A former assistant secretary of commerce and commissioner of patents and trademarks, and a former president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. Gerald Mossinghoff also served as US Ambassador to the Diplomatic Conference on the Revision of the Paris Convention and as chairman of the General Assembly of WIPO. In the early 1980s he advised President Reagan on the establishment of the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and also initiated a far-reaching automation programme at the USPTO. He is senior counsel to the law firm Oblon Spivak and visiting professor of intellectual property law at the George Washington University Law School.