Walter Julius Derenberg

Walter Julius Derenberg (born December 8, 1903 in Hamburg-Harvestehude ; † September 9, 1975 in St. Vincent's Hospital , New York City ) was an American lawyer and university professor of German origin.

family

Derenberg was the son of the Hamburg ear, nose and throat doctor Walter Derenberg and his wife Louise. This came from the Warburg banking family . In addition to Walter Julius, the couple had three other children: Carl (* 1902), Ruth (* 1906) and Gabriele (* 1914). The Derenberg family were of Jewish faith, but not particularly religious and did not practice.

Live and act

From 1912 Derenberg attended the learned school of the Johanneum in Hamburg. There he passed his Abitur in 1921 and began studying law and political science at the University of Hamburg in the summer semester of 1921 . He also studied art history for two semesters. In July 1925, Derenberg passed his first state examination in law with the grade “ full good” in Hamburg. In February 1926 Derenberg was developed by the University of Hamburg with that of Hans Reichel assisted writing The Flea contract for Dr. iur. PhD. At this point he had already started his legal traineeship in the district of the Hamburg Higher Regional Court . In Hamburg he passed his second state examination on October 13, 1928 and worked as an assessor in Hamburg from October 15. In November 1928 he gave up his position in favor of a stay abroad. Derenberg first worked for the New York law firm Harvey, Barber & McKee , and from August 1929 he worked in London for Solicitors Dehn & Lauderdale . In December 1929 he returned to Germany and from February 1930 worked again in his assessor position. In April 1931 he was appointed to the Guardianship Court at the Hamburg District Court . Since he did not like this job, Derenberg switched to the IHK Berlin in October 1931 . There he was officially dismissed at the end of March 1933 because of the budget situation; in fact, Derenberg fell victim to pressure from the Nazis who had come to power . As a result, he tried his hand at law in Hamburg, but was denied any employment opportunities due to the law on admission to the bar . So he was largely unemployed until September 1935.

So Derenberg decided to emigrate to the USA at the end of 1935. There he was initially a lecturer ( lecturer ) for trademark law at the Law School of New York University . At the same time he worked as an editor for the magazine for arbitration law. On August 8, 1938 Derenberg passed his bar exam and from 1940 worked as a consultant for the United States Trademark Association (USTA). In November 1940 he was admitted to the New York Bar. From November 1942 Derenberg worked in the Washington Office of Price Administration . As a lawyer he appeared before the Supreme Court of the United States and the Supreme Commercial Court from 1943 . From 1946 he appeared as an expert at the Nuremberg Trials .

1947 Derenberg was assistant professor at New York University, 1949 associate professor. In the same year he married the German emigrant Emily Hess. In 1951, in addition to his professorship, he became a founding partner of the New York law firm Maltitz, Derenberg, Runin & Janssen , which he was a member of until his death. In 1954 he took up a full professorship at New York University and one year later became a board member of the USTA. As a result, he held several board positions at various copyright and patent organizations. In the following years Derenberg rose to become one of the leading experts in copyright and patent law as well as intellectual property law. He served several times as an expert in government commissions on legislative proposals in these areas. Derenberg has received numerous awards, including the Richard Strauss Medal from GEMA and the Charles F. Kettering Award from the University of Washington . In 1974 Derenberg retired. After his death, the Walter J. Derenberg Intellectual Property Law Library was dedicated to him. The Walter J. Derenberg Chair for Copyright and Trademark Law at New York University has been dedicated to him since 1984 .

Derenberg's main research areas were trademark and copyright law, patent law, trademark protection law and the law of unfair competition. He has written some standard works on these areas in the USA and also in German, which are still cited today.

literature

• René Runte: Walter Julius Derenberg - life and work . Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 978-3-631-52183-0 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Peter B. Flint: Prof. Walter J. Derenberg Dies; Lawyer Was Copyright Expert , New York Times, September 10, 1975.