Comments:
I am particularly interested in re-establishing contact with Bob Taylor.
I played clarinet in the AHS Band (and in the All City Band and the El Paso Youth Symphony). I still play clarinet (in the City of Fairfax Band), and I would also be interested in re-establishing contact with other former members of the AHS Band.
After graduation from AHS, I went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, MA. I played clarinet in both the band and the orchestra. I met my future wife while preparing for a joint concert with the Bryn Mawr/Haverford Orchestra. (She was the concertmaster of that orchestra.) I received bachelor's degrees in mechanical engineering and in economics in 1965.
After graduation from MIT, I went to Columbia Law School (CLS) in New York City. I graduated in 1968 (the year of the riots at Columbia University).
After graduation from CLS, I went into the Army (Signal Corps) as a direct commission second lieutenant. Stateside, I served (briefly) in the underground White House. After that, I went to Uijongbu, Korea (where I was often cold and miserable, but at least no one was shooting at me). While there, I ran the I Corps dial telephone exchange and served as prosecutor in special courts martial.
After release from active duty in 1970, I served as an assistant technical advisor (usually referred to as "a law clerk") to Judge Giles Sutherland Rich of the United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals in Washington, D.C. until 1972. While clerking at the court, I began work on an LL.M. in patent law at George Washington University Law School. I received that degree in 1973, after leaving the court.
After leaving the court, I went into the private practice of patent law. I have worked at four different intellectual property law (i.e., patent, trademark, and copyright law) firms, spending the last 30 years at what is now known as Oblon, Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt, LLP. That firm is chiefly famous for obtaining more patents than any other law firm in each of the last 20 or so years. However, I specialize in a particular form of patent litigation called patent interferences. (When two or more inventive entities have made the same or substantially the same invention at at least substantially the same time, a patent interference is the form of litigation used to decide which--if any--of those inventive entities is entitled to a patent on the common invention.
I still play clarinet (in the City of Fairfax Band), and I write and lecture frequently on patent law--primarily, patent interference law. My wife and I are theater buffs, we go to many concerts, and we eat out frequently at the many ethnic restaurants in the DC area. (I am still particularly fond of Mexican food.)
My mother, Renee C. Gholz, lives with us. She is the widow of Charles A. Gholz, who was the director of the AHS Band for many years (and who was my first clarinet teacher).
My daughter Abigail and my grandson Zachary live on a horse farm an hour's drive west of here, and I am greatly enjoying my role as a grandfather.
Contrary to what Ms. Kiska probably expected, I have become a prolific author--albeit only of articles relating to patent law--particularly patent interference law.
While at AHS, I stood out because I did not wear bluejeans. Now that I am an attorney in a notoriously conservative branch of the law, I stand out because I wear fancy cowboy shirts in the winter and guayaveras in the summer.
