Judge Edward J. Damich Recipient of the 2011 Vinodol Code Award

Tuesday, 24 January 2012 20:03 Written by Marko Zoretic

The Croatian American Bar Association is pleased to announce that Judge
Edward J. Damich is the recipient of the 2011 Vinodol Code Award in
recognition of his distinguished legal career and outstanding contribution
to the Croatian-American community.

Judge Damich was appointed a judge of the United States Court of Federal
Claims on October 22, 1998, by President William J. Clinton. He served as
Chief Judge from 2002¬2009. Judges of the Court serve for a term of 15
years. The United States Court of Federal Claims, based in Washington,
D.C., hears cases for monetary damages against the federal government,
except cases for physical injury. Its docket includes cases involving
government contracts, tax refunds, civil service and military pay, land use,
Indian lands, and patent and copyright.
Judge Damich was born in Pittsburgh, PA, June 19, 1948; son of John and
Josephine (Lovrencic) Damich. He was the first president of the National
Federation of Croatian Americans.
He has an A.B. degree from St. Stephen¹s College, Dover, Massachusetts; a
J.D. degree from Catholic University; and L.L.M. and J.S.D. degrees from
Columbia University. From 1995¬98 Judge Damich served as Chief Intellectual
Property Counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee. During his tenure on
the Committee, he assisted the Chairman, Senator Orrin Hatch, with the
passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the most significant
change in copyright law since the Copyright Act of 1976. The DMCA updated
U.S. law for the digital age and for the Internet. In addition, he worked on
the Omnibus Patent Act, the basis for the 1999 American Inventors Protection
Act. He was also a member of the U.S. delegation at the World Intellectual
Property Organization (WIPO) diplomatic conference, which concluded the WIPO
Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty.
In September 1992, Judge Damich was appointed by President George H. W. Bush
to be a Commissioner of the Copyright Royalty Tribunal (CRT). In formal
adjudicatory proceedings, the CRT set rates and distributed royalties under
the statutory license provisions of the Copyright Act regarding cable
television, non-commercial broadcasting, satellite television, sound
recordings, and digital audio recording technology. He served as a
Commissioner until November 1993.
At present Judge Damich is a Distinguished Visiting Professor of
Intellectual Property at the Columbus School of Law of Catholic University
and an adjunct professor of law at George Washington University. He has been
an adjunct professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center and a
professor of law at George Mason University and at Delaware Law School of
Widener University.
Judge Damich is the author of numerous articles, mostly on copyright law,
but also on jurisprudence, land use planning, and criminal law. His
copyright law articles have been cited in four federal district court
opinions, most notably in Wojnarowicz v. American Family Assn., 745 F. Supp.
130 (S.D.N.Y. 1990), in which the court adopted his interpretation of a New
York statute. His articles are cited in all the major casebooks in copyright
law and in the leading treatise, Nimmer on Copyright.
He has testified before congressional committees on five occasions on
copyright issues and on U.S. foreign policy regarding the former Yugoslavia.
Judge Damich is admitted to the Bars of the Supreme Court of the United
States, the Federal Circuit, and the District of Columbia. He is a member of
the District of Columbia Bar Association, the Bar Association of the
District of Columbia, and the Association Litteraire et Artistique
Internationale. On May 8, 2009, Judge Damich received the Loren A. Smith
Award, the highest award the Court bestows for service on its behalf.