Professor Jay Thomas Named First USPTO Edison Visiting Professional
February 22, 2012 — Georgetown University Law Center Professor Jay Thomas has been named the first Thomas Alva Edison Visiting Professional at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
Professor Jay Thomas
"I am honored to undertake the inaugural Edison visitorship," Thomas said. "The enthusiasm, leadership and professionalism of USPTO management have truly motivated me, and I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the crucial work of this agency."
The newly established Thomas Alva Edison Visiting Professionals Program is designed to enlist the expertise of academic and intellectual property industry leaders who can devote up to six months of service to the USPTO on a full-time basis.
A highly-regarded expert in intellectual property and patent law, Thomas joined the Georgetown Law faculty in 2002 from George Washington University Law School. He has also served on the visiting faculties at Cornell Law School and the University of Tokyo. Since 1999, he has been a visiting scholar at the Congressional Research Service. Thomas previously clerked for Chief Judge Helen Nies of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He has been a visiting fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and Comparative Patent, Copyright and Unfair Competition Law in Munich and a research scholar at the Institute of Intellectual Property in Tokyo.
Thomas is the author or co-author of numerous articles and six books on intellectual property law, including a leading patents casebook. He previously served as an instructor at the USPTO's Patent Academy.
