Don Banner

A founding partner of IP boutique Banner & Witcoff LLP and a former Commissioner of the US Patent and Trademark Office, Banner played a key role in the development of the international IP system. He was a Chairman of the American Bar Association Intellectual Property Law Section, Co-founder and Chairman of the Association of Corporate Patent Counsel, Trustee of the Licensing Executives Society, President of the American Patent Law Association, Chairman of the International Patent and Trademark Association, and Co-founder and President of IPO (Intellectual Property Owners). He also headed the US delegation to the international conferences on the revision of the Paris Convention; and was a member of the US delegation to the conferences establishing the Patent Cooperation Treaty. Sadly, he died just days before the final IP Hall of Fame 2006 induction vote was concluded.