Richard H. Stern

Who is Richard H. Stern?

Richard H. Stern is an attorney and law professor.

Born in New York City, Stern received an A.B. cum laude from Columbia College in 1953 and a B.S. in electrical engineering from Columbia University School of Engineering in 1954. He served in the U.S. Army from 1955 to 1956, and then returned to civilian life and earned an LL.B. at Yale Law School, graduating cum laude and Order of the Coif, in 1959.

Justice Byron White at the United States Supreme Court selected him as his first law clerk, upon Justice White's appointment to the Court. Stern served as Justice White's clerk during the October 1961 and October 1962 terms. Thereafter Stern worked at the Department of Justice in the Antitrust Division. He was chief of the Patent Section and then the Intellectual Property Section in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice from 1970 to 1978. Among the Supreme Court cases in which he was counsel for the Government were Aro Mfg. Co. v. Convertible Top Replacement Co., Federal Trade Commission v. Dean Foods Company, Lear, Inc. v. Adkins, FTC v. Sperry & Hutchinson Co., Gottschalk v. Benson, and Parker v. Flook.

Stern was a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School in 1974. He is the author of Semiconductor Chip Protection and articles on antitrust, computer software, patent, and copyright law. Since 1982 he has been Legal Editor and a member of the Board of Editors of IEEE Micro, a magazine published by the IEEE Computer Society, and author of the magazine's Micro Law column, and has written a number of articles in that publication concerning antitrust law, computer software-related law, and legal issues relating to standardization. One author noted Stern's "analytical optimism for technological advances in noncoded aspects of computer programs, and recombinant DNA technology". Stern has also been a Professorial Lecturer in Law at The George Washington University Law School, 1990-present, where he teaches patent and copyright law, with a focus on the eligibility of business methods and software-related inventions for patent grants.