted into law.

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