Haber Receives US Commerce Department Bronze Medal Award

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WASHINGTON, DC—September 11, 2019—O’Melveny counsel Ben Haber received the US Department of Commerce’s Group Bronze Medal Award. The award is the highest honor that can be bestowed by agencies of the United States Commerce Department, such as the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The award recognizes Haber’s “invaluable leadership, strategic vision and ingenuity resulting in extensive revisions of the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s patent subject matter eligibility guidance.”

The USPTO patent subject matter eligibility guidance represented an important step forward in clarifying the application of this fundamental issue of patent law. “These guidance documents aim to improve the clarity, consistency, and predictability of actions across the USPTO,” said Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO Andrei Iancu.

The ceremony was held yesterday at the USPTO. Frederick Steckler, chief administrative officer, delivered a congratulatory address. Haber was nominated for the award, and the award was presented by Drew Hirshfeld, the USPTO commissioner for patents.

Haber is an intellectual property litigator who focuses on representing technology clients in complex patent and technology-intense matters.

Before joining O’Melveny, he was a senior policy advisor to the undersecretary of commerce for intellectual property and director of the USPTO. In that role, he was responsible for reshaping substantive patent policy, an effort that, among other things, yielded the 2019 Revised Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance.

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