Law School Welcomes New Intellectual Property Law Director
The
George Mason University School of Law welcomes Stephen
G. Kunin, Senior Counsel for Oblon, Spivak, McClelland,
Maier & Neustadt, P.C., as Director of the JD
Program in Intellectual Property Law.
Professor Kunin, former Deputy Commissioner for Patent Examination
Policy with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, brings
to the law school over 30 years of expertise in intellectual
property rights protection, as well as 24 years of organizational
management and leadership experience.
Professor Kunin describes his vision for the JD program in IP Law as follows: “I accepted the position
of the IP Law Program Director because I felt that I could
make a valuable contribution to the law school as an experienced
senior executive and professor of patent law. I believe
that the law school has an outstanding faculty and one of
the most comprehensive curricula in intellectual property
law in the nation. I would like to see the stature of the
law school grow while meeting the educational needs of its
students who would like to practice in the intellectual
property law profession, whether in the public or private
sector. The law school is strategically positioned near
the nation’s capital to attract knowledgeable faculty
from industry, government and law firms. I would like to
see the IP Program further leverage this advantage to continue
to attract highly motivated and bright people to the law
school and our thriving profession by developing their legal
skills, knowledge, and ability to enable them to succeed
in their chosen endeavors.”
Professor Kunin joined the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
(USPTO) as a patent examiner in 1970, and he was closely
involved with patent policy and legal matters at the USPTO
during most of his tenure there as a senior executive. Notable
among his duties was his designation by the Secretary of
Commerce as acting Assistant Commissioner for Patents in
1993, a position in which he served until the appointment
of a new Commissioner for Patents in 1994. Professor Kunin
is a past chairman of the Patent Examiner Evaluation Board,
in addition to his many other leadership roles within the
USPTO.
A 1970 honors graduate of Washington University with a
BS in Electrical Engineering, Professor Kunin went on to
earn his JD with honors from the National Law Center of
the George Washington University in 1975. He attended the
prestigious Harvard University Kennedy School of Government
SMG Program.
Among the many awards Professor Kunin has received are
a Presidential Rank Award and the Vice President’s
Reinventing Government Hammer Award. In 2001 he was named
by Intellectual Property Today magazine as one of the most
influential people in IP law, and the February 2002 issue
of the Practicing Law Company’s magazine Global Counsel
named him one of the most inspiring regulators in the federal
government. He holds a variety of positions in professional
organizations and was recently named a vice-chair of the
IPO U.S. Patent Practice Committee. He is the author of
numerous scholarly articles and is a frequent guest lecturer
at law schools.
