Harris Pitlick came to Oblon Spivak from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Office of the Solicitor. As an associate solicitor, he argued some 100 appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and other appellate tribunals-experience he now puts to work in his patent prosecution practice. A member of the firm's Chemical Department, Mr. Pitlick counsels clients on validity and infringement matters in the chemical arts. He has also served as an expert witness on patent law and practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in various litigations.
Mr. Pitlick finds several parallels between practice before an appellate level court and practice before an examiner or the PTO's Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences. Thus, his experience enables him to focus on the important issues, make the proper arguments, and not get distracted by matters that ultimately are insignificant.
While with the Solicitor's Office, Mr. Pitlick drafted the original federal regulations on deposits of biological materials. Although these regulations are now over 10 years old, they have stood the test of time and are still in use. Also while with the PTO, Mr. Pitlick was awarded the Commerce Department's Bronze Medal Award for Superior Federal Service.
A graduate of the George Washington University Law School, Mr. Pitlick received his B.E. in chemical engineering from The Cooper Union, where he was a member of Tau Beta Pi. He did post-graduate work in chemical engineering at the University of Maryland while working as a civilian employee of the U.S. Department of the Navy. He then began employment at the PTO as a patent examiner before joining the Solicitor's Office.
Mr. Pitlick is a member of the District of Columbia Bar, and is registered to practice before the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Federal and District of Columbia Circuits, and the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, as well as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He is a member of the American Bar Association and the American Intellectual Property Law Association, and is a past president of the Patent Lawyers Club of Washington. |