Edward J Damich

Edward J. Damich (born June 19, 1948) is a Senior Judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims, appointed to that court in 1998 by President Bill Clinton, and elevated to Chief Judge in 2002 by President George W. Bush.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in a family of Croatian immigrants, Damich received an A.B. degree from St. Stephen's College, Dover, Massachusetts in 1970, and a J.D. degree from Catholic University of America in 1976. He was a professor of law in the Delaware School of Law at Widener University from 1976 to 1984, also serving as a Law and Economics fellow at Columbia University, from which he received an L.L.M. in 1983 and a J.S.D. degrees in 1991. From 1984 to 1988, he was a professor of law at George Mason University. In September 1992, Damich was appointed by President George H. W. Bush to be a Commissioner of the Copyright Royalty Tribunal, serving as a Commissioner until November 1993. From 1995 to 1998 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 and 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.

Damich was appointed a judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims on October 22, 1998, by President Bill Clinton. On May 13, 2002, Damich was elevated to Chief Judge by President George W. Bush, serving in that capacity until 2009. He assumed senior status on October 22, 2013. Damich is also 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 also been an adjunct professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center.

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 three federal district court opinions, most notably in Wojnarowicz v. American Family Assn., 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. 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. Damich was the first president of the National Federation of Croatian Americans. On May 8, 2009, Damich received the Loren A. Smith Award, the highest award the Court bestows for service on its behalf.