Speaker Biographies

Honorable Bruce A. Lehman
President, International Intellectual Property Institute

Mr. Bruce Lehman is President and CEO of the International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI). Mr. Lehman is a member of the Policy Advisory Commission to the director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and he is president of the U.S. Committee for WIPO. Mr. Lehman is also a member of several corporate boards, including the Patent & Licensing Exchange, Inc. and Ford Technology Licensing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Ford Motor Company.

Prior to founding IIPI, Mr. Lehman served as Assistant Secretary of Commerce and U.S. Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks from August 1993 through December 1998. As the Clinton Administration's primary representative for intellectual property rights protection, he was a key player on these issues, both domestically and internationally, and was intimately involved in negotiations related to the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property, the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty.

For ten years prior to joining the Clinton administration, Lehman was a partner in the Washington, D.C., law firm of Swidler & Berlin. There he represented individuals, companies, and trade associations in the areas of intellectual property rights. Prior to entering private practice, Lehman worked for nine years in the U.S. House of Representatives as counsel to the Committee on the Judiciary and chief counsel to the Subcommittee on Courts, Civil Liberties, and the Administration of Justice. Lehman was the Committee's principal legal adviser in the drafting of the 1976 Copyright Act, the 1980 Computer Software Amendments, and 1982 Amendments to the Patent Laws.

Mr. Lehman received a B.A. and a J.D. from the University of Wisconsin.

Honorable Randall R. Rader
Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC)

Randall R. Rader is a Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He was born on April 21, 1949, in Hastings, Nebraska, son of Raymond A. Rader and Gloria R. Smith. He obtained a B.A. in English from Brigham Young University in 1974 and a J.D. from George Washington University in 1978. President Ronald Reagan appointed him to the United States Claims Court in 1988. While a federal trial judge, he became the first Claims Court judge ever appointed by the Chief Justice of the United States to a committee of the Judicial Conference. President George Bush nominated Judge Rader to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in 1990.
While on the appellate bench, Judge Rader has also served actively as an educator. From 1993-1999, he taught Patent Law I and Patent Law 11 at the University of Virginia School of Law, Charlottesville, Virginia; from 1998-99 Comparative Patent Law at Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, D.C.; and from 1993-97 Trial Advocacy at the George Washington University Law School, Washington, D.C. Currently Judge Rader teaches several general and specialized intellectual property law courses at George Washington University. In addition, he serves on advisory boards affiliated with three law schools. Judge Rader is co-author of a casebook, Patent Law, West Publishing, 1998 - a text used at over 45 law schools. As an appellate judge, Judge Rader has also led or participated in twenty-six delegations to foreign nations, usually to teach rule of law or intellectual property concepts in developing nations.

Before his appointment to the bench, Judge Rader served members of the House of Representatives (1975-1980) and as counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee (1980-88). While counsel to the Judiciary Committee, he was Chief Counsel or Minority Chief Counsel for the Subcommittee on the Constitution and the Subcommittee on Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights.

Honorable Rany L. Simms
Administrative Trademark Judge, Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB)
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Rany L. Simms is an Administrative Trademark Judge with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. He received a B.A. degree from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, in 1969 and his J.D. in 1972 from the University of Illinois College of Law. He first joined the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 1972 as a Trademark Examining Attorney, and worked for the Board as an Interlocutory Attorney from 1975 until 1980. He became an Acting Member of the Board in 1980 and has been an Administrative Trademark Judge (formerly called Member) since 1981. He has written numerous articles for the Trademark Reporter (published by the International Trademark Association) and has spoken on a number of occasions about practice before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. He is admitted to practice in the state of Maryland.