About » PUBPAT Board of Directors

PUBPAT Board of Directors

Daniel B. Ravicher, President and Executive Director 

Daniel B. Ravicher is Executive Director of the Public Patent Foundation (“PUBPAT”) and a Lecturer in Law and Associate Director of the Intellectual Property Law Program at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.  Prior to founding PUBPAT, Professor Ravicher was associated with the patent law practice groups of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, LLP, and Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler, LLP, all in New York, and served the Honorable Randall R. Rader, Circuit Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C..  Professor Ravicher is a registered patent attorney and he writes and speaks frequently on patent law, including testifying as an invited witness before Congress on the topic of patent reform.  As a result of his accomplishments and professional reputation, in 2008 Professor Ravicher was named to both Managing Intellectual Property magazine's '50 Most Influential People in IP' list and IP Law & Business magazine's 'Top 50 Under 45' list.  Professor Ravicher received his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was the Franklin O'Blechman Scholar of his class, a Mortimer Caplin Public Service Award recipient and an Editor of the Virginia Journal of Law and Technology, and his bachelors degree in materials science magna cum laude with University Honors from the University of South Florida.  Professor Ravicher is also Legal Director of the Software Freedom Law Center, a not-for-profit legal services organization that provides representation and other law-related services to protect and advance Free and Open Source Software (FOSS).

James Bessen, Director
 
Jim Bessen is recognized as an innovator in the electronic publishing industry, having developed one of the first commercially-successful desktop publishing programs. As both an economics researcher and a hands-on industry participant at different levels, he brings a unique perspective to the study of innovation. Bessen wrote the first WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) PC publishing software in 1983 and founded a company, Bestinfo, in 1984 that was later acquired by Intergraph in 1993. Bessen is currently Lecturer in Law at Boston University School of Law and he edits the Technological Innovation and Intellectual Property newsletter.

Justin Hughes, Director

Justin Hughes is Professor of Law at Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, in New York where he teaches intellectual property (IP) and international trade.  Formerly a policy expert in the U.S. Department of Commerce (USPTO), his areas of expertise include domestic and international copyright, trade and WTO issues relating to intellectual property, database protection, trademarks, geographical indications, and intellectual property in developing countries.  Professor Hughes’ recent articles include Created Facts and the Flawed Ontology of Copyright, Notre Dame Law Review (2007), Copyright and Incomplete Historiographies, Southern California Law Review (2006), and The Spirited Debate about Geographical Indications, Hastings Law Journal (2006).  Educated at Oberlin and Harvard, Professor Hughes has practiced international arbitration in Paris and, as a Henry Luce Scholar, clerked for the Lord President of the Supreme Court of Malaysia.   Professor Hughes has been a visiting professor at UCLA and the Hosier Distinguished Visiting Professor at DePaul University.  In this spare time, Professor Hughes has been extensively involved in election monitoring and democracy development.  He also serves at Chairman of the Thomson Foundation for Film and Television Heritage, based in Paris. 

Brian Kahin, Director
 
Brian Kahin is Senior Fellow at the Computer & Communications Industry Association in Washington, DC.  He is also Research Investigator and Adjunct Professor at the University of Michigan School of Information and a special advisor to the Provost’s Office.  From 2003-2005, he taught at the University of Michigan as a Visiting Professor with joint appointments in the School of Information, the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, and the Department of Communication Studies. His current research focuses on patent policy and codification-based infrastructure.  Professor Kahin was formerly Director of the Center for Information Policy and Visiting Professor in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland, with affiliate appointments in the School of Public Affairs and the R.H. Smith School of Business.  Kahin’s work at the Center included projects on open source software, U.S. and European perspectives on information process patents, and the economic and social implications of information technology.  From March 1997 to January 2000, Kahin served as Senior Policy Analyst at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where he was responsible for issues in intellectual property, Internet policy, and electronic commerce.  He received a B.A. from Harvard College in 1969 and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1976.
 
Eben Moglen, Director
 
Eben Moglen is Professor of Law and Legal History at Columbia University Law School and General Counsel of the Free Software Foundation. Professor Moglen earned his PhD in History and law degree at Yale University during what he sometimes calls his "long, dark period" in New Haven. After law school he clerked for Judge Edward Weinfeld of the United States District Court in New York City and to Justice Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme Court. He has taught at Columbia Law School -- and has held visiting appointments at Harvard University, Tel-Aviv University and the University of Virginia -- since 1987. In 2003 he was given the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Pioneer Award for efforts on behalf of freedom in the electronic society.
 
Cecil D. Quillen, Jr., Director

Cecil Quillen is the former General Counsel of Eastman Kodak Company where he was a Senior Vice President and member of the Board of Directors.  He is currently a Senior Advisor at Cornerstone Research.  Mr. Quillen has spoken or written on innovation and the United States patent system, simplification and reform of the U.S. patent system, patent valuation and patent damages issues, the management of patent litigation, and patent and licensing strategies for innovators.  He testified at the USPTO Hearing concerning the nonobviousness standard and at the Federal Trade Commission-Department of Justice Hearings on Competition and Intellectual Property Law and Policy, and has been a guest lecturer on patent strategies at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and on corporate licensing practices at The George Washington University and Georgetown University Law Schools.  Mr. Quillen has also written on the professional responsibilities of in-house lawyers, and served as a faculty member for the Virginia State Bar Mandatory Professionalism Course for newly licensed lawyers.  Mr. Quillen does not represent Eastman Kodak or Cornerstone Research on the Board of Directors of the Public Patent Foundation, and positions taken by the Public Patent Foundation are independent of the affiliations of its Directors, and do not represent the views of Eastman Kodak Company or Cornerstone Research.
 
Joshua D. Sarnoff, Director 

Joshua Sarnoff is the Assistant Director of the Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Law Clinic and a practitioner-in-residence at the Washington College of Law, American University, where he supervises law students in the practice of intellectual property law.  Mr. Sarnoff is a registered patent attorney, teaches patent law, and has been involved in a wide range of intellectual property legal and policy disputes.  He has published articles on patent law, has coordinated an academics’ position statement on patent law reform, has filed amicus briefs in the United States Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and has been a consultant to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development on intellectual property, trade, and environmental issues. Mr. Sarnoff was formerly in private practice in Washington, DC, and previously taught at the University of Arizona College of Law.