Hon. Edward Damich, Chief Judge, U.S. Court of Federal Claims, Washington D.C is speaking at Santa Clara University School of Law on Monday, March 12, 2007 from noon – 1:00 p.m. in Bannan Hall, Room 127. The topic of his presentation is "Patents as Property Rights: The Taking of Patents by the Federal Government as an Exercise of Eminent Domain, Zoltek Corp. v. U.S." Later that evening, from 8:45 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. in Bannan Hall, Room 135 there will be an informal Q & A with Judge Damich about Intellectual Property and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
Judge Damich was appointed Judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims on October 22, 1998 by President Bill Clinton for a term of 15 years. On May 13, 2002 Judge Damich was designated Chief Judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims by President George W. Bush. The United States Court of Federal Claims, based in Washington D.C., hears cases for monetary damages against the federal government, except cases for physical injury. Its docket includes cases involving government contracts, tax refunds, government employees and veteran benefits, land use, Indian lands, and patent and copyright.
Judge Damich was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and raised in Miami, Florida. He is the son of John Damich of Bentleyville, Pennsylvania and Josephine M. (Lovrencic) Damich of Pittsburgh. Judge Damich is a resident of Washington, D.C.
Judge Damich has an A.B. degree from St. Stephen’s College, Dover, Massachusetts; a J.D. degree from Catholic University; and an L.L.M. and J.S.D. degrees from Columbia University.
From 1995 – 1998 Judge Damich served as Chief Intellectual Property Counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee. During his tenure on the Committee, Judge Damich assisted the Chairman, Senator Orrin Hatch, with the passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the most significant change in copyright law since the Copyright Act of 1976. The DMCA updated U.S. law for the digital age and for the Internet. Judge Damich also worked on the Omnibus Patent Act, which would have reorganized the Patent and Trademark Office and which would have made important changes to patent law. He was a member of the U.S. delegation at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) diplomatic conference, which included the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty.
In September, 1992 Judge Damich was appointed by President George Bush to be a Commissioner of the Copyright Royalty Tribunal (CRT). In formal adjudicatory proceedings, the CRT set rates and distributed royalties under the statutory license provisions of the Copyright Act regarding cable television, non-commercial broadcasting, satellite television, sound recordings, and digital audio recording technology. Judge Damich served as a Commissioner until November 1993.
At present, Judge Damich is an adjunct professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center. Judge Damich has been a professor of law at George Mason University and at Delaware Law School of Widener University.
Judge Damich is the author of numerous articles, mostly on copyright law, but also on jurisprudence, land use planning, and criminal law. His copyright law articles have been cited in three federal district court opinions, most notably in Wojnarowicz v. American Family Assn. (745 F. Supp.130 (S.D.N.Y. 1990)), in which the court adopted his interpretation of a New York statute. Judge Damich’s articles are cited in all the major casebooks in copyright law and in the leading treatise, Nimmer on Copyright.
Judge Damich has testified before congressional committees on five occasions on copyright issues and on U.S. foreign policy regarding the former Yugoslavia.
Judge Damich is admitted to the Bars of the Supreme Court of the United States, the Federal Circuit, the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar Association, the American Bar Association, and the Association litteraire et artistique internationale. Judge Damich was the first president of the National Federation of Croatian Americans.
