COURSE PLANNER AND MODERATOR
John B. Farmer, Leading-Edge Law Group, PLC / Richmond
John B. Farmer is a member of the Leading-Edge Law Group, PLC, an intellectual property (“IP”) boutique law firm in Richmond, Virginia. He served as chairman of the Trademark Public Advisory Committee of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. He writes a monthly IP and technology law column for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. He is listed in the top rank of Virginia IP attorneys by Chambers USA and listed for IP in Best Lawyers in America.
Mr. Farmer is a past chair of the IP Section of the Virginia State Bar. He is a past president of the Greater Richmond Intellectual Property Law Association. He graduated from the University of Virginia and its law school. After graduation from law school, he clerked for the Hon. Donald S. Russell, Judge of the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, and for the Hon. James C. Cacheris, Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division.
FACULTY
H. Ward Classen, Discovery Education, Inc. / Silver Springs, MD
Ward Classen is a graduate of Trinity College in Connecticut and received a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He received his Juris Doctor from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, where he was a member of the Catholic University Law Review and editor-in-chief of The Journal of Contemporary Health Law and Policy. He serves as the Senior Legal Advisor to Discovery Education in its spin-off from Discovery Communications, Inc. Mr. Classen also serves as an expert witness in software licensing disputes where he has supported both plaintiffs and defendants in federal and state courts as well as in arbitration. His book, A Practical Guide to Software Licensing for Licensees and Licensors, published by the American Bar Association, now in its sixth edition, has been widely cited and quoted both by courts and academic institutions including the American Law Institute in its treatise Principles of the Law of Software Contracts.
Tobey B. Marzouk, Marzouk & Parry / Washington, DC
Tobey Marzouk formed the law firm of Marzouk & Parry in 1986 with a focus on Information Technology law counseling and litigation. He has been listed in the Best Lawyers in America® in the fields of Copyright Law and Information Technology Law (2010–2018 and was named Copyright “Lawyer of the Year” in the 2013 Best Lawyers Washington, DC. Mr. Marzouk has also been listed in the 2012–2018 Super Lawyers (Washington, DC) in the field of Intellectual Property. He serves as Consulting Editor to Internet Law and Business and the Computer Law Reporter, leading legal journals of the high technology industry.
Mr. Marzouk has lectured extensively and served as an expert witness on copyright, licensing, and information technology law and has authored three books on technology licensing and software and computer law, as well as numerous articles in national and international trade and legal journals. Over the past 30 years, he has served as an Arbitrator on the Technology Panel of the American Arbitration Association, having arbitrated and litigated over 150 technology cases. Mr. Marzouk received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University and his law degree from Harvard Law School.