We are sad to announce that our former partner and great friend, Harry F. Manbeck, Jr. passed away on February 19, 2025. Harry was a distinguished attorney and a mentor to many of the firm’s lawyers. He will be missed.
After an already long and successful career, Harry joined our firm in 1996 and became a shareholder and named partner. For most of his career, he worked for the General Electric Company. After serving in the U.S. Army, he joined GE in 1949 as an electrical engineer. He then attended law school and continued with the company as a patent attorney after receiving his law degree. He rose through the ranks at GE to the position of General Patent Counsel – a position that he held for twenty years. As Patent Counsel, Harry headed one of the largest patent departments in the world and directed the company’s patent activities and policies.
On October 11, 1989, Harry was nominated by President George H. W. Bush to the offices of Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks of the United States. He received Senate confirmation shortly after his nomination. He served as Commissioner until May 1992. Following his term as Commissioner, Harry entered private practice, first with Morgan & Finnegan, then joining our firm in 1996, where he remained until his retirement from the practice of law in 2012.
Both as Commissioner and in the practice of law, Harry carried out his responsibilities with intensity and a commitment of purpose, while maintaining a wonderful sense of humor. As Commissioner, he spearheaded much-needed reform of the Office’s duty of disclosure rules. He represented the U.S. in patent law harmonization negotiations with Europe and other countries, but declined to abandon the country’s first-to-invent system.
Harry was born in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. He graduated with Highest Honors from Lehigh University in 1949 with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and received his L.L.B. with Honors from the University of Louisville in 1954.
Harry was an ardent supporter of the U.S. patent system and was active in numerous bar groups and professional associations. He served as Chairman of the Section of Intellectual Property Law of the American Bar Association (ABA); President of the Association of Corporate Patent Counsel (ACPC); a Director of the Intellectual Property Owners, Inc.; and a Director of the Bar Association of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He was also a member of the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) and the Connecticut Patent Law Association. In 1984 he was awarded the Whitney North Seymour Medal of the American Arbitration Association for contributions made to the process of arbitration in the United States.