Donald Dunner passed away this week at 88. He was a dean of the patent bar, excellent attorney, and a good friend to many of us. I personally learned a tremendous amount from Don – both in our private conversations and in watching his craft. Patent law mainstay Hal Wegner called him “one of the most important figures in the American patent field of recent decades.” I already miss him.
- Tribute from his firm
- Law.Com Tribute
- IPWatchdog Tribute
- BIO Article from 2009 (via Hal Wegner)
To be clear, give it a miss this time and let the man rest in peace.
Was he was one of those people who understood what Prometheus v Mayo was about? Did he talk intelligently about the facts of the case, and the impact on the system of granting claims that protect “non-obvious inferences” made in prior art contexts?
Or was he more like Shallow Hal Wegner (who wrote that the CAFC’s disgracefully writtem opinion in Promega v Lifetech was a “tour de force” before retreating to his Florida spa)?
How about you take a break on this one.
He only knows one bucket.
Please let me know when it’s okay to criticize multi-millionaire patent attorneys “thought leaders” for their remarkably wrong “takes” which negatively affect pretty much everybody except them.
When allegedly highly educated people refuse to honestly discuss basic facts about a huge case and the issues presented, there’s something important happening and decent people need to speak up.
Did Dunner do this? Did Hal? Not that I’m aware of. Happy to be proven wrong.
We live in times that are not normal. The leader of the country is a s o cio path. Looking the other way or staying silent while criminals and their attorneys steal everything that isn’t nailed down is a big mistake, to put it mildly.
To be clear, I’m asking for a single example of Dunner or Wegner discussing Prometheus’ own theory of the scope of its claims with something resembling candor and foresight.
An individual has passed away, and during the period when virtually everyone pays their respects you decide that negative criticism is perfectly fine. How sad you pursue such a path.
Who else would be so self-absorbed so as to ‘think’ that his own actions are (of course) beyond reproach?
Hint: Trump.
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