The History of IPLACThe Nation's Oldest IP Bar AssociationIn 1884, the Association's founding members declared their original purpose to be: Such an Association, rightly conducted, would add to the dignity and reputation of this branch of the legal profession; would be instrumental in promoting the interests of its individual members, and the professional and social relations which exist, or should exist, between them; in aiding reforms in the administration of the Patent Office; in assisting to make more definite, uniform and convenient the rules of practice in the courts in taking associate action to prevent unwise amendments to the patent law; in discussing such other matters hereafter to arise as may be of common interest . . . The original name was "The Patent Law Association." "Chicago" did not become part of the name until forty years later, apparently evolving as a matter of usage, if not necessity, long before the name changed formally. As early as 1897, in a letter of January 23rd to the Honorable William B. McKinley, President-Elect of the United States, the Association identified itself variously as "The Patent Law Association of Chicago" and as "The Patent Law Association of Chicago and the Northwest." The tradition of the Association's annual dinner to honor the Federal Judiciary was instituted in 1884. The meeting of March 20, 1895 was held at the Union League Club "with thirty-seven members present and the President in the chair." The minutes of the meeting explain: This meeting was in the nature of a reception to the Federal Judiciary of the Seventh Circuit, and there were present as guests Circuit Judges Woods, Jenkins and Showalter, District Judge Grosscup, ex-District Judge Blodgett, Mr. Oliver T. Morton, Clerk of the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and Mr. S.W. Burnham, Clerk of the Circuit Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Letters of regret were read from Justice Harlan and from Judges Seaman, Bunn and Baker. The members present were: Messrs. Elliot, Sheridan, Pickard, R.H. Parkinson, C.A. Brown, Gridley, Bond, L.M. Hopkins, Darby, Parker, Linthicum, F.A. Hopkins, Rector, Pierce, Jones, Thomas A. Banning, Jackson, Dayton, P.C. Dyrenforth, Barton, Chamberlin, Hill, Gerlach, F.T. Brown, W.H. Dyrenforth, Poole, Fisher, Omohundro, Julius Dyrenforth, Waldo, Whipple, Adcock, Raymond, Offield, Thacher, Hibben, Towle. Mr. Lysander Hill spoke on "The Patent Expert." C.C. Linthicum spoke on "The Evil Effect of Conflicting Decisions in Patent Cases." Judges Blodgett, Woods, Jenkins, Showalter and Grosscup addressed the Association.
The Journal and Proceedings of the Association provides some interesting insights into the issues facing the courts of the Seventh Circuit and earlier Association members at the turn of the century. The Annual Report of the Association President Charles C. Linthicum, given October 6, 1900, comments as follows: With the growth of manufacturers here in the West and the division and subdivision of the arts, there have been presented to our attention, and through us to the courts, inventions for tools, machine attachments and manipulative processes unfamiliar or at least infrequent twenty years ago. These conditions, long prevalent in the East, have heretofore caused the courts of that section to give more liberal consideration to the minor inventions that has obtained with us. The result has been that a great deal of patent business naturally belonging to this Circuit has gone elsewhere. We are pleased to note a growing tendency toward greater liberation in our midst and indulge in the hope that the Seventh Circuit will not be discriminated against in the future distribution of business.
Mr. Linthicum's remarks are seemingly linked to the same event which evoke the following commentary in a paper by member L. K. Gillson on June 6 of the same year. People who chanced to be in the Monadnock or Marquette buildings on a recent day saw men running from office to office, or meeting in the corridors, exchange a few hasty words and hurry on, hair disheveled, faces aglow with the intensest excitement, their veins standing out like the welts from a blacksnake whip. "Who are these men?" asks one onlooker "and what remarkable and unusual thing excites them - it will be a wonder if some of them are not stricken with apoplexy." "Oh," he is answered, "these are patent lawyers dazed with the news that the Court of Appeals of the Seventh Circuit has just sustained a patent."
We are further informed by the Proceedings of the Association that, on June 10, 1887, the Hon. John M. Harlan, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court and Circuit Court Justice for the Seventh Circuit, "favored the Association with an informal address, in the course of which he suggested whether a court of last resort in patent matters might not be advantageously established in Washington, such a court to have appellate jurisdiction from the United States Circuit Courts and also from the Patent Office." Ninety-five years later, the Court envisioned by Justice Harlan became a reality. IPLAC wishes to thank our most complete and reliable source of early information on the Association, Francis A. Even. IPLAC Past PresidentsThe Nation's First IP Bar Has a Rich HistoryLester L. Bond 1885 *IPLAC’s First President John M. Thacher 1886 James H. Raymond 1887 Nelson C. Gridley 1888 John W. Munday 1889 Edmund A. West 1890 Ephraim Banning 1891 Lysander Hill 1892 James H. Pierce 1893 Phillip C. Drynforth 1894 Charles K. Offeld 1895 John E. Elliot 1896 Thomas A. Banning 1897 Robert H. Parkinson 1898 Taylor E. Brown 1899 Charles C. Linthicum 1900 William H. Dyrenforth 1901 Lewis L. Coburn 1902 Albert H. Adams 1903 Henry S. Towle 1904 C. Clarence Poole 1905 George P. Fisher 1906 Charles E. Pickard 1907 Thomas F. Sheridan 1908 Edward Rector 1909 Walter H. Chamberlin 1910 Frank T. Brown 1911 Julius W. Dyrenforth 1912 *Year the Titanic sank George P. Barton 1913 John L. Jackson 1914 *WWI breaks out John W. Hill 1915 Samuel E. Hibben 1916 Otto R. Barnett 1917 Louis K. Gibson 1918 *WWI ends George E. Waldo 1919 George L. Wilkinson 1920 Charles C. Buckley 1921 Walter Clyde Jones 1922 John H. Lee 1923 Wallace R. Lane 1924 William O. Belt 1925 Frank Parker Davis 1926 Samuel W. Banning 1927 Russell Wiles 1928 Donald M. Carter 1929 *Great Depression starts George A. Chritton 1930 George I. Haight 1931 Henry M. Huxley 1932 John B. Macauley 1933 Clarence E. Mehlhope 1934 Robert Lewis Ames 1935 John A. Dienner 1936 Wm. Negarre Cromwell 1937 Percival H. Truman 1938 George T. May, Jr. 1939 *US enters WWII Charles L. Byron 1940 Arthur H. Boettcher 1941 Franklin M. Warden 1942 Lester B. Mann 1943 Lynn A. Williams 1944 *President Williams dies while holding IPLAC office.J. Bernard Rhiess 1944 & 1945 *WWII ends Ira J. Wilson 1946 Carlton Hill 1947 Cyril A. Soans 1948 Arthur A. Olson 1949 Glen E. Smith 1950 *Korean War starts Harry W. Lindsey, Jr. 1951 Albin C. Ahlberg 1952 Lee J. Gary 1953 *Korean War ends Clarence F. Poole 1954 Bernard A. Schroder 1955 Roy H. Olson 1956 Albert H. Pendleton 1957 John A. Marzall 1958 Benjamin H. Sherman 1959 Robert C. Brown, Jr. 1960 *JFK elected President Axel A. Hofgren 1961 James P. Hume 1962 George N. Hibben 1963 *Kennedy assassinated Edward A. Haight 1964 *Civil Rights Act of1964 signed into law Francis W. Parker, Jr. 1965 Sidney Neuman 1966 Foorman L. Mueller 1967 J. Arthur Gross 1968 *US lands on the moon Richard R. Trexler 1969 Charles W. Rummier 1970 Walther E. Wyss 1971 Richard L. Voit 1972 Patrick H. Hume 1973 James R. Sweeney 1974 Thomas R. Juettner 1975 Theodore R. Scott 1976 George R. Clark 1977 Howard W. Clement 1978 John J. Chrystal 1979 C. Frederick Leydig 1980 *Founding member of Leydig, Voit & Mayer, Ltd. Arthur A. Olson, Jr. 1981 William T. McClain 1982 Seymour Rothstein 1983 Francis A. Even 1984 *Founding member of Fitch, Even Tabin & Flanery LLP Jack R. Halvorsen 1985 Theodore W. Anderson 1986 Paul C. Flattery 1987 Ronald B. Coolley 1988 Robert F. Conte 1989 John G. Premo 1990 Raymond I. Geraldson, Jr. 1991 Ronald J. LaPorte 1992 Charles A. Laff 1993 Joseph Krieger 1994 Edward H. Gorman, Jr. 1995 Dolores K. Hanna 1996 *First Female President Melvin F. Jager 1997 R. Dennis Claessens 1998 Wiliam T. McGrath 1999 *Founding member of Davis McGrath LLC Jerold A. Jacover 2000 R. Mark Halligan 2001 Linda A. Kuczma 2002 *Second Female President Robert Barrett 2003 Mary J. Schnurr 2004 *Third Female President Mark I. Feldman 2005 Debbie Wright 2006 James R. Sobieraj 2007 Joseph E. Shipley 2008 Patrick G. Burns 2009 Edward D. Manzo 2010 Janet M. Garetto 2011 Janet A. Pioli 2012 Brent A. Hawkins 2013 Garret A. Leach 2014 Alisa C. Simmons 2015 Serena J. Pruitt 2016 Paul R. Kitch 2017 Adam Kelly 2018 Charles Shifley 2019 Marc Richards 2020 |